Japan has a lot of trains, which is a good thing because they also have a lot of densha otaku, rail fans who love everything about trains, whether it’s riding on the sleekest Shinkansen or exploring old abandoned train lines. During my career as an ESL teacher I encountered more than a few students whose main release from the stress of studying was visiting obscure corners of Japan to ride on their favorite train, and densha lovers can even be seen in the political world here — Land Minister Seiji Maehara is a rail aficionado who has published photographs of steam locomotives. On a TV show called Tonari no Maestro (The Master Next Door), which finds amazing accomplishments by average people and reports on them, I saw a piece on Japan’s #1 train lover, who managed to visit all of the 9861 train stations in the country. His name is Takahisa Sugihara, age 61, and he spent 30 years traveling around Japan and stopping at each station, earning himself a listing in the Guinness Book as a result. On the show he reminisced about his favorite stations, like one in Kyushu that’s built inside a private home so travelers can enjoy the smell of curry stewing in the kitchen as they pass through, or a station in Aichi Prefecture which faces the sea, making it the most beautiful train station in Japan at sunset.
This train station near Nagoya is the most beautiful in Japan. I want to go there now.
