#kyu shirataki station

[redsamuraiii]

Waiting For You by yukiii_fleur

Photo reminds me of a story in Hokkaido where a high school girl is the only passenger boarding the train everyday to school and back home. 

Ridership at the Kyu-Shirataki station and a few neighbouring ones had fallen because of the remote location. But students still depend on the train and parents asked the company keep the station open for their children.

Japan’s efficient high-speed rails have continued to expand to the outskirts of the country, rendering many of Japan’s older, low-tech railways obsolete. 

But if this story of a young girl and her special connection to the Kyu-Shirataki station is any indicator, Japan’s disappearing rural railroads will be remembered for their service to even the most remote parts of the country.

Source : bloomberg.com

[cea-tide]

For my birthday last year I was gifted the book "Japan in honderd kleine stukjes" by Paulien Cornelisse, a book about 100 small observations, details, and facts about Japan as seen through a foreigner's eye.

The book is illustrated with cute drawings of what is talked about, made by Cornelisse too, and one drawing struck out to me because I vaguely recognised it from somewhere... but how could I? I have never read this book before.

[/ID: one page of the book in question, with the text in dutch: "60. Liften Omdat Japan zo'n overgereguleerd en veilig land is, heb je er geen lifters. Ik heb het er wel eens geprobeerd, liften. Wat er gebeurde was dat ik door een aardige Japanner naar het dichtstbijzijnde treinstation werd gebracht. Mij werd duidelijk gemaakt: Kijk! Er bestaat in dit land vervoer waar iedereen gebruik van mag maken! Het heet een trein!" Under the text is an illustration of a small rural train station with a thatched roof. It is captioned as "Zeldzaam rustiek Japans plattelandsstationnetje" /END ID]

So it turns out it is this train station pictured below she drew in the book, down to the road signage.

[/ID: the same train station but then in real life. A mountain hill is seen in the background, and the train station is on the right. /END ID]

Picture source (unlikely to be primary source)

So how did I find this picture? Well, coincidentally, a little less than 2 years ago I was ALSO looking for a picture of a rural Japanese train station, just like Cornelisse. If you search those terms it will be one of the top results. So why was I looking for one? Because I needed inspiration for a Minecraft build. At the time a contest was running with "train station" as theme, and I decided I wanted a rural Japanese one. What a funny coincidence!

[/ID: A minecraft build inspired by that train station. The blocks are barely visible because it takes up the full 256 block height limit. On the rails are two trains inspired by the Hankyu 7006 train type, one that for example rides on the Kyoto line as a sightseeing train. /END ID]

So I was curious where this station actually is—reverse image search it is. At first I used Tineye and it found the same image but with a caption: "Japan keeps a defunct Train station running for just one girl, so that she can attend school every day! The train makes only two stops. One when a lone high-school student leaves for school and the other when she returns."

That's interesting, surely there must be more articles about it. And yes, there are. This article talks about the Kyu-shirataki train station on Hokkaido island. But that's odd... that's not the train station we are looking for, because that is around a size of a shed. It seems the story was attributed to the wrong image/station.

Tineye wasn't helping me much more, so I tried it again with Google Image Search, but that didn't want to work at all. When I searched up for the picture again though, just like how I first found it, and clicked through on the website link, I found a pinterest post attributing it to the Yunokami-Onsen station in Minami Aizu, Fukushima prefecture.

And sure enough, there it was!

[/ID: two pictures of the Yunokami-Onsen station during blooming season /END ID]

Picture sources: X and X

[introverted-yuni-inu]

one day, i wish to visit the Kyu-Shirataki train station in Hokkaido; Japan

[totally-addicted-to-twice]

So I really hate to be the ‘this isn’t 100% factual!’ person but I guess I have to be cause no one on this website knows how to fact-check apparently.

First of all, the actual train station was the Kyu-Shirataki station, not the Kami-Shirataki. (Which the original article linked in the OP did update at some point to correct after misidentifying it)

Second off, according to this article from The Straits Times, quoting a report from Taiwan Apple Daily, states that the girl and ten of her classmates took the train from Kyu-Shirataki in the morning and they have three trains they can choose to take home. So it wasn’t a single high schooler riding the train, it was eleven people.

Also there’s zero evidence that the closing of the Kyu-Shirataki station was timed to occur after her graduation, it was very likely a coincidence considering that JR Hokkaido is a state-owned entity and the Japanese fiscal year for the government ends on 31 March. So yeah no shit they’d close it down in March.

‘For years, there’s only been one passenger waiting at the Kami-Shirataki train station in the northernmost island of Hokkaido, Japan: A high-school girl, on her way to class. The train stops there only twice a day—once to pick up the girl and again to drop her off after the school day is over.It sounds like a Hayao Miyazaki film. But according to CCTV News, it was a decision that Japan Railways—the group that operates the country’s railway network—made more than three years ago. At that time, ridership at the Kami-Shirataki station had dramatically fallen because of its remote location, and freight service had ended there as well. Japan Railways was getting ready to shut the station down for good—until they noticed that it was still being used every day by the high-schooler. So they decided to keep the station open for her until she graduates. The company’s even adjusted the train’s timetable according to the girl’s schedule. The unnamed girl is expected to graduate this March, which is when the station will finally be closed.’

[redsamuraiii]

Kyu-shirataki Train Station in Hokkaido

The train station that stayed open for one schoolgirl.

The story of a defunct train station in Hokkaido, Japan, that stayed open so that its sole patron—a teenage girl—could commute to school has come to a bittersweet end: Eighteen-year-old Kana Harada graduated from high school last Friday, March 25, and the Kyu-shirataki station—where she boarded a train every morning to travel to school, about 35 minutes away—has finally closed.

"I got on and off this train for the last three years, and this station's presence has become something I have taken for granted," Harada told Reuters in January. "I do feel sad to think it will disappear." Over this time, trains have serviced the Kyu-shirataki station just once per morning, to pick up Harada, and a few times in the afternoon to drop off passengers. 

Now I’m patiently waiting for someone to do a Studio Ghibli style of anime about the story of this girl since she first boards the train for the first time in her childhood days and her last time boarding it in her teenage years. All the people she came across throughout her daily journey to and back from school, perhaps her relationship with an unlikely regular passenger, like ‘Whisper of the Heart’.  

[megalofasz]

On the island of Hokkaido, the Kyu-shirataki train station’s last remaining patron—a student—has graduated from high school.

Original story: Japan Keeps This Train Station Running for Just One Regular Passenger

Trains here make only a few stops—when a lone high-school student leaves for school, and when class is over.