Mount Koya (Koyasan) is one of Japan’s great pilgrimage destinations — a mountaintop temple town founded twelve centuries ago, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the place where many visitors stay overnight in a working Buddhist monastery. Since April 24, 2026, Nankai Electric Railway has run a new sightseeing train to its doorstep: GRAN TENKU, a deep crimson train connecting Namba in central Osaka with Gokurakubashi Station, twice a day in each direction.
What sets it apart is the food. Depending on which departure you take, Car 4 serves a full morning set, a substantial lunch, or an afternoon tea — all supervised by a chef whose restaurant sits along the line.
Gokurakubashi is not Koyasan itself — from there you transfer to a short cable car up the mountainside, then a bus into the temple town. Nankai is a private railway, so the Japan Rail Pass does not cover it. Many visitors book a shukubo (temple lodging) in Koyasan and eat shojin ryori, Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, in the evening.
Three Plans, Depending on When You Ride
The meals are served to passengers in the “Gran Seat” and “Gran Seat Plus” classes, and which one you get depends on the departure time.
Morning: A Colourful Start to the Day
The morning menu. (Image: Nankai Electric Railway)
On GRAN TENKU No. 1, departing Namba at 9:00 a.m., the morning set arrives in a specially made okamochi — a traditional lidded carrying box once used by restaurants for deliveries. Inside are six small dishes built around regional produce, served with two kinds of sandwich and a soup of fresh sansho pepper and sesame tofu.
Chilled sesame tofu potage scented with fresh Arida sansho pepper
Club cake sandwich on “Rikuro Ojisan no Okage” bread
Lemon terrine sandwich
Grilled local vegetables in broth, with mushroom tartare sauce
Miso-marinated Spanish mackerel, slow-cooked, with Yuasa moromi cream sauce
Carrot mousse with Arida mandarin jelly and duck confit
Japanese roast beef with jabara citrus sauce
Ashiaka shrimp and yam in a silky sauce, with wasabi
Fruit from along the railway line
Lunch: The Bounty of Senshu, Minami-Kawachi and Wakayama
The lunch menu. (Image: Nankai Electric Railway)
On No. 2, departing Gokurakubashi at 10:46 a.m., and No. 3, departing Namba at 12:45 p.m., lunch runs to twelve small dishes in the okamochi, paired with a seasonal mixed rice and a chilled dobin-mushi (a delicate broth traditionally served in a small teapot).
Chilled dobin-mushi style broth
Seasonal mixed rice
White sesame tofu topped with wasabi-leaf Kinzanji miso
Grilled local vegetables in broth, with mushroom tartare sauce
Miso-marinated Spanish mackerel with Yuasa moromi cream sauce
Senshu octopus confit with shishito pepper sauce
Carrot mousse with Arida mandarin jelly and duck confit
Marinated tuna with burdock ginger and plum sauce
Japanese roast beef with jabara citrus sauce
Ashiaka shrimp and yam in a silky sauce, with wasabi
Kawachi duck craft sausage with dried fruit and cream cheese
Aged chicken with Arida fresh sansho salt
Tandoori chicken, burrito style
Beni-nanko plum and fresh sansho pudding
Afternoon Tea: An Elegant Way Back Down
The afternoon tea menu. (Image: Nankai Electric Railway)
GRAN TENKU No. 4, departing Gokurakubashi at 2:58 p.m., leans into dessert: six sweets and three savoury items, presented on a cake stand.
Beni-nanko plum and fresh sansho pudding
Butter sandwich cookie and dolce cookie from GENJI BAKE
Seasonal fruit tart
Mont Blanc
Tarte vanille
Grilled local vegetables in broth, with mushroom tartare sauce
White sesame tofu topped with wasabi-leaf Kinzanji miso
Tandoori chicken, burrito style
Several items on these menus are regional specialities you’re unlikely to meet elsewhere. Jabara is a intensely sour citrus native to Wakayama. Kinzanji miso is a chunky, ready-to-eat miso with vegetables in it, also from Wakayama. Yuasa is regarded as the birthplace of Japanese soy sauce, and moromi is the fermenting mash used to make it. Nanko plums are Japan’s most prized variety for umeboshi.
Free Drinks From Along the Line
Passengers on the meal plans — morning, lunch, or afternoon tea — in Gran Seat and Gran Seat Plus also get free-flowing drinks, both soft drinks and alcohol, chosen for their connection to the areas the train passes through. It pairs well with the panoramic views as the train climbs into the mountains.
Fares, Booking, and What to Know
Gran Seat (Car 4)
With meal and free drinks: ¥13,430 (yen) (approx. $84) adult / ¥11,870 (yen) (approx. $75) child
With one drink: ¥5,510 (yen) (approx. $35) adult / ¥3,950 (yen) (approx. $25) child
Gran Seat Plus
With meal and free drinks: ¥14,180 (yen) (approx. $89) adult / ¥12,620 (yen) (approx. $79) child
With one drink: ¥6,260 (yen) (approx. $39) adult / ¥4,700 (yen) (approx. $30) child
Tickets are not sold at stations. You book through the dedicated GRAN TENKU website, or via a travel agency package. Sales open at midnight Japan time 30 days before your travel date; if you’re buying two seats together in Car 4, they open 40 days ahead. Crucially, the meal plans must be purchased by 11:59 p.m. four days before travel — you cannot decide on the day.
One more thing to check before fixing your dates: GRAN TENKU does not run on Wednesdays, or on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. If a Wednesday falls on a public holiday the cancellation shifts to the following day, and if a second or fourth Thursday is a holiday the train runs as normal. Note too that No. 2 leaves Gokurakubashi at 10:48 a.m. rather than 10:46 a.m. on weekends and public holidays.
Menu Period: Spring–Summer Until Late September, Autumn–Winter From 1 October
The three menus described above are the spring/summer set, served from the train’s debut until around the end of September 2026 — so that is what you will be served if you ride in the next few weeks.
On 20 August 2026, Nankai announced that the train’s first autumn–winter menus begin on 1 October 2026, again supervised by Chef Motokawa. They are built around autumn produce from southern Osaka and Wakayama — among them kamasu (barracuda), Kumano beef from the Kii Peninsula, and hanabiratake (cauliflower mushroom). The full dish lists had not been published at the time of writing. Nankai also said that prices for items sold from the Car 3 trolley would be revised from the same date. As always, individual dishes may change depending on what is available.
The meals are supervised by Chef Atsushi Motokawa of the restaurant Genji, located along the Nankai line in Osaka. Motokawa trained at a Western restaurant founded in 1936 before opening Genji in 1994, and works across Japanese, Western, and Chinese traditions rather than within any one of them — the concept here is creative cooking built on seasonal ingredients from the areas the train serves.
With a crimson train, a mountain pilgrimage at the end of the line, and a menu built from Wakayama and Osaka produce along the way, GRAN TENKU turns what was already a scenic climb into a proper day out.
(Images: Nankai Electric Railway, PIXTA)
Tetsudo Channel (Railway Channel) Editorial Team
(tetsudo-ch.com — Japan Travel, Trains & Weekend Outings)
Source (Japanese): https://tetsudo-ch.com/13022037.html