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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Gunma
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In 2022, brewers turned a shelter beside Doai’s underground platform into an unlikely cellar: more than 250 liters of craft beer rested there, where the cool tunnel air helped mellow its flavor and aroma.
Tunnel crews used Doai’s sloping shaft to haul excavated rock out and supplies in; it was designed to become the permanent passage between platforms. The shaft joined a civil-engineering heritage group in 2017.
Getting from Doai’s underground platform to the station gate means climbing 462 stair steps, crossing the passage and tackling 24 more—486 altogether, over about 70 meters of elevation in roughly 10 minutes.
Doai’s former station office is now a café, with seats at the old ticket-window counter. It serves food and drinks made with Minakami ingredients, bringing a little everyday local life into this mountain station.
Tanigawa climbers once slept in Doai’s station waiting room. Today, that same room is used as a small gallery, with exhibitions held there from time to time.
Opened in 1967 for Joetsu Line double-tracking, the 13.49-kilometer New Shimizu Tunnel tripled capacity. At Doai, its new Niigata-bound track went underground, while the opposite-direction platform stayed on the surface.
