JR KOKUDO STATION (TSURUMI WARD, YOKOHAMA)

Fading station still holds charms of days gone by

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Satoshi Yokoyama

By Yuko Iida

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

The name of JR Tsurumi Line's Kokudo Station comes from a nearby elevated national highway (kokudo). The entrance of the station leads down to a cavernous tunnel of wooden and lattice-windowed houses and shops. Here, one can see an old-fashioned wooden clothes rack from bygone days. Another throwback is the bin fixed to the wall, a type that is rarely seen nowadays.

Suddenly, a wooden gate opens and an elderly woman appears with a walking stick in her hand. This is no film studio. People actually live here.

The arches look art nouveau, a style that was all the rage when the railway opened in 1930. The arcade beneath the railway fills with shadows at around 4 p.m. But just as the day starts to fade outside, a red lantern lights up.

Kokudoshita, a yakitori shop in front of the ticket barrier, is about to open for business.

The shop is run by Katsuaki Imahashi, 63, and his wife Mitsue, 56.

Except for the morning and evening rush hour, it is quiet around the station. "I don't like places like this," Mitsue said when Katsuaki proposed opening the shop in 1976. But he insisted, "Here, we'll have customers at night."

They started, with an agreement that if the shop was struggling after three months, they would give it up. It did not take long for the place to fill with salarymen on their way home. The couple felt the warm hearts of the town's residents welcoming them.

In the 29 years they have run the shop, nearby clothes stores and real estate agents have closed down because of a lack of successors. The station looks deserted during the daytime, but after sunset, Kokudoshita comes alive, just like the old times.

One stick of yakitori costs 50 yen and has a generous amount of meat. It shows the Imahashis' gratitude to their customers.

Every day, the couple spend an hour cleaning the area around the shop and the station's toilets, spending their own money on toilet detergent, paper and air-fresheners.

"A house's entrance and bathroom should be the first places in a house to be cleaned," Mitsue says. To the Imahashis, the station is like home.