AOMORI STATION (AOMORI PREFECTURE)

Warm welcome at end of the line

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Norikazu Tateishi

By Shinichi Hagiwara

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Perched on a tiny point of land that juts out into the ocean, Aomori Station is the last stop on the Tohoku Line of East Japan Railway Co. At 9:56 a.m., I stepped off a sleeper onto the platform after a 12-hour ride from Tokyo's Ueno Station.

The railway track extends 300 meters past the platform and terminates where Mutsu Bay starts. Timeworn stairs are located at the end of the platform and used to serve as a passage to ferryboats for Hakodate Station in Hokkaido.

In March 1988, the ferry closed after providing services for 80 years to make way for the 25-kilometer underwater tunnel that connects Tappikaitei Station — 64 kilometers north of Aomori Station — with Yoshiokakaitei Station — 74 kilometers south of Hakodate Station.

On walking out the ticket gate, passengers find the square in front of the station is lined with buildings that feature the latest architectural designs, dispelling any expectation they may have had that the station would be a gloomy place.

"Many people often link this area with the gloomy images of a northern land," said Kunio Nakatani, the deputy stationmaster. "But people in Aomori Prefecture have sunny characters. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to stand the long, cold winters."

Nakatani, 54, said he has only wept once while working on the railroad. On March 13, 1988, he watched the last ferry sail away and cried.

"I felt as if I was losing someone who had raised me," he said.

The ferry carried a total of 160 million people since it opened in 1908 and was a symbol of the station's heyday.

Although the ferry no longer sails, Nakatani will remain busy as long as the station continues to be the final stop on the Tohoku, Ou and Tsugarukaikyo lines.

He must arrange blankets and boxed meals for passengers each time a service is disrupted by heavy snow or other troubles. He frequently is called upon to work after his day shift.

But he is proud to greet the trains as they finish their journey and send them off again.

Aomori Station will soon experience its first major change since the ferry's closure. In 2002, JR East extended the Tohoku Shinkansen line to Hachinohe Station, 96 kilometers southeast of Aomori Station. The company is scheduled to lengthen the line to Aomori Station in fiscal 2010.