Contents [Hide]
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Odakyu Electric Railway Sangubashi Crossing — 5 Centimeters per Second: At what speed must one fall to be able to meet you again?
- 3 Riding the Odakyu Electric Railway — Kuriko’s railfan fail! So embarrassing!
- 4 The century-old Enoden and Kamakura — Memories Off edition
- 5 Summary
- 6 Related Articles
Introduction
As previewed in the previous post, on Day 3 in Japan, Chestnut continues to use railways + anime + GAL games as the main thread, taking everyone on a partial anime pilgrimage for 5 Centimeters per Second, Slam Dunk, and Memories Off.
Odakyu Electric Railway Sangubashi Crossing — 5 Centimeters per Second: At what speed must one fall to be able to meet you again?
Anyone around Chestnut’s age probably watched Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters per Second back in college, right? In the story, protagonist Takaki Tono and heroine Akari Shinohara ultimately do not end up together, and that Bad Ending left countless viewers with endless regret.
PS: The trauma this BE gave everyone was that when people who had seen 5 Centimeters per Second later watched Your Name, they were all worried that Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu would pass by each other again... Fortunately, in Your Name, Makoto-san (hey, hey, hey—this Makoto is Makoto Shinkai, not Makoto Ito from the SD series!!) gave everyone a happy ending and did not let the BE happen again!
Before posting the photos, Chestnut will first share a few screenshots from 5 Centimeters per Second:
"Hey, did you know? They say cherry blossoms fall at 5 centimeters per second." ... The speed of cherry blossom petals falling: 5 centimeters per second...
Throughout the entire anime, this railroad crossing serves as a thread running through the story. It was the road Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara took on their way home as children...
In Japanese, a level crossing is called 踏切 (ふみきり), pronounced Fumikiri. If you’re interested, you can Google the song ふみきりのうた by railfan internet celebrity Ayako Suzukawa.
Akari dashed forward and made it to the other side of the crossing before the barrier arm came down, then said to Takaki on the opposite side, “Takaki-kun, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could watch the cherry blossoms together next year?” Then a train passed by...
Next year... there would never be such a chance again...
When Chestnut watched this anime back then, the feelings did not hit quite so deeply. But now, more than ten years later, Chestnut cannot help but feel that many things in life are exactly like this—one goodbye is, in reality, goodbye forever. Please cherish every day in front of you.
A lot of Japanese anime really is not made for children; hidden inside are very, very deep truths about life...
A long section of the story is omitted here... let’s just say 10,000 words are omitted...
At the very end of the story, the grown-up Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara meet once again at this very crossing, only to pass each other by.
When Takaki turns back once more... the barrier arm falls mercilessly...
All that remains in front of him is an endless stream of trains...
When this scene came on, the live comments on Bilibili were absolutely amazing (Bilibili is often like this—the anime itself is not the important part; the live comments are the real highlight):
Comment 1: Why do these trains never end?
Comment 2: Blow up the train! Blow up the train!
Because Makoto Shinkai’s anime is highly realistic, many of these places really do exist in real life. The anime also mentions that this location is the “Odakyu Electric Railway Nishi-Sando Crossing,” located at 3K759M on the Odakyu line. After searching online, Chestnut learned that the name of this pilgrimage site is actually the Odakyu Electric Railway Sangubashi Crossing.
After checking Google Maps, Chestnut found that this place was not far from the Hyatt Regency where they were staying, and after the anime pilgrimage it would also be possible to take the Odakyu line onward to Enoshima, the next stop on the itinerary. So this became the first stop of the morning!
Sangūbashi Station (参宮橋駅, Sangūbashi eki)—by now everyone has probably figured it out: bashi means bridge, and eki means station. Learning a few place names is actually pretty easy!
PS: By the same logic, Shinbashi Station on the Yamanote Line is pronounced Shinbashi eki.
PS2: Later I learned that bridge is usually pronounced hashi—for example, Toyohashi is pronounced とよはし. Both Sangūbashi and Shinbashi use the voiced pronunciation.
After having breakfast in the Hyatt Regency lounge (already covered in the previous post), Chestnut set out and power-walked to Sangubashi.
Honestly, under normal circumstances this distance would be nothing, but Tokyo was unbelievably hot during the days Chestnut visited (all because of Makoto Shinkai’s new anime Weathering With You—Hina was showing her power)!
The moment Chestnut stepped outside, before even saying anything, the camera was already unhappy—the UV filter had fogged up! Speechless. There was no choice but to wait for the UV filter to warm up and let the fog slowly clear on its own.
Seriously... what kind of behavior is this? Stuffing trash into the gap beside a utility pole???
After about 20min of brisk walking, Chestnut reached the destination. Even before arriving at Sangubashi, the sound of trains could already be heard in the distance... Are there really this many trains here?
Sangubashi is the name of this railway bridge. On the railing of the bridge over on the right in the distance, you can see the hiragana さんぐうばし.
Take the small path on the right side of the bridge downward and you will reach the pilgrimage site—the Odakyu Electric Railway Sangubashi Crossing.
Cross at the pedestrian crossing and take a look inside the station. Sangubashi Station is a ground-level station with two side platforms and two tracks. It is a relatively minor station, and under normal circumstances only local trains stop here; express and limited express services simply pass right through!
Another train came by, this time the Odakyu Romancecar (which requires an additional limited express surcharge). Since this was a limited express, it did not stop at Sangubashi Station and passed straight through.
Thinking back, Chestnut had already heard train sounds from afar just moments earlier, so why was another train coming through now? Is the Odakyu line really this busy? At that moment, Chestnut was already starting to vaguely understand why Takaki and Akari did not end up together in the story’s final scene!!!
Following the small downhill path mentioned above, then turning left after spotting the crossing, brings you to the sacred site from 5 Centimeters per Second!
So? Does this scenery look familiar?
PS: From first seeing this crossing in 5 Centimeters per Second to finally visiting it in person, a full 12 years had passed... And even Chestnut, known for being patient, could not help but say this... How many 12-year stretches does a person get in one lifetime?
Looking more closely... did everyone notice? After all these years, the vending machine and the construction vehicle behind Akari Shinohara in the anime are still there!
But what I really want to say is... why is the barrier arm coming down again? The train frequency on the Odakyu line is way too high!
Here comes another train! A standard Odakyu Electric Railway train with the signature blue stripe! For all you Bilibili live-comment fans, take a good look—this is the train you wanted to blow up!
After the train passed, Chestnut waited for the barrier arm to lift and crossed over. But just after getting through, the ding ding ding sound started up again, and the barrier arm dropped once more!
At this point, Chestnut finally understood why the male and female leads in 5 Centimeters per Second passed each other by at the end... because... they met at the wrong crossing! There are simply too many trains here!
PS: I later discussed this with some classmates in a Japanese railfan group. They said this level of train frequency was nothing special, and recommended that next time, if I get the chance, I should go see the No. 1 railroad crossing at Shinagawa on the Keikyu Line. During rush hour, the crossing gates are basically never raised for long at all—if they’re open even 15%-20% of the time, that’s already pretty good. A crossing like that is practically just there to look cute and remind everyone it exists.
Riding the Odakyu Electric Railway — Kuriko’s railfan fail! So embarrassing!
After visiting the pilgrimage site, it was time to buy a ticket and hop on the train: ride to Fujisawa, then transfer to the Enoden for Enoshima!
This is the entrance to Sangubashi Station on the Odakyu Electric Railway. Please don’t ask why Kuriko’s hands were shaking and the photo came out blurry (it was definitely not because of an earthquake)... Can I say it was because a Japanese girl in the lower-right corner glanced at me? I got nervous!
After buying the ticket, I headed for the ticket gate. This was the prelude to Kuriko’s spectacular fail—when you buy a ticket, two cards come out. The small one is the ticket, and the big one is the receipt. Without even looking, Kuriko grabbed the bigger one and inserted it into the gate... and something magical happened: the gate didn’t stop me at all and just let me through. At the time, I didn’t notice anything was wrong!
PS: Later, Kuriko asked about this in the Japanese railfan group, and the answer was that some ticket gates only check whether something ticket-like was inserted, not whether it’s actually valid... Good grief! What a trap!
Inside the station: Sangubashi Station is not only small, but its platform is absurdly narrow. On top of that, it’s a lower-tier station, so one express and limited express train after another came blasting through without stopping for us...
PS: The train frequency really is quite intense—again confirming Kuriko’s analysis from the previous section—the reason the male and female leads in 5 Centimeters per Second ultimately just pass each other by is because they met at the wrong railroad crossing! (If it had been the crossing by Kamakurakokomae on the Enoden later on, none of this would have happened!)
At last, a local train arrived—but it wasn’t going to Enoshima.
No problem. As long as it was going in the right direction, that was good enough. We got on first and rode to Yoyogi-Uehara（代々木上原駅）to transfer.
Here’s a route map of the Odakyu Electric Railway:
After getting off at Yoyogi-Uehara, we checked the electronic departure board. The train we wanted was on Platform 1: the orange Rapid Express bound for Katase-Enoshima.
As you can tell from the route map above, this was the highest-class train we could take without paying extra!
Since it was still early, I took a few photos around the station. This is the Odakyu Line signboard: Platforms 1 and 2 are for Hakone-Yumoto and Katase-Enoshima; Platform 4 is for Shinjuku.
Then I suddenly spotted this thing—a Chiyoda Line station sign. It was even the line’s starting station, with station code C01.
Then out of nowhere came a train clearly marked as a local bound for Abiko, and it was a JR East train. Looking more closely, it even had the JR Joban Line colors!
At that point Kuriko understood: this was another case of through service. The Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line and the JR Joban Line operate through services, so trains can run all the way to Abiko... That’s quite a long trip you’ve got there. Hang in there, big train...
This train was from the E232 series. The katakana in front, モハ（Moha）, is one way of marking rolling stock types: モ means the car has a motor and is a powered car; ハ means it’s an ordinary passenger car without a driver’s cab or anything like that.
PS1: Cars with a driver’s cab are marked ク.
PS2: クモハ (playfully nicknamed “Ku-Mo-Ha”) means the car has a driver’s cab, has power, and is also a middle car... If you think that through logically, that kind of car would have to be part of a single-car or two-car formation to make sense. So when you see an old Japanese movie with a lone single-car electric train rolling down the tracks... that’s a “Ku-Mo-Ha”!
While I was busy taking train photos, time slipped by before I noticed...
Then the train arrived, and I hurried on board! As it kept running, we gradually left Tokyo’s urban core behind, and the scenery outside started to look like this:
Honestly, the distance from Yoyogi-Uehara to Fujisawa is pretty long. After all, Fujisawa is no longer in Tokyo—it’s in Kanagawa Prefecture.
After racing along for almost an hour, the train finally arrived at Fujisawa Station, and I got off.
PS: Fujisawa Station is a switchback-style station. Other switchback stations Kuriko knows include Obasute Station on the Shinonoi Line (you can get there on the infamously long Takao-to-Nagano train ride—interested readers can search Youtube for “高尾发长野行”), as well as Qinglongqiao Station on China’s Jingshan Railway. The train we were on would stop here and then reverse direction, with the front becoming the rear, before continuing on to Katase-Enoshima. But Kuriko chose to get off here and transfer to the century-old Enoden instead.
And here’s the callback to what happened earlier—only once I was already on the train did Kuriko realize that at Sangubashi I had inserted the wrong ticket at the entrance gate: I had validated the receipt, not the actual ticket... I spent the whole ride anxiously wondering whether I’d be unable to exit the station. And sure enough, when Kuriko inserted the small ticket into the gate at Fujisawa Station, the gate flashed red and blocked me! Railfan fail indeed—please laugh at my embarrassment!
I had no choice but to take the ticket to the staffed gate. The station attendant checked that the fare paid on the ticket was correct, and then let me out.
PS: After learning my lesson from this fail, I’m never buying a single-ride ticket again. Other than transit passes, from now on I’m just tapping a card for everything!
The century-old Enoden and Kamakura — Memories Off edition
The century-old Enoden has witnessed far too many stories... This is where you find Slam Dunk, and also Memories Off...
First, here’s a route map of the Enoden. Since I planned to get off multiple times along the way, I bought a one-day pass, which allows unlimited hop-on, hop-off rides. The price was 700.
After entering the station, I naturally took a few train photos as usual, and discovered that the train at the platform wasn’t the classic little green car at all—it was a little blue one!
Whatever—get on!
PS1: The century-old Enoden is single-track for its entire length, with passing sidings at some stations. Because single-track operations are extremely inefficient, train frequency can’t possibly be very high.
PS2: The Enoden route is winding and curvy. Sometimes it runs just a few meters from people’s homes, and in some sections it even shares the roadway directly with cars... So don’t expect overly high speeds on a line like this. On certain sections, if it can hit 45km per hour, you should count your blessings!
All right, Kuriko admits my hands were shaking again!
We arrived at Enoshima Station, got off, and snapped a photo of the station sign!
By the way—if the station sign didn’t include kanji and only said えのしま in hiragana, would everyone get completely lost?
We exited the station and took a quick photo of the Enoshima Station building on the Enoden line.
Rain... when is it ever going to stop? This is also one of the real-life locations from Memories Off!
PS: I’m guessing some readers are about to exclaim, “Kuriko, what kinds of games do you even play?”
The shooting angle seems a bit off, but I’m sure this is the right place!
Although this station is called Enoshima Station, it’s still quite a long walk to actually reach Enoshima.
In weather this hot, that walk was really uncomfortable.
After crossing the long bridge, we finally made it onto the island!
This bronze torii at the entrance to Enoshima looked kind of familiar.
Isn’t this the background from the cover art of Memories Off 8?
PS1: More readers are probably about to shout, “Kuriko, are these the only games you play?”
PS2: Innocent Fille, “Muku Shoujo.” At first Kuriko misread Fille as File and thought, what on earth is that? “Innocent File”? Inner voice: Kuriko, you word-blind man, and you still managed to get a Ph.D? How did you even graduate?
PS3: Sailor uniforms get a thumbs-up, black stockings get a thumbs-up... uh, why am I even writing this?
Continuing past the bronze torii, there was a Hello Kitty tea house on the left side of the road.
Time to start climbing. This is the torii of Enoshima Shrine.
Stopped for a quick prayer: wash hands, toss in money, bow twice, clap twice, bow once!
Turn left, and the pilgrimage spot is here! The legendary matchmaking tree! Compare it with the CG from Memories Off 6!
Looking back down the mountain, that’s the route we slowly walked over from the bridge in the distance... Walking that far in such hot weather was genuinely tiring.
Heading east, there’s a shrine called Kodama Shrine. So of course, the principal deity enshrined here is Kodama Gentarō.
After looping back around, I noticed there was no one waiting for the Enoshima escalator anymore. Looks like the visitor flow really comes in waves.
Since there was no line, I quickly bought a ticket and headed up to the Enoshima lighthouse.
No one was staring at Kuriko this time, but the photo still came out blurry... I’ll admit it this time: the ISO setting was being sneaky, and the shutter speed wasn’t fast enough!
Still... Kuriko’s “spikes” do stand out pretty clearly...
Enoshima Lighthouse—this is the one!
Took the elevator to the top to look back at the route we power-walked over!
After taking in the view, we came down from the lighthouse and headed toward the back of Enoshima. There’s another Memories Off pilgrimage spot here: Ryuren no Kane, the Dragon Lovers’ Bell!
Okutsu-miya—once you see this, you know you’re almost there.
There it is—this is the place!
Here’s a screenshot from Memories Off 4. Compare them!
After visiting the Dragon Lovers’ Bell, I realized it was already past 1 PM, so it was time to leave Enoshima.
On the way back, I found a Cafe to grab a coffee, wake up a bit, and eat something to fill my stomach.
After a short break, I returned to Enoden Enoshima Station and got ready to catch the train to the next destination: another anime pilgrimage spot, Kamakurakokomae Station on the Enoden line, famous from Slam Dunk.
Summary
Since day three of Kuriko’s Japan trip had a pretty packed schedule, it was split into two separate posts. This article covers the first half of the day.