It’s not Kurashiki’s most famous attraction, but it is perhaps its most unique.
When most people think of the city of Kurashikiin Okayama Prefecture, they think of its picturesque canals and preserved buildings. And the Japanese Twitter user @meat stew may have seen them on his recent trip to town, but his main reason for going was to see the Kimi Station.
Stations being attractions in themselves, it’s not that unusual in Japan. Some rail hubs connect to sprawling entertainment complexes filled with shops, restaurants and performance halls. Others have special significance in the history of the development of the Japanese railway network. Kimi doesn’t really fit into any of those categories, but @meat_stew still wanted to see him, because he wanted to see his “Lazy and unmotivated ticket holder.” How lazy is that? Looked.
At the most basic level, you expect a gate to be able to prevent people from walking through an area unless they have permission. But Kimi’s “door” is a single bollard in front of the station stairs, arranged parallel to the stairs so that he can perhaps slightly hinder someone trying to climb up to the center of the steps, except that there is already a handrail preventing it.
Although built in 1988, Kimi’s rural location on the JR Honshi-Bisan Line, which doesn’t get a ton of passengers, seems to have convinced planners they didn’t need full mechanical turnstiles when the station opened. There may have been an attendant stamping tickets back in the day, but since most people now pay for their train ticket with prepaid IC cards, the terminal’s touchpad can handle this function, and there’s still a slot for inserting paper tickets, which the machine then stamps.
▼ “I came all the way to Okayama just to see the lazy and unmotivated JR Kimi station gate.”
JR? pic.twitter.com/uwGWuNNJA8
— エサ｜珍スポマニア (@meat_stew) October 28, 2022
Obviously, Kimi operates on the honor system. Although its unmotivated ticket gate is able to register that someone has used a ticket to get on the train, it doesn’t really have the ability to stop people who don’t have a ticket to do the same. There’s a security camera pointed at the door, but even it doesn’t look overly motivated, as one commenter pointed out.
監視カメラもやる気ない pic.twitter.com/FiagJq0BVm
— こなた@嫁持ち (@kjmm2021) October 29, 2022
In addition to some 45,000 likes, other online reactions have included:
“I like the way it lines up in the middle of the stairs.”
“I think I probably wouldn’t even notice it and just accidentally go and not buy a ticket.”
“Pretty. It’s even lazier than I could have imagined.
“You can almost hear him say, ‘Oh, hey man, thanks for dropping by. You must not have much at the moment either, huh? »
“I can’t really say why, but it kind of gives off a near-future vibe. Let’s all take good care of this place.
Strange as it may seem, the fact that Kimi Station is still in operation suggests that most people follow the rules and pay for their tickets. So maybe it’s not that the teller is lazy, but that he’s just mastered the art of doing the exact amount of work he needs.
Source, images: Twitter/@meat_stew
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