The station closest to our apartment is Kamegawa eki, which is about 20 minutes walk east toward the sea. It's a small, manned station (thinking about my choice of words, I can't remember ever seeing a woman station worker) with an indoor waiting room but no shops. We only sit inside during the very coldest days. To avoid the smokers, we pace the far end of the platform, looking for the first hint of the train as it comes through the tunnel right before the station.
The photo shows the down train (away from Tokyo) which is the one we take to Beppu and Oita. It's track is on the station side. To get to the platform on the other side, you have to cross the tracks by climbing a long flight of stairs to a covered walkway. There are many very old people in Kamegawa and this is hard on them. And this is the station closest the national hospital here, so many people confined to wheelchair reside here. They can't use the station at all.
The strange thing is that about 4 years before we moved to Japan, Reagan was threatening to shut down Amtrak, and I took JQS on a train ride (from Austin to Albuquerque by way of Chicago) because I was afraid that they'd become obsolete before he got to ride on one. (I had only been on a train once before in my life, when I was 3). Now trains are our regular mode of transportation. And 11-year-old JQS takes the train alone to Beppu.
About three local trains an hour stop at our station. There's also an occassional express train, although most of these pass us by and you have to take the local to Beppu to catch one. The superimposed lettering is a the sign showing the station, and the next one up and down. When I first started taking the train, I always watched the sign carefully to make sure the train was moving in the direction I wanted to go in.
And, yes, it's true that Japanese trains are so efficient that you can set your watch by them. And I do. Japan's the only place I've ever lived where I wear a watch. Our weekends revolve around the train schedule. If we miss the 09:27, then we have to wait for the 09:52...so at 09:12 on a Sunday morning you'll find me yelling at JQS, "We have to leave now!" Then we hustle to the station. Even if we hear the train coming in as we cross the parking lot, we know we have enough time to get our tickets from the vending machine. Only once was the train already in the station, so we jumped the barrier chain, got on the train, and bought our tickets from the conductor. You have to turn your tickets in when you arrive and so I tend to ask JQS over and over, "Where's your ticket? You've got your ticket, don't you?" until he rolls his eyes and makes me aware that I'm being the over-anxious Mom.
We'd been here about 4 months when we learned from Tonai-sensei that you could buy round trip tickets to Oita City from the ticket office, and get a 20 percent discount over buying two one-way tickets from the vending machine.
The next stop down is Beppu University. When the university girls get on the train, they rush over to talk to JQS and touch his curly hair. He doesn't like all the attention, although he puts on his polite face. I try to console him with the fact that someday he'll wish he was being hounded by packs of college girls. He remains unconvinced.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
May 19, 2003
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Kamegawa Station, Beppu-shi, Oita-ken Japan.