Japan’s Rare Train That Runs on Bullet Train Tracks

Japan’s Rare Train That Runs on Bullet Train Tracks

All right, good morning everyone. Hope you’re having a fantastic day so far. Today I’ll be taking a train that runs on the same tracks as a bullet train. So I’m at Morioa station right now which is in the northern part of Japan and I’ll be riding a train called the Tazawako line. So in this video I’ll be taking a train, stopping by one quiet station and then coming back here Morioa with the Akabula train. I’m going to be taking a one at platform number eight at 2:19 p.m. Okay, wait. The train is already here and it’s 2:01 p.m. So, I’m surprised how early it came. These trains, you have to press the button to go inside. [Music] So, there are two bullet trains in Japan that share tracks with regular local trains. The Yamagata Shinkansen and the Akita Shinkansen. And these two trains are also known as the mini bullet train because they’re not full-sized since they run on regular tracks for part of the trip. The train cars are narrower than usual. That’s why there’s only two seats per row on these trains instead of the usual three that you see on other train. And that’s also why there are little steps that comes out to help people get on and off at some stations. [Music] So this train is stopping so that the oct the bullet train can pass by. Oh, that’s so cool. The pack that is runs on the same line. All right, let’s get back. [Music] Okay, we arrived at this station called what is that? Shizuishi. And this train is actually going to wait 12 minutes so that the bullet train can pass by. Oh, it’s coming. Oh, this will be a good thumbnail, too. Oh, it’s on the other side. What the heck? All [Music] right. So, I just got off at the station called Akabuchi, and I’m the only one that got off. Goodbye. All right. The good thing about this train station is that it’s not like literally in the middle of nowhere. Seeing roads like this is very promising. I’ve always wanted to go to like train stations that’s in like the middle of nowhere, but uh ever since that uh bird incident, I’ve been kind of like paranoid by uh what is that called? Wild animals. And especially here, I heard bears can like pop out whenever. This is the break room or like the rest room that you can stay at to kill time. No one is here. The interesting part about this station is that there’s a lot of trains for this line from Moryoka station, but not many of them goes to this station or even Tazawako, which is a lake. There’s actually only four trains per day. And the one I just got off at is 3:01 p.m. So, I have to wait until the 4:38 p.m. one, which is an hour and a half. If I miss that, I have to absolutely take this one or else I’m doomed. On the other hand, the trains that go to Morioa, there’s more trains. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 trains to Morioa and four trains to Tazawako. The reason why I got off at this station is because this train station is apparently like the most lowkey one out of all the train stations for this line. There are some buildings over here, but I don’t think anyone is there. I think the this train stops comes occasionally just to I don’t know do something. The cool thing about this train station is that you get to see the bullet trains pass by here at a very close distance. But before I do that, I want to go to a view spot. There’s a bridge over there where I can go on that I can see the view from the top. There’s no train station sign here. It’s just this Akabuchi. All right, I think I’m here. I think it’s my first time going to an empty train station in a very rural area, so I’m a little bit nervous. Look at that. It’s like, damn, mountains all around. Oh no, I can’t get my camera wet. I can be wet, but not the camera. Oh, I hear it coming. Oh, there it is. [Music] All right. So, I’m going to head back to the station so I can see the bullet trains pass by closer. Apparently, there is an interesting public restroom around here. What does that say? Okay, the public bathroom. That is too public, isn’t it? Jeez, there’s no door or anything. And there’s the door for the rest. I am not opening that. I’m freaking scared. I hear an announcement. Oh, cool. Oh, what a timing. Oh, what kind of sound is this? This is the scariest crossing sound I’ve ever heard so far. It sounds like the devil’s coming. Holy moly. Oh, there it is. Oh. Oh, it’s on going that side. Oh, it’s so close. Whoa, I got overly excited. It wasn’t even going at full speed. I don’t know why I screamed that loud. I wasn’t trying to overexaggerate. I just like felt the thrill when it passed by. Maybe it’s also because I’m in the middle of nowhere. So, I’m allowed to like fully express myself without causing any trouble. I I’m pretty sure there’s going to be the train from the other side as well. So, I can just wait here. Okay. The announcement that the bullet train should be passing by is here. And that means the devil sound should be uh coming up, too. This time, I’m prepared. I’m not going to freak out. So, the last bullet train came from this way. So, I think it’s going from the other side. Oh, wait. No, it wasn’t. Oops. It wasn’t the bullet train. It was the regular Tazawako line. I think this is the same train that I took. It’s heading the opposite direction. Wait, but there’s no crossing sound. Oh, it’s cuz it’s not using Oh, that’s why. Oh, okay. Now the bullet train’s coming. Woo! Let’s go. Wait. It’s going this side, right? I don’t hear the sound of the devil. So, it’s still I don’t know how to explain it. This The sound it makes when it passes by, it’s like it makes you want to scream. Okay, so that was ah no. Okay, so that was unfortunately the last bullet train I’ll see pass by. My train is coming in 14 minutes. So I’m going to go back to the platform area and just patiently wait. So one thing I have to be careful with making train video is that for the rural low key trains, the train doesn’t come that often and I have to wait a while for the next one to come. This time it was only an hour and a half, which isn’t bad, but there are other trains where you have to wait like 2 to 3 hours. I will have to be mentally prepared for that. This is the worst place to forget anything. I think I’m good. All right, thank you very much. All right, it’s time for me to ride the Tazalaka line [Music] train. Oh I forgot to press. There’s a person who actually left this station. So, I’m talking because there’s not many people around, but damn, look at this view. Oh, wait. I have to zoom out. But yeah, the snow is still there and there’s those mountains and we’re passing by a lot of tunnels. Holy crap, this is so cool. It was weird seeing snow in general like this much because it rarely snows in Tokyo. And also Tazawoko station is in Akita Prefecture and this is the first time I’ll be at Akita Prefecture. The funny thing because I’m gonna be taking a bullet train that comes 10 minutes after I get to the station. My Octa Prefecture debut will only be for 10 minutes. This will be like the only time where I think it’ll be cool seeing wild animals as long as the train doesn’t run over it because that’ll make the train delay by a lot. Okay, I think we’re kind of close. That’s me and that’s Tazoko station. Maybe about 5 minutes left. [Music] We are here at Tazawo station and the first impression is uh funny background music and the second impression is vibes. Look at the view. I don’t know if I I think we can see a better view if we cross to this platform. This is the main sign for the station. There’s a dragon. There’s two dragons and the kumachi. So, the direct translation of Tazawako is Tazawa Lake. So, there’s a lake that’s kind of nearby here, like 50 minutes away. It’s apparently the deepest lake in Japan. I wanted to go here, but I decided not to because it was raining, so I didn’t know if I can get a good view. Here’s a quick view of outside the Tazako station. Holy crap, this is beautiful. I’ve seen mountains, but not a snowy mountain like this. And it’s April. Okay, I have my ticket for the Akita Bullet train from here all the way to Morioa station. It’s going to take me around what? 36 minutes to get [Music] there. The fact this music starts playing when the train comes. Here it is the Akita bullet train Kachi heading towards [Music] Akita. And then there’s the Kumachi number 32 heading to Tokyo. [Music] Oh, it’s a it’s quite a big step. We will soon make a brief stop at York. Oh, wait. Oh, I think it’s doing the coupling thing now. Oh, so I won’t be able to see it. Oh, that’s unfortunate. Oh, did it couple already? Ah, it did. But here’s a closer look. How romantic. Okay, that was quite a interesting journey I had. Uh, that’ll be the end of the video. Hope you enjoyed it. The algorithm thinks you like this video over here.

📍 Google Maps Links to These Locations
I included Google Maps links for all the spots shown in my videos so you can check them out yourself!

📍Akabuchi Station:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gWCMwoRjqzRfxd359
📍Tazawako Station
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WFdVd7sNBbzgjzDa7
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 Filterable Google Sheet
I also made a Google Sheet with all the locations from my videos.
It includes filters for:
• Prefecture
• Type of location
• Posting date

So you can easily find what you’re looking for without scrolling endlessly.

You can get access to it through:

YouTube Membership:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-MNe3ago8Tp1C-YwpVJS8Q/join

Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/tannerslifevideos
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📬 Inquiries
For business or collaboration inquiries, please contact:
tannerslifevideos@gmail.com

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📷 Camera Gear I Use

• Camera 1 (Handycam): Sony FDR AX-45A
https://amzn.to/3GcQnf1

• Camera 2: (Pocket Camera) DJI Osmo Pocket 3
https://amzn.to/4ckAY8w

• Mic 1: Hollyland Lark M2
https://amzn.to/3XLHShe

• Mic 2: DJI Mic 2
https://amzn.to/4lnfk7A

*The links provided may be affiliate links. I might receive a small commission if you make a purchase, with no extra cost to you. It really helps me continue creating videos!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Don’t read this caption:
I rode a local train in Japan that shares the exact same tracks as the Akita Shinkansen—yes, a bullet train line! This route is part of the famous Tazawako Line, and even though it’s not a high-speed train, it runs on the same rails as Japan’s fastest trains. It’s one of the few local lines in Japan that operates on bullet train infrastructure, and the ride was full of surprises, scenery, and smooth rail transitions.

In this video, I’ll show you what it’s like to ride a local train on Shinkansen tracks, how it works, and why this is such a unique part of Japan’s railway system. Whether you’re a train lover, planning a Japan travel itinerary, or just curious about how Japan’s local and bullet trains interact, you’ll enjoy this rare railway experience.