[ad_1]
The closest mainland American metropolis to Tokyo is Los Angeles at slightly below 9000 kilometres away however USA is definitely a lot nearer to Tokyo than you might assume! The truth is it’s ten occasions nearer to the Japanese capital metropolis than L.A. however how is that so?
Japan’s most southern primary island of Kyushu lies round 950 kilometres south-west of Tokyo with the closest prefecture being Oita within the north-east. It possesses a city with probably the most American of names. That is no American-style themed park although and neither is it something like Johnson City in Saitama!
Ever since listening to about USA station in Oita Prefecture I’ve needed to see it for myself and my brief journey to Kyushu again in June gave me the possibility. My unique plan was to journey as much as this station from Kitsuki on the day I arrived at Oita Airport. As a Tokyo resident used to very common trains, I used to be conscious that there would possibly solely be one each hour or two on this a part of Japan. I used to be fallacious! They have been even much less common than that, significantly within the afternoons. It simply was not doable to go to USA and return to Oita in time for the soccer match I had a ticket for that night.
Realizing I needed to take the 8:20 am prepare west to Saga Prefecture the following morning I took a take a look at the schedule planner to see if it was doable to do it earlier than that however actually didn’t assume there was any likelihood of that occuring. Nonetheless, the celebrities (and stripes!) aligned to assist me however it could imply a really early begin!
If I took the 5:30 am prepare from Oita I might then have about half-hour at USA station earlier than taking the prepare again simply after 7:00 am which might give me about ten minutes to get my reserved prepare to Tosu. Good when it comes to giving me sufficient time to see what I needed to see however not so good for my sleep!
The solar hadn’t been up for too lengthy earlier than I arrived at USA at 6:30 am. I used to be the one one to disembark, and just about had the entire station to myself for the whole lot of my keep. Standby for plenty of signage photos!
Sadly, USA city is definitely pronounced “Oo-sah” moderately than “You-Es-Eh” however for the sake of the tenuous hyperlink to the nation I’ll contine to spell it as USA moderately than Usa on this publish!
Fortunately Japan’s perspective in the direction of indicators in English is usually one in every of seemingly little care and a focus so issues like spelling and the usage of higher and decrease case letters isn’t at all times thought of too essential! Consequently, the spelling of this city appears to be like the identical because the abbreviation of the US of America. They’ve definitely taken benefit of the connection, and it has often been featured as a unusual information merchandise on TV selection reveals.
The station constructing itself has a rural Japanese really feel to it however I suppose I hoped for one thing a bit extra cheesy like seeing USA written in large letters in English someplace and a garish purple, white and blue color scheme. Sadly, USA was solely written in kanji characters although with a little bit of purple in the principle constructing.
Oita Prefectural Museum of Historical past and Usa Jingu Shrine are the principle sights within the space, and certainly the latter options on among the station’s indicators in a mode which is a refined nod to the American flag.
Though the shrine was open at this early time of the day it was sadly not conveniently positioned for a fast go to from me because it’s positioned 4 kilometres west of the station.
It must be identified that not all of the station indicators are American themed for there are a number of extra easier ones.
Little did I do know it on the time of my go to however subsequent analysis has revealed that among the space round USA station supposedly bears one thing of a resemblance to the Incan ruins of Peru.
After half an hour in USA it was time for my American journey to finish and I headed again to Japan!! On condition that I haven’t left the shores of Japan for 5 years now, that is maybe as shut as I’ll get to being in a overseas land for now!
Click on right here to learn ‘Tokyo Daytripper: Johnson City – A Style of America In Saitama’
Click on right here to learn ‘An Afternoon In The Samurai District With Sloping Streets Aplenty, Japan’s Smallest Citadel & It’s Largest Iron Buddha Statue Too!
Click on right here to learn ‘An Away Day Journey of Observe to One among My Bucketlist Japanese Stadiums’
Click on right here to learn ‘Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #18 – Takio’
[ad_2]