Super Soya

How far north do you want to go? All the way? Well, this train is the Japanese equivalent of the service from Inverness to Thurso or the journey up to Churchill in Canada.

In Japan they don't go any further north than the Super Soya does. When it reaches the buffers at Wakkanai in the far north of Hokkaido, that's as far as you can go.

Not always though. At one time Japan also included Karafuto just across the Soya Strait - the southern part of the island of Sakhalin which now is a part of Russia. There are more than a few mouldering railway relics up there and maybe one day I'll make it.

I only ever made it to Wakkanai once. It's a heck of a long way - four hours north of Sapporo which is far enough from the rest of Japan. I went one cold day in October 2003, travelled overnight on the night train and then two hours later caught the morning Super Soya south again and on to Abashiri (another story!) Beleive me, in the frozen light of a snowbound dawn two hours there was just enough!