There’s something slightly mystical and Harry Potter-like about these platforms and one has to wonder why some stations have them whether it be because it’s been added on that particular side of platform 1 or just because they began their numbering from zero! I’m not sure if I’ll ever visit all of them but certainly hope to tick a few more off as the years go by! The challenge continues with a visit to all the platform 0 stations in Nagano!

Located in central Japan, the landlocked prefecture of Nagano is joint second (along with Yamaguchi) when it comes to possessing stations with a platform zero. Neighbouring prefecture Niigata is the king of platform zeros in Japan but Nagano is only one short of that total, and my mission was to visit all of them in one day.

1. Okaya station, Nagano Prefecture

With a trip to Matsumoto planned, I couldn’t help but disembark a a couple of stops earlier to go and see a couple of the platform zero stations. First up was Okaya which is fairly easy and convenient to get to via the Azusa No. 5 Limited Express Train direct from Shinjuku.

It should take two hours 20 minutes but a five minute delay somewhere along the line meant I wasn’t able to look around the station as leisurely as I had hoped for.

The station, which opened in November 1905, has island and side platforms with a cut-out on the latter for the Iida Line serving stations like Tatsuno, Iida and Ina. That was actually the platform I needed for my next train which was already waiting on platform zero to take me to the next destination a mere 11 minutes away.

2. Tatsuno station, Nagano Prefecture

Fringed by beautiful mountain scenery, blue skies and lush green vegetation, this was a quite picturesque setting but my time at the station was too limited to really appreciate it.

This is the most remote of the platform zero stations in Nagano, but with very careful planning I was able to squeeze it in to my schedule with the least amount of disruption in terms of being stranded there for a long time. Previous plans to tick off Tatsuno involved a mix of very short (3 minutes) and overly long (one hour plus) waiting times at the station with a back-up plan of running the near-ten kilometre journey northwards to Okaya. Eventually I managed to shuffle around my various points of interest in Nagano so that I’d just about have enough time to do what I needed.

There was very little room for error but thankfully the train left Okaya with typical Japanese precision meaning that I had the full seven minutes to disembark, traverse the tracks via footbridge, take my photos and then cross back to the other side of the island platform (one of two at the station) for my train to Matsumoto via Shiojiri.

3. Matsumoto station, Nagano Prefecture

This station has been open since June 1902 with many passengers going there to see the famous castle or passing through en-route for a snowy mountain holiday in Hakuba, or to go hiking in Kamikochi. Technically I was there for the former (as well as a couple of other sights in the region) but my first place of interest was one that bypasses the vast majority of people.

When I think of platform zero stations it’s the smaller stations that come to mind but the likes of Kyoto, Himeji, Nippori, Okazaki, Kumamoto and Matsumoto are all sizable stations in terms of the number of daily passengers using them.

The bigger stations are naturally far more reliable for providing me with a sufficient amount of zero-related signage so that was a most welcome sight when I alighted at Matsumoto.

There are four island platforms at Matsumoto and the platform zero is on the Chuo Main Line going in both directions to the likes of Shiojiri, Kofu, Shinjuku, Kiso Fukushima and Nagoya.

That’s now 19 out of 34 stations with a platform zero in Japan that I have covered in these series of posts. Annoyingly, I have actually been to a few others in far flung places but that was before I even knew about the platform zero phenomenon! I’d better start thinking about which one might be next, and how I’ll be able to fit it in with some other sights or activities in that region. What is certain is that none of them will be done in a day trip as was the case with these Nagano ones.

• Here is the complete list of stations that have a platform zero. Let me know of any mistakes or omissions…

Morioka & Kitakami (Iwate)

Sakata (Yamagata)

Kashiwazaki, Echigoyuzawa, Shibata & Higashisanjo (Niigata)

Tatsuno, Okaya & Matsumoto (Nagano)

Anamizu (Ishikawa)

Takasaki (Gunma)

Nippori & Ayase (Tokyo)

Sawara & Yotsukaido (Chiba)

Okazaki (Aichi)

Toba (Mie)

Gifu-Hashima (Gifu)

Kyoto (Kyoto)

Himeji (Hyogo)

Gobo & Shirahama (Wakayama)

Yonago (Tottori)

Hashioka (Kagawa)

Naruto (Tokushima)

Gomen (Kochi)

Nagatoshi, Iwakuni & Ube (Yamaguchi)

Tagawagotoji & Haruda (Fukuoka)

Ishaya (Nagasaki)

Kumamoto (Kumamoto)

Click here to read ‘#WeStopAtNothing! Visiting All The Platform Zero Stations In Niigata’

Click here to read ‘#WeStopAtNothing! Platform Zeros In Japan, Z Stations In Tokyo & The Opening Of A New Yamanote Line Station’

Click here to read ‘The Complete Tour Of Katakana-Named Stations In Tokyo’