Imagine this: You’ve been looking forward to your luxury train trip through Japan’s Niigata and Nagano regions for months. You splurged on the tickets—over $3,000 per person. The multi-night journey promised French cuisine, fancy wines, and a vineyard stop. Then the Train Suite Shiki-shima canceled your August 30 trip. Why? Because the route turned into an unsafe booze cruise—for the crew.

JR East, which operates the luxury sleeper train, said, “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to those looking forward to” the winery trip. The company explained, “Some of the crew were repeatedly drinking more than they were allowed to as part of their routine quality control testing.”

This liberal taste-testing habit had been going on for years—since September 2022, to be exact. “This not only severely undermines trust in our business, but is unacceptable behaviour for those in a position to oversee the itinerary of our guests.”

So far, the company has pulled six members of the tipsy train crew. With too few remaining staff, JR East says it can’t run the August 30 trip.