TRIP REPORT: Shiki Shima cruise train

Most of my trip reports are about getting to a great place, but in the case of the Shiki Shima, the trip itself is the destination.

The trip was, in a word, amazing.
Seriously, 11 out of 10.
They took Japanese omotenashi hospitality and added an extra helping of "surprise and delight".

It's that surprise part that I'm worried about writing this. I don't want to chronicle every little thing because then each of those surprise moments is robbed of its delight. I'll do my best to walk the line between telling too much and too little.

Background

The gorgeous, Ken Okuyama-designed train is relatively new and it's still so popular that there's a quarterly lottery for who gets to buy tickets. The website to enter the lottery is in English and Japanese, and service onboard the train is only available in those two languages. (Tour operators in Thailand and Hong Kong occasionally do full buyouts of the train and offer all-Thai/all-Chinese options, though).

The standard trips are big loops that start and end in Tokyo, traveling through scenic regions with stops at interesting sights and picturesque towns. Some tours are 2 days, others are 4, and the routes occasionally change to entice repeat visitors – one couple has ridden it 3 times already!

Our route (click to enlarge)

The prices start at US$3400 for a two-day trip in the smallest room and go all the way up to US$13,900 for the big suite on the 4 day trip. Oh, and those prices are per person. Yes, you read that right. Everything except airfare is included in that price, though – cocktails, meals, snacks, excursions, entertainment, taxes and, well, because Japan, there's no tipping. This was our mutual 50th birthday present to each other, so that made the price a bit easier to swallow.

A rough timeline for the application process is here, but the short story is that you'll be planning this experience approximately a year in advance. For example, as of July 2019, they're taking applications for the April to June 2020 time frame.

One tip I'll give you here is that we actually wrote in the application that we were flexible on our dates and our room type, and that we'd like to be considered for any of the available two-day tours to increase our chances of winning. Why only the two-day? It wasn't just the price – I was afraid that I might get tired of being on the train for 4 days and I would rather leave wanting a more than feeling overindulged. I can say after the fact that I absolutely made the right choice.

 

Preparing

As the day of your trip approaches, you receive more orientation materials and a guidebook (everything is in Japanese and English) from the staff. The two biggest things for us to do were: planning our flight there and making sure we had the right attire. Our airline planning is here. Clothing-wise, the advisory was business casual during the day and semi-formal for evening. The guide had a helpful "look book" to show you. Short sleeves, shorts, T-shirts, and sandals were expressly forbidden.

Business Casual for daytime

"Semi Formal" for evening

While we both already have several suits, we knew from experience that late spring is already quite humid and warm in Japan, so something light, breathable, and wrinkle-resistant was in order. (Because I'm me, I brought three pairs of shoes for two day trip). Definitely think of the weather not just in Tokyo but also in the mountainous regions where the trip might take you when planning your clothes (the full itinerary is in the guidebook).

For the record, both days of our trip were unseasonably hot and they made a general announcement, "since your comfort and health are paramount, we've waived the dress code for all of the outings off of the train".

Along with the book, there's a brief e-mail survey from the staff asking about your food allergies, preferences, and whether or not you need a limousine pick-up or overnight accommodations at Tokyo Station Hotel (those two things cost extra). Since a big part of the appeal of this trip stems from the fact that we're both train nerds, we opted to take the Tokyo Metro from our apartment in Ebisu to Ueno Station.

 

Arriving at Ueno

We were requested to arrive 90 minutes before the train's 9:15am departure so we could have a meal and meet-and-greet with the crew and fellow passengers in the Prologue lounge. When you arrive at Ueno, there's a special staffed gate next to the main JR faregates bearing the Shiki Shima logo. We were greeted by name and escorted to the beautiful lounge – no paper tickets required.

The train departs from a Harry Potter-esque "Track 13½" right across from the lounge. Porters bring all of the luggage to your room while meet the crew, the captain, and the head chef. I thought it was a… let's call it "thoughtful read" that the chef made sure we knew the portions were Japanese-sized and that we should tell our server if we want double portions of any of the courses to make sure we were full. He also double-checked our allergies and general food preferences.

We were the only non-Japanese guests on the train, and we were assigned a personal assistant and translator for the entire journey. Ohno-san translated all of the conversations happening around us and made sure we had all the information we needed for the trip. She then escorted us out to track 13½ and onto the train.

 

Getting Settled

You always enter the train from the center car (#5), where the bar/cafe is located. Our beautiful room keys were waiting there for us and Ohno-san gave us a tour of the train and showed us to our room in car 9.

Main entrance (I snapped this pic a bit later when there was better lighting)

Room keys

The car #5 'Komorebi' bar/cafe car

The dining room is in car 6. The bi-level design allows for a basement-level employee work room below. While the train can only hold 34 guests, the dining room's small size means that all meals are done in two seatings. As you pass through the rear of the dining car you can actually see the chefs hard at work on the next meal.

Cars 7-9 are all passenger rooms, and have a similar look and feel. Ohno-san showed us into our room, where champagne and a birthday card were waiting for us. She gave us a Mi-Fi kit for use on and off the train, and showed us the in-room iPad for accessing room service, the concierge, trip details, and for just generally browsing the internet. Drinks are allowed in your room, but any food you order is served in the car #5 Komorebi cafe/bar, which is open all night.

One little fun fact here: the top of each car on the train is a massive water cistern for guests. There are little lights next to the shower head to indicate your water usage – 3 green, a yellow, and a red. Despite having a long, ahem, tandem shower, as well as two the next morning, we'd only used up one of our green dots. The shower door has a sealed locking mechanism so that train movement doesn't cause an overflow. The Toto Washlet is similar to the kind you'd see on an airplane – very little water and a vacuum flushing mechanism.

(Sidenote: All of this is why I'm a bit wary about the cedar tub in the nicest Shiki Shima Suite. The tub has a single auto-fill control and I have this sinking feeling that once my giant body gets into that tub there won't be much room left over for much water, especially when you account for the fact that it will have all kinds of motion overflow protections.)

Water reserve indicator

Shower door jamb

Once we were settled in our room, we drank our champagne and watched the amazing send-off the staff gave us! We learned later that the Shiki Shima directly employs over 100 people, so I don't think they had to hire extras for this part.

 

Exploring the train

After pulling out of the station and finding all of the various nooks and crannies of our room, we decided to hit the adjoining Observatory car (#10). It's identical to the one on the opposite end of the train. We both absolutely loved the Andromeda Strain-like hallway that leads you past the engine room (the train is a diesel-electric hybrid) and into the seating area.

Train crew were hanging out and answering guest questions and pointing out interesting things along our route. Everywhere the train stopped dozens of people would wave at us and take pictures. Along the route, tetchan (train nerds) had tripods set up to capture the train as it rolled past a particularly scenic spot. The wall to the driver's compartment is glass and you have a panoramic view since it also has a glass ceiling.

The train doesn't run on the normal shinkansen bullet train tracks, so despite the train's innovative shock-absorbing system, the ride on scenic countryside rails is a bit less smooth than you might be expecting for Japan.

Crew answering questions

Dress-up time!

The car 5 lounge (officially named Komorebi) is the other big hang out spot. They have a full espresso menu, a cocktail bar, and a menu of snacks that changes throughout the day. They're open all night. Given that some of the seating is sunken, they have a separate room for disabled guests if they want or need. There's also a small, enclosed smoking lounge.

Atop Komorebi's beautiful holographic fireplace, there's a guest memorial book, postcards, and the all-important train stamp (a close cousin of the eki stamp).

Since everyone asks, here's Komorebi's Japanese and Scottish whiskies (click)

Outings

While most of us train nerds probably would have been fine never leaving the train, the trip includes at least one excursion per day so passengers can get to know the region better. On the whole, the outings are well planned and perfectly executed. There are posh Shiki Shima-branded tour buses, each with its own tour guide to escort you from the station stop to your destination. The emphasis is on the food and crafts of the region you're traveling through – on our trip we went to a local koshu winery and to a traditional lacquerware producer. In both cases we were given in-depth tours with the craftspeople and allowed to view and sample a wide variety of their offerings

One of the outings was a visit to a very cool train nerd destination – Obasute Station, which has an extremely rare hillside switchback layout, as well as a beautiful view.

The Shiki Shima chefs don't have the capacity to serve 3 onboard meals per day, so at least one meal is served during an outing at a fancy hotel or restaurant. Given that the average age of the guests is over 60, they're going to want food in their bellies no later than about 8am… and that means a 6:30am wake-up call for our outing to get breakfast. Honestly the only downer of the trip is that you cannot opt to remain onboard and sleep in – all outings are mandatory. I would have vastly preferred to sleep in and have a simple rice and miso soup breakfast. Luxury for me is about choices. Luckily the off-train breakfast was amazing, and ultimately it made getting up that early worth it.

Beautiful Japanese breakfast at a nearby ryokan inn

 

Meals

Maybe because I do it so infrequently, I love dressing up for a fancy dinner. Like it or not, the other patrons are an integral part of a restaurant's ambience, so why shouldn't you look as good as the flowers and the chandelier?

The chefs are incredibly thoughtful and try to pair local ingredients with local wines, sakes, and spirits. The style is European four-course with a heavy Japanese influence. We definitely took advantage of the chef's suggestion and ordered larger portions of the main proteins – nothing eaten on a train has calories, right?

I've taken several years of Japanese and French and I have to say, trying to read the katakana versions of high-end french dining terminology is next-to-impossible so I'm glad they also have an English version of the menu.

English menu (click)

During dinner, the staff turns down your room and converts your chairs into beds. They also give you a yukata to wear but they warn you it's not to be worn outside your room. Because Japan, none of the rooms offers a two-person bed, but if you do a little tetris-ing, you can turn the entire floor into one big bed by taking apart the chair cushions. 

Turn-down service with yukata robes

LOL "hack your twin beds into a full-size with this one trick"

Back to Ueno

After two food and booze and culture-packed days, we pulled back into Ueno around 5pm. We disembarked and headed back to the Prologue lounge where we started. The staff photographer prepared a great slideshow of our journey. We drank some sake and said our goodbyes to fellow passengers and crew.

The train runs a very busy schedule – our crew were actually due to come back the next day to depart on a 4 day cruise! It's hard to believe they can do this every single day while still managing to make the guests feel like it's a once-in-a-lifetime event. 

Back at Ueno

Slideshow time!

The staff photographer

Final Thoughts

I can't imagine a better big birthday present for two Japan-loving train nerds like us. We'd dreamed of going since the moment the train was announced and I was thrilled when we won the lottery. We'd definitely consider going again, but I think the next time we would take the winter 3-day trip that starts in Tokyo and ends in snowy Hokkaido. I think it'd be nice to be on the train to get someplace new rather than just going in a big loop, no matter how scenic the loop may be.