Japan’s most curiously-named stations
goo Ranking recently published, as selected by goo Research’s monitor pool over the 19th and 20th of April 2007, Japan’s most curiously-named stations.
Some of the names are amusing, others are strange, and a few more I just don’t get! Any help would be more than welcome.
Note that the number one choice is Japan’s longest station name. This title used to be held by 「ルイス・C.ティファニー庭園美術館前駅」, “Louis C Tiffany Garden Museum Mae Station”, but the museum closed down and the station was renamed to the slightly shorter 「松江イングリッシュガーデン前駅」, “Matsue English Garden Mae Station”, apparently on the 21st of May 2007. Note that at the time of writing, Wikipedia wrongly reports this as the longest Japanese station name in a link from their Louis C Tiffany page.
To help you locate the places, I’ve made a custom Google Map for all these stations.
Ranking research
Q: What curiously-named station would you most like to vist?
Rank 日本語 English Explanation Score 1 南阿蘇水の生まれる里白水高原駅 Minami Asomizu no Umareru Satohakusui Kougen Eki The longest working station name in Japan 100 2 おもちゃのまち駅 Omocha no Machi Eki Toytown Station. Apparently this is near a Bandai factory. 98.1 3 宮本武蔵駅 Miyamoto Musashi Eki Named after Japan’s famous samurai 61.7 4 幸駅 Saiwai Eki Good Fortune Station 45.8 5 心臓血管センター駅 Shinzo Kekkan Centre Eki Cardiovascular Centre Station 42.5 6 大歩危駅 Ooboke Eki Big Step Danger Station sounds quite strange 33.6 7 源じいの森駅 Genjii no Mori Eki Not really sure on this one 31.8 8 面白山高原駅 Omoshiro Yama Kougen Eki Amusing Mountain Plateau Station 31.3 9 南蛇井駅 Nanjai Eki South Snake Well Station 26.6 10 姨捨駅 Obasute Eki Throw your Younger Sister Away Station 25.7 11 さくらんぼ東根駅 Sakuranbo Higashi Ne Eki Eastern Root Cherry Station 25.2 12 姫駅 Hime Eki Princess Station 22.0 13 蛸地蔵駅 Tako Jizo Eki Octopus Bodhisattva Jizo Station 21.5 14 おかどめ幸福駅 Okadome Kofuku Eki Okadome Good Fortune Station 20.6 15 ウッディタウン中央駅 Woody Town Chuuou Eki Woody Town Central Station 20.1 16 おもろまち駅 Omoro-machi Eki In slang, omoro(i) is entertaining, so, Entertaining Town Station 19.2 17 後免駅 Gomen Eki Same pronounciation as “Sorry Station” might be 16.8 18 福駅 Fuku Eki Good Fortune Station 6.8 19 昆布盛駅 Konbu-mori Eki Piled Seaweed Station 14.0 20 塔のへつり駅 To no Hetsuri Eki Not sure on this name 14.0 21 大学駅 Daigaku Eki University Station 12.6 22 比布駅 Bibbu Eki No sure on this one 12.6 23 半家駅 Hage Eki Half a House Station 12.1 24 増毛駅 Mashike Eki Increasing Hair Station 11.7 25 国道駅 Kokudo Eki National Highway Station 11.7 26 阿仁マタギ駅 Ani Matagi Eki Named after the Matagi, an ancient hunting community 11.2 27 及位駅 Nozoki Eki I think this is funny for just having a strange kanji reading 11.2 28 たまプラーザ駅 Tama Plaza Eki Not sure why this one is funny! 10.7 29 ＹＲＰ野比駅 YRP Nohi Eki Near the Yokosuka Research Park in Nohi 9.8 30 上下駅 Jouge Eki Up-Down Station 9.3
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Jen said,
May 23, 2007 @ 06:46
Hi Ken,
Some thoughts on some station names:
源じいの森駅
The official homepage at http://www.fcom.ne.jp/genjii/yurai.htm explains the origin of the name, but personally I think it’s funny because it evokes an image of Hikaru Genji (from Tale of Genji) as an old man (ojiisan). Maybe “Grampy Genji”? It could just be me.
姨捨駅
A 姨 is actually a sister-in-law, but an おば is an aunt in modern Japanese. Being a place name, the language was probably different when the name was given.
I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for putting it up!
Feitclub said,
May 23, 2007 @ 07:00
Regarding #28, I think it has something to do with the slang usage of “tama” as “balls.” I’m no native speaker but “Testes Plaza” would make me laugh. ^_^
Scott said,
May 23, 2007 @ 09:07
Regarding 塔のへつり駅 (No. 20), Wikipedia says 「へつり」とはこの地方の方言で川にせまった崖や急斜面のことをさす。 So, I think a good translation for this one would be “Castle Cliff Station”.
Ken Y-N said,
May 23, 2007 @ 09:09
Jen, thanks for the info - I thought too of the Grandpa Genji image, but I thought that was too much of an oyaji gag! Looking up 姨 in WWWJDIC I got “younger sister”.
Feitclub, I forgot the “balls” option! I also found it funny that the Japanese find Woody Town funny too, but perhaps not for the same reason as us!
Japan News for May 23, 2007 » Japan Probe said,
May 23, 2007 @ 13:05
[…] Goo Ranking recently published, as selected by research pool over the 19th and 20th of April 2007, Japan’s most curiously-named stations. [Link] […]
Rorimack said,
May 23, 2007 @ 13:30
姨捨: this is the name of a practice when you get rid of the “useless” family members, usually old men or women by bringing them up to a mountain and leave them out there to die.
hajime said,
May 23, 2007 @ 13:58
May I help you Ken?
I hope it helps you.
#6 “ooboke” sounds similar to “senile”.
#7 “Grampy gen’s forest station” is just funny because it looks really personal estate statin.
it doesn’t remind me old Genji-story for me.
#9 “Nanjai” sounds a kind of “So What!?”
#10 “oba”=aunt. this is ancient story of leaving aunt in a mountain for reducing number of mouths one has to feed.
it shouldn’t named to station because someone might leave their aunt.
#22 “bippu” sound same as the product of magnet for health.
#23 “hage”=”baldness” It might correspond with #24
#27 “nozoki”=”Peeping”
#28 “Tama pla”=”swinging own ball”, you know.
Others are perfect. it must have been hard for you. Excellent job!
Ken Y-N said,
May 23, 2007 @ 14:27
hajime: thanks for the extra input!
#9: I thought of the “nanjai” exclamation, but I wasn’t confident about my understanding of slang.
#23: I thought of the bald bit, but I’m used to my wife pointing out that words spelt the same are totally different due to subtle (to me) high-low intonation differences. Also note that the next station is “increasing hair”!
#28: Hehe!
Garrett said,
May 23, 2007 @ 22:38
Thanks, Ken, very interesting post. I often wonder about stations names I see. I’ve had a longstanding competition going with a friend of mine to find the longest working station name in Tokyo, which has been standing as a tie between 国会議事堂前 (kokkai-gijidoumae) and 西新宿五丁目 (Nishi-Shinjuku go-choume) for most kanji, and 落合南長崎 (Ochiai Minami-Nagasaki) for most syllables, for a while now.
Seeing your list here makes me realize that poor Tokyo is impoverished for truly amusing station names.
It wasn’t Japan, but I got a kick out of tiny, rural 酒泉 (pronounced jiu-qien, if I remember correctly) in North-Central China. While it may have some other meaning in Chinese, it was hilarious to me. Sadly, I couldn’t even find a cold beer there.
Roaf said,
May 24, 2007 @ 10:52
Of course, the Welsh are the kings of weird station names. The longest one is:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which translates as ‘St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave’.
Ken said,
May 28, 2007 @ 23:23
I don’t know why, but every spring I would hear a lot of Uni kids laughing about how 高田馬場 was such a funny name…