Luxury rail travel has always carried an air of nostalgia, a lingering connection to a time when the world moved at a slower, more deliberate pace. In Japan, where the shinkansen has redefined efficiency, there exists an anomaly — the Seven Stars in Kyushu, a train that moves not with speed but with intention.
Over two days and one night, I recently traveled aboard this wood-paneled, brass-adorned sleeper train, tracing a path through Kyushu’s varied landscapes, stopping in quiet coastal towns and alighting at preserved samurai districts. Unlike Japan’s high-speed alternatives, this train asks passengers to surrender to slowness, to observe the countryside not as a blur from a window but as an unfolding narrative.
The cost of this experience is prohibitive to most. The “cheapest” Seven Stars journey starts at around ¥680,000 per person in a double suite, while a deluxe suite for one person on the longest route at most reaches ¥2,770,000.
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