SHIMA ISOBE STATION (MIE PREFECTURE)

Spain makes a stop in Mie coastal town

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Kanji Tada

By Katsuo Kokaji

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

With its saw-toothed coastlines, the scenery in Mie Prefecture strongly resembles that of southern Spain as trains wind through the forests of the Shima Peninsula.

Passengers are greeted by the orange-tiled roof of Shima Isobe Station, contrasting with its white walls.

The beauty of the station is enhanced by a clock tower and a gallery lined by round white pillars around the building.

But the area surrounding the station on the Shima Line of Kinki Nippon Railway Co. looks like an ordinary rural Japanese town.

To punctuate the ordinary, the Andalusian-style station building shines white under the glaring sun.

"It used to be a shack that stood almost alone on the damp plains," said Kazuyoshi Taniguchi, 50, deputy station master.

But that changed in 1994 when the Shima Spanish Village theme park opened in the area.

The village was built under a partnership of the public and private sectors led mainly by the railway company and the Mie prefectural government. The initial cost of 80 billion yen was split among those participating in the project.

In time for the opening of the theme park, the station was rebuilt into the current steel-frame three-story structure with a floor space of 2,631 square meters.

As the village re-created famed Spanish streets in the smallest detail, so did the station by ordering tiles and almost all other materials from Spain to reconstruct the building.

"Like Andalusia, this peninsula has saw-toothed coasts and a mild climate," said Hiroshi Yao, 45, the sales and planning manager of the village on why a Spanish village was built on the peninsula.

His impression was shared by a Spanish woman working for the village as a guide.

"In climate, Shima is very much like Valencia," said Mari Cruz Bermudez, referring to the eastern Spanish region along the Mediterranean coast.

"I would say they have similar seas, mountains and greens," she said.

The village boasts exact replicas of Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Las Ramblas Street in Barcelona, and Santa Cruz town in Sevilla.

Above all else, however, Bermudez advises visitors to see Javier Castle. Though it is an imitation, she said that even Spanish people may have difficulty seeing the difference.

Four years have passed since David Gracia Linero, 30, arrived at Shima Isobe Station for the first time as a dancer to perform at the village.

"The station looked unreal. I felt as if it was a picture," he said.

He alighted at the concourse decorated with painted plates and sunlight shining through stained glass and then took a bus from the station along the coast to the village.

After dancing at the village for a year, he returned to Spain, but returned to the village in February. He was jubilant, he said, when the white-walled station came into view, welcoming him back.