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  "description": "A one-coin spring walk through Kasugai's abandoned Aigi railway tunnels — red-brick arches, damp air, fresh maple leaves, and a half-day escape just 30 minutes from Nagoya. Everything you need to know about the seasonal opening, access, and what it actually feels like to walk the old Chuo Line.",
  "path": "/aigi-spring-tunnel-walk/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-23T11:14:41.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.nagoyabuzz.com",
  "tags": [
    "Website",
    "Red Brick, Red Leaves: Kasugai’s One-Coin Autumn WalkRed-brick tunnel arches framing maple trees. The smell of wet leaves and old gravel underfoot. For nine days this autumn, Kasugai’s abandoned 1900 railway opens for a ¥100 walk through tunnels and forest. Easy JR access from Nagoya, no car needed. November 29–December 7. Search Nagoya Buzz.”Nagoya BuzzNagoya Buzz",
    "Five Day Hikes Near NagoyaLooking to escape Nagoya? These nearby hikes offer historic trails, forest gorges, and mountain views across central Japan.Nagoya BuzzNagoya Buzz",
    "Heiwa Park: Open Space, Trails, and Quiet in NagoyaIn eastern Nagoya, Heiwa Park offers long lawns, cherry trees, pond walks, wooded paths, and a calmer kind of city park experience.Nagoya BuzzNagoya Buzz"
  ],
  "textContent": "## Four tunnels, one coin, a lot of green\n\nThe thing about living in Nagoya for a long time is you start assuming the nearby surprises are basically over. Then someone mentions walking through abandoned railway tunnels in Kasugai for ¥100, and suddenly the city feels less settled than you thought.\n\n**The Aigi Tunnels** open twice a year — spring and autumn — and stay locked the rest of the time. This spring's special opening runs from **May 2 to May 6**. Entry is ¥100.\n\nNo reservation.\nNo parking.\n\nJust a JR ride, decent shoes, and a willingness to spend part of Golden Week doing something far better than standing in a queue near a mall.\n\nStart the experience by jumping on the **JR Chuo Line** from **Nagoya Station (or stops along the way)** and in around half an hour the city thins out into river, rock, and low green hills.\n\nYou get off at **Jōkōji** , an **unmanned station** that already feels slightly removed from normal life — cool air, no staff, the faint sound of the river nearby. Make sure to buy a round-trip ticket before you leave or just use an IC card.\n\n_There is nobody at the station - no one to rescue you from your own lack of planning!_\n\nFrom the station, it's about 300 meters upstream to reception. You follow the other people in walking shoes, pass the river, and arrive at a small entry point where your ¥100 gets you in.\n\n****Steam Trains navigated the original 1900 Chuo Line****\n\n\nThen you step onto the old railway bed.\n\nThis is what you're walking: about 1.7 kilometers of the original 1900 Chuo Line, abandoned in 1966 when a newer route replaced it. The old line sat buried and overgrown for decades before local volunteers cleared it by hand.\n\nA citizens' group formed in 2007, became an NPO in 2009, and now keeps the site open a few weeks a year so people like us can walk through. What they've preserved is not a polished theme-park version of railway history. It still feels like a line the forest almost managed to swallow.\n\nThe site features **four red-brick tunnels** , numbers three through six. The first thing you notice stepping inside is the temperature. Spring air vanishes. The damp takes over — wet brick, cool earth, the faint mineral edge of water somewhere close. Your flashlight catches old masonry, moss, a ceiling still marked with soot from the steam era.\n\n_Then the far end opens up and everything turns green._\n\nThat is what autumn can't give you. Autumn gets the obvious drama. Spring gets the stranger one.\n\nOutside the tunnel mouths the valley is full of new light — fresh maple leaves, pale and bright, filtering sun in a way that feels almost too saturated to be real. The old red brick looks stronger against it than it does against autumn gold. The air is softer.\n\nOverhead, carp streamers hang against the open sky, moving slowly, giving the whole thing just enough seasonal strangeness to stop it becoming a generic nice-nature-walk. You step from cool dark into that, blinking, with river sound below and _koinobori_ above, and for a moment it does not feel much like a hiking trail.\n\n_****Koinobori mark the arrival of May****_\n\nYou keep moving between registers every few hundred meters. Cool damp brick. Bright green valley. Back into darkness. Out again into birdsong and May light. The ballast gravel underfoot still has the logic of a railway, not a footpath. There are old rail fences, salvaged remnants on display, a bamboo grove, a handmade water wheel, areas that feel built rather than designed. Tunnel No. 6 still has soot marks on the ceiling. If you want a bit more elevation, a 300-meter circuit on Momiji Mountain above No. 6 is there for people who don't mind the extra effort.\n\nThe dedication of the people who cleared and continue to maintain this place shows — a little homemade, a little earnest, and all the more likeable for it. During the spring opening there are food and drink vendors on site, concert events, and a small marché setup. That said, the tunnels are the point. The stalls are background. The appeal is that for ¥100 you are being allowed into a place that is normally closed, slightly hidden, and far more atmospheric than it has any right to be.\n\nThe round trip is about 3.4 kilometers and takes around two hours if you stop, wander, and take photos — which you will. The tunnel mouths frame the valley too neatly not to. Even people who claim to be above that sort of thing will end up taking out their phones.\n\n### Practical Stuff\n\nWear proper shoes. The old ballast stones are still underfoot and this is not smooth walking. Bring a flashlight. Pets are not allowed. If it rains, the event is canceled.\n\nAnd because **there is no parking** , **take the train** and save yourself the familiar Golden Week mistake of trying to outsmart a local event with a car.\n\nYou will not be the first person to think about it.\n\nThis is a fun walk if you like old infrastructure, tunnel air, river valleys, and the odd beauty of something kept alive by volunteers rather than a tourism budget. This is for those who want a half-day that doesn't involve pretending to enjoy a crowded shopping complex.\n\nIf you've been here long enough to appreciate the smaller places — the ones that survive not because they're famous, but because a few stubborn people decided they were worth saving — then this is for you.\n\nAfter the hike you'll be back in Nagoya by late afternoon. Your shoes will have gravel dust on them. Your phone will be full of tunnel-mouth photos in various shades of green. And you'll have spent less than the cost of a department store lunch.\n\nOne coin, one morning, four tunnels.\n\n_A lot of green._\n\nShare this post!\n\n##\nThe Details\n\n**Aigi Tunnels Spring Special Opening**\n愛岐トンネル群 春の特別公開\n\n**Venue:**\nFormer JNR Chuo Line Site\nTunnels No. 3–6 and abandoned railway\n\n**Dates:**\nMay 2 to May 6, 2026\n\n**Times:**\n09:30–15:00\nLast entry 14:00\n\n**Price:**\n¥100 entry\nElementary school and younger free\n\n**Notes:**\n• No reservation required\n• Canceled in rainy weather\n• No parking\n• Wear sturdy walking shoes\n• Bring a flashlight for the tunnels!\n• Pets not allowed\n\n**Address:**\nTamano-cho, Kasugai\nNear Jōkōji Station\n\nWebsite (Japanese)\n\n### Access\n\n**By Train:**\n**JR Chuo Line** from **Nagoya Station** to **Jōkōji Station**\n(approximately 30 minutes).\n\n_Walk approximately 300 meters upstream from the station to reception._\n\n**Get a round trip Ticket**\nJōkōji is an unmanned station.\nA round-trip ticket or IC card is recommended.\nSome rapid trains stop at Jōkōji during the event period.\n\n## MAP\n\n**Read more about the Aigi Tunnels in the Autumn**\n\nRed Brick, Red Leaves: Kasugai’s One-Coin Autumn WalkRed-brick tunnel arches framing maple trees. The smell of wet leaves and old gravel underfoot. For nine days this autumn, Kasugai’s abandoned 1900 railway opens for a ¥100 walk through tunnels and forest. Easy JR access from Nagoya, no car needed. November 29–December 7. Search Nagoya Buzz.”Nagoya BuzzNagoya Buzz\n\n**Read about more hikes in Chubu**\n\nFive Day Hikes Near NagoyaLooking to escape Nagoya? These nearby hikes offer historic trails, forest gorges, and mountain views across central Japan.Nagoya BuzzNagoya Buzz\n\n**Read about Green Spaces In Nagoya**\n\nHeiwa Park: Open Space, Trails, and Quiet in NagoyaIn eastern Nagoya, Heiwa Park offers long lawns, cherry trees, pond walks, wooded paths, and a calmer kind of city park experience.Nagoya BuzzNagoya Buzz\n\n\n\n",
  "title": "Green Light, Old Brick: Kasugai's Spring Tunnel Walk",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-24T10:22:35.057Z"
}