Sagano Romantic Railway Diorama

Hidden at the back of a private railway station on the outskirts of Kyoto city, visitors will find a wonderland for railway enthusiasts.

The private Torroko-Saga station, which sits alongside the more mundane JR Saga-Arashiyama station, offers scenic rides up into the foothills of Kyoto for tourists to drink in “romantic” mountain scenery in open-air carriages. But the station’s playground may keep you from ever leaving the station itself. 

A model railway like no other awaits guests. Set in a city-wide-diorama so extensive it includes a footbridge. From this vantage point, multiple trains zip here and there as they are driven by enthusiasts using coin-operated controls on the perimeter. 

But the fun doesn’t stop there, other minor diversions surround the ticketed diorama room such as a video arcade game that puts you in the driver’s seat of a Shinkansen-bullet train as it whips through the mind-fusing network of ever-merging train lines. Another room includes ferocious relics from the Steam Age.