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Every morning at six, the day’s first Kita-Shinano train staggers out of Nagano station and begins its 47-minute, seven-stop excursion into neighbouring Niigata.
The winter snow gathers on the land in swells of mochiyuki: ethereal, pillowy forms named for their likeness to Japan’s famous glutinous rice cakes. The bends of the Shinano-gawa, Japan’s longest river, echo those of the track. In the distance, the snow-capped Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu are nature’s…
