Yamanaka Tunnel
Echizen-ku, Fukui-ken
Known as part of the Old Mountain Tunnel system (Route 305), Yamanaka Tunnel was completed in 1896 and is historically valuable to Japanese railway transport. Innovative for its time, the series of tunnels which form the Old Mountain Tunnel system were designed to travel underneath the mountain in order to boycott the perilously steep and weather-susceptible over-hill route.
Perhaps due to the lack of street lighting, atmosphere older tunnels create, and the string of tragic accidents associated with the area, many reports of ghost sightings have emerged. In particular, the Tamagawa (also read as Tanagawa) rock fall incident of 1989 took the lives of fifteen people traveling on a minibus through the tunnels. People have claimed to witness fiery orbs, a woman in red clothing who wanders within Yamanaka tunnel, and an elderly man who perches at the exits.
