52 Seats of Happiness Train
52 Seats of Happiness (JLM)
Fifty-two Seats of Happiness train
Gastronomy on the road with Seibu
The “52 Seats of Happiness” train promises you many pleasures, first of all high-quality gastronomy, then a journey aboard a carefully designed train through beautiful landscapes to Chichibu.
Genesis of a unique train
The “52 Seats of Happiness” was put into service in April 2016 by the private company Seibu with the aim of offering you an experience worthy of a fine restaurant while traveling aboard a train with particularly careful decoration. The great designer-architect Kengo Kuma was called upon to transform a 4000 series train into an object of desire and pleasure for the eyes. The livery of the four cars of the train expresses the four seasons of Chichibu, a rural region with beautiful landscapes, with cherry blossoms, the rushing waters of the Arakawa River that flows down from the mountains to Tokyo, these same mountains in the colors of autumn ‘Koyo’ and the snow covering the peaks and the frozen winter waterfalls.
Two cars have been completely transformed into dining rooms, with an open kitchen separating them. The fourth car is a free space for different uses, dancing, meetings, or other special use when the train is rented.
The dining cars are particularly bright, using local wood for the interior decoration covered with silk, a ceiling covered with Japanese kakishibu-washi paper in room 2 and a lattice of cedar and cypress wood slats for room 4.
The Name and Logo
"52 Seats of Happiness" means that the Seibu company wants to bring you joy with a train with multiple sensations of flavor during a trip to a beautiful region. How to resist?
These 52 seats are very often fully booked as soon as they open for sale 100 days prior to a departure.
This '52' is also related to the riches of the Chichibu region, its natural wonders and its temples, a place of rejuvenation for the inhabitants of the Tokyo megalopolis.
Graphic designer Masayoshi Kodaira imagined the logo of "52 Seats of Happiness", which presents four colors with symbols reminiscent of playing cards.
The blue droplet represents water, the red diamond represents autumn leaves, the green four-leaf clover represents both greenery and happiness, while the pink heart represents the space and time in which the train designers and the on-board staff want to share the same feeling with the customers who invite themselves there.
Your ears will also be in for a treat, because composer Minoru Mukaiya has created original music to harmonize the dishes and the landscapes. Some of the train departure melodies in the stations are also his own!
Seibu 52 Seats of Happiness (JLM)
"Travel in good taste"
Several types of services are available depending on the chosen route.
Several chefs take turns every three months, preparing dishes, both Japanese and foreign, using local products.
For example, in the summer of 2024, the great French chef Philippe Batton takes over the kitchens of this restaurant train.
Brunch: after the sautéed shrimp appetizer, comes a fish dish with scallop quenelles and white fish with a creamy lobster sauce, then as a main course a duck leg confit with sautéed potatoes. The dessert consists of a red fruit ice cream flavored with red wine and Chichibu black tea.
Dinner: starter: Chichibu mushroom velouté, morels and Saitama kale, then comes a first course with Provençal-style stuffed squid and spicy tomato sauce, second course: Chichibu red wine braised beef cheek, to finish with Tatin-style apple tart and Saitama milk ice cream.
A wide choice of drinks is offered, with house cocktails, wines, sakes, beers, whiskeys and sodas.
The first departure of the train offers ‘Brunch’, either from Seibu Ikebukuro Station at 11:02, or from Seibu-Shinjuku at 10:40, arriving in both cases at 13:57 at Seibu-Chichibu.
The ‘Dinner’ service offers a 16:00 departure from Seibu-Chichibu, arriving at 18:22 in Ikebukuro or 18:34 in Shinjuku.
In all cases, a minimum of 20 reservations are required for the departure to take place.
The morning departure for the ‘Brunch’ costs 15,000 yen (95€) for the journey, the meal, a souvenir gift and a ‘Seibu One Day Pass’ ticket to allow you to return and use all Seibu lines (pay extra for the ‘Limited Express’ trains).
The afternoon departure for the ‘Dinner’ costs 18,000 yen (115€) with the souvenir gift and the ‘Seibu One Day Pass’.
