The short story of Kanji pictures
The Chuo Expressway offers a smooth drive into Kunitachi City, accompanied by stunning night views along the way. In fact, a famous Japanese singer beautifully captures this magical scenery in a song, describing the night drive on the Chuo Expressway as ‘an airport runway that leads us straight to a starship…
In Tokyo, lines running north to south are rare, as most run east to west. The Nambu Line is one of these few unique routes, and Yaho is a station right on it. Riding this railway offers a wonderful scenic journey!
Yaho Station is one of the stops on the JR Nambu Line, which runs between Tachikawa and Kawasaki. While the station building itself has a simple, classic design, stepping outside puts you right at the gateway to the breathtaking nature of the ‘Yaho World’!
Stretching two kilometers from west to east, Sakura Street is lined with cherry trees on both sides. Because it is narrower than Daigaku Street, the trees stand closer together, creating a spectacular tunnel of cherry blossoms across the sky every spring.
There is a refined, classy atmosphere to Kunitachi City. Just to make the local streets more fashionable, over a hundred antique street lamps were imported from Paris, France. Now, these historic lamps stand as one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks.
Come Christmas time, these cherry trees on both sides turn into giant, brilliantly illuminated holiday trees!
As a major landmark of Kunitachi City, Daigaku Street stretches south for two kilometers from Kunitachi Station to Yaho Station. Its impressive 44-meter width dates back to the early Showa era, when it was actually used as an airfield runway for planes flying to Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture. The name ‘Daigaku’ means ‘University,’ directly inspired by the presence of Hitotsubashi University.
This is Kunitachi Station, boasting a lovely pink hue reminiscent of Kunitachi’s springtime cherry blossoms.