Japan's Creepiest Station

[proggy]

Creepy is subjective of course, but it’s pretty high on the list for the most isolated and/or inconveniently-located platform in the country. The only access is via a narrow footbridge leading to a 486-step staircase that goes 70m underground (230ft). Unlike most other 50+ meter deep train stations, there are no elevators and no escalators. The only way in or out of the station is via those stairs, which makes platform-to-street time a non-trivial part of the overall journey.

[rayiner]

Why was it built like this?

[zoeysmithe]

Yep its not creepy its just a train station. I live in a big city and not-well-lit stations are common and its just a boring fact of life no one even notices here. But to an outsider trying to exoticize things, suddenly its "creepy" or "weird." I mean "the descent is terrifying?" It just stairs. We have this in DC, NYC, and Chicago. To a Chicagoan like me, these 'terrifying tunnels' are just our train station and where we go everyday. There's a real anti-urbanism and anti-public trans aspect here that is concerning.

The notes aren't "Silent Hill" like but a cute way human social need expresses itself. Its community. Its not weird or scary at all, in fact its the opposite.

The alternative to 'terrifying' stairs and trains are the actual terror of driving which has a much higher injury and morality rate than riding a train.

No one wants to have this conversation but if you wonder how egyptomania happened, well, its happening here with people fetishizing Japan and its people.

I wish orientalism was taken more seriously. Japan has sort of become this fictional and stereotypical thing and it percolates down with stuff like this. Its just a train station. Its someone's boring work commute. Its not GITS or a catgirl hideout or cyberpunk in real life whatever. Its a place that doesnt have the social, political, and capitalist capital to get much needed renovations, same with the many 'creepy' stations on Chicago's west and south sides, which the North side ones (wealthy, white dominated) have had renovations, new paint, new lighting, etc. Its just the everyday corruption of how many societies work.

Go ahead an put "DOAI EKI" into google images. It looks quite normal. The "tokyo cowboy" website inserted that dark green filter. Its just a boring, if not ugly, tunnel with a but of colorful moss to break up the monotony:

https://wikimapia.org/16698934/Doai-Station-%E5%9C%9F%E5%90%...

If anything, the external facade is quite striking with its big triangle face. I mean, this is just a train tunnel, albeit a deep one. Not the Chernobyl exclusion zone and entirely safe and honestly, if you're anything like me, you'll enjoy the quiet and seclusion of a train tunnel.

I've been to Japan and when people find this out and start ranting to me about how they'd love to go for stereotype-heavy reasons, its very hard for me to tell them it isn't actually a cybperpunk or anime heaven, but its just a normal developed economy and it and its people are not very different from them, many of whom without a strong interest in the otaku culture they think defines this entire society. Nor is it easy to talk about its many serious political issues, as Japan has many faults orientalism doesn't present.

Japan is full of the same working class people as you, with the same worries and joys as you. Maybe they ride the train more than you but their tunnels and stairs aren't "terrifying," they're instead the cherished memories of their hometowns. Maybe the L in Chicago is ugly to you, but its my, sometimes difficult, but beloved train system I ride every day. The L is the source of many of my warm childhood and young adult memories the same way stations like this are to the Japanese there too. I dont know if its accurate to portray these systems as weird exotic and dangerous things. Its just everyday rail. Its our daily lives.

So much of this orientalism is dishonesty to get engagement, fame, ad impressions, etc. I'd love a good hearted and honest appreciation and criticism of Japan's rail lines over sensationalist writing like this. The Atlas Obscura style of writing and profit-making is practically ruining the internet and making people divorced from the actual reality of these places and its people. You get the McTourist version of things that don't reflect the reality and people there much, or if at all.

I think the older crowd remembers what it was like before wikipedia got big, near everything was sensationalist and 'blogger' and 'personal diary' like this. You couldn't just bring up the data and facts about stations like this or an article written with journalist ethics, instead you'd be pummeled with "Atlas Obscura" style narratives like this made to be sensational and often inaccurate and engaging in stereotypes. The people who wrote this article are motivated by money, not information sharing, hence the style. I dislike we're moving back towards "Anime fans facts on Japan webring" type writing. I really hope people stop and think about this stuff and stop promoting this kind of stuff, especially now when you can just tell an AI to write Obscura-style sensationalism trivially and use many SEO tools to promote this writing for profit.

I come to HN to get away from stuff like this and its just disheartening to me to see these types of articles becoming popular here. This isn't the first one and I'm afraid this is becoming a trend.

[ziml77]

The only thing that is making this creepy is the color grading on the photos. Here's the first video I found of the station, which shows the stairs and the platform are well-lit https://youtu.be/V3vYuMdCsqs?t=557

[kingnight]

Nice find. Agreed. The concrete bunker isolation in this clip is an entirely different vibe that's interesting on its own, doesn't need the horror color grade.

[sixothree]

Wow. That get's the point across better than the article that this is a unique descent.

[DemocracyFTW2]

So how do you know it's the photos and not the video that has been altered to give a certain impression? Also, there's still this seemingly endless staircase...

[tdeck]

Interesting that people leave kegs of beer down there to age.

[Anonyneko]

Japan's creepiest station is objectively the Kisaragi Station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kisaragi_Station

[smnplk]

gotta love japanese urban legends :)

[binaryturtle]

I visited this station ~3 years ago myself. There's nothing creepy about it at all. It's just unique and in that sense pretty interesting.

There's a draft/wind going through the tunnel… that perhaps can sound a bit spooky for folks with lively imagination?

[jonnybgood]

Japan train stations are interesting. Another interesting set of stations are the so-called “train stations of despair”. These stations, particularly in Tokyo prefecture, are in the middle of no where at the end of a line. If you live out towards these stations and you’re coming home from a night out in Shinjuku on the last train and you so happen to fall asleep and miss your stop, you’ll likely wake up at one of these stations of despair. There’s no return until the next morning.

[mcbobgorge]

There's something similar in Philly- I went to Temple University and many drunk kids would either fall asleep on the Broad Street Line or mistakenly take the last express train, which skips over both of the Temple stops. As a result, you have to get off somewhere in North Philly (the worst part of the city) and wait for someone to pick you up.

Different kind of despair than Tokyo lol

[throwaway494932]

If somebody wonders how those stations and the town surrounding them look like, you can see an example here [1]

[1] https://soranews24.com/2024/12/21/station-of-despair-what-to...

[LargoLasskhyfv]

> There’s no return until the next morning.

No Bus, Taxi, Uber, E-Scooter?

No tengo dinero?

Too drunk?

[MontyCarloHall]

Surely I thought it would be either of the (now-closed) stations [0, 1] located in the Seikan Tunnel between Honshu and Hokkaido.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshioka-Kaitei_Station (located 149 meters below sea level, which made it the deepest station in Japan before it closed)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tappi-Kaitei_Station

[chrisjharris]

This is a creepy station, green filters notwithstanding. The article repeats this statement that I've seen elsewhere and always found pretty questionable - that 800 people have died on Tanigawa. I've no idea where this data comes from but it seems very unlikely. If you just want to get to the top by the simplest route then it's a non-technical day hike up a not-very-high mountain. It's also a multi-pitch rock climbing area but I'd struggle to imagine that 800 rock climbers have killed themselves there over the past 100 or so years.

[jorams]

Wikipedia also says the same thing, both in English and in Japanese, and in both languages uses this report[1] as the source. This in turn sources a medical journal and a report by a mountaineering club. I don't know Japanese and can't really check whether these are reliable sources that actually exist. Essentially what this report says is that after WWII, particularly in the late 50s and the 60s, there were lots of climbers and unsafe routes, causing a large number of fatalaties. Afterwards there's a sharp decrease, though still pretty significant numbers.

[1]: https://soka-yamanokai.com/study/study18.html

[minebreaker]

I believe the number is correct. The source from the government: https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/common/001556845.pdf

I assume you've never been there. 一ノ倉沢 is really impressive and dangerous.

[jfoster]

I caught a local train from Minakami to Niigata last year and went through this station. I hadn't heard of it at the time, but it felt like you might imagine from reading this.

Condensation built up on the train windows. Afterward, there seemed to be a very active thunderstorm outside and it was around sunset time. The condensation made it impossible to see out the window besides some very surreal orange/purple tones and flashes of light. I hope I can experience that again one day, but I've only made the trip once so I'm not sure how common or rare it might be.

[drewlesueur]

Backrooms vibes

[michalu]

This looks like every other metro station in Paris.

[junon]

Looks like half of Berlin's train stations.

[gorgoiler]

Here’s a short horror game from last year that really serves that creepy Japanese subway vibe:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2653790/The_Exit_8/

Tangential, but any opportunity to share something so good cannot be missed. It is brilliant.

[derr1]

Exit 8 game is great, there is also a game called Platform 8 which is a similar thing, but in a train.

There is also an Exit 8 movie releasing in a few days.

[jefurii]

I encountered this station by accident one summer while on a cross-Japan trip. I was doing the cheap but slow Seishun 18 Kippu thing. All the passengers that had boarded at Kanazawa had gotten off and I was the only one in the car. I looked up from my book as the train neared a mountain and then it was dark outside. I'd been through lots of tunnels before, no big deal.

But then the train slows down and stops at this station in the middle of the mountain. There's an announcement but it's so echoey that I miss it. I think they're saying the train is going to stop for 10 minutes but I'm not sure. I poke my head out. I eventually look around but I take all my gear with me - I don't want the train to suddenly take off with my stuff on it. I stand for awhile looking up at the staircase going up into the rock, feeling it suck the air upwards, wondering what the heck is at the top.

I found this experience to be frickin' cool and random rather than creepy. Years later Google Maps let me visit the station at the top and it was pretty much just a boring local station with a couple unique features.

[tonyhart7]

the only spooky thing is how much stairs you must climb not the lighting lol

[nullbyte808]

Cool article! Love the color grading. Would love to visit it sometime.

[dudefeliciano]

i guarantee there are creepier stations in berlin - not talking about the appearance of the station, but rather its inhabitants.

[kuschkufan]

certainly, certainly... i however guarantee comment OP is full of it

[rthnbgrredf]

Do you have a green filter on all of your images to make it look more creepy?

[FuriouslyAdrift]

Here it is in normal light: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doai_Station#/media/File:JR_Jo...

[Insanity]

Was thinking so too, green is a colour that makes humans feel something is 'off' / makes us feel uncomfortable. The Matrix used the same colour tone to differentiate inside/outside The Matrix.

[jfoster]

Seems like there probably is a green filter, but from my memory, the station was quite dark, so the filter might be setting the right mood.

[awaymazdacx5]

murakami was entropic: swimming + train stations

[igvadaimon]

This is where they filmed Neo vs Smith

[rvnx]

If you are interested into it, Matrix 1 was filmed in Sydney, Australia (because it was cheaper)

[AndyKelley]

全然怖くないよね

[latentsea]

体力なかったら怖いよ