NIPPONIA No. 43 December 15, 2007
Special Feature
Travel Japan by Train
Left: Snow left on the Hida mountains melts into clear streams. The air in the highlands here is pure. Early summer on the JR Oito Line—perhaps the best time to travel here.
Right top: The JR Nagasaki Main Line runs along the Ariake Sea coast in northwestern Kyushu.
Right bottom: Hakone Tozan Railway in Hakone, one of Japan’s best areas for hot spring spas. Some track sections are the steepest in Japan. Hydrangeas bloom on both sides of the track in June and July.
Left: The JR Hohi Main Line runs through part of Mount Aso, which includes an active volcano. Trains have to pass through many tunnels and over many bridges along the line.
Right: The Seto Ohashi Bridge over a strait in the Seto Inland Sea is the world’s longest suspension bridge with both a road and a railway track. At its highest point, the deck of the bridge is 65 meters above the sea.
Lunch box peddler still going strong
“Bento! Bento-o-o! ” A rope from behind his neck supports a large carrying box. He walks along the platform with ready-to-eat meals in boxes (bento), calling out to potential customers. His voice brings to mind the good old days when lunch box peddlers were a common sight in Japanese stations. Today, many long-distance trains sell bento on board, so it is little wonder that platform peddlers have all but disappeared. But when the train slips into Utsunomiya Station on the Tohoku Main Line north of Tokyo, passengers get a taste of the past—this is one of the few stations in Japan still offering the service.
“Station bento were first sold in Japan at this station, Utsunomiya. I’m going to keep peddling them until all my strength is gone,” says Sakamoto Hidehiro, who sells for Matsu-no-ya. He has been at this job for 50 years, and is now 68 years old. Peddlers first began selling bento at this station in 1885. He says that when he was young he sold about 1,000 a day, but today he is lucky to sell 40 or 50. The passengers who buy may smile and tell him they hope he will always be there when they pass through.
