Momo Ito poses at the Shin-Omura station in Nagasaki Prefecture on Sept. 23 after completing the longest one-way train trip in Japan. Tetsuya Ishikura OMURA, Nagasaki Prefecture -- The newly opened Shin-Omura Station here has been thrust into the spotlight by rail buffs as the new final stop on the longest one-way train trip in Japan.
The opening of the Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen Line on Sept. 23 extended the journey, which is possible on a single ticket for the first time in 33 years.
Momo Ito arrived at Shin-Omura Station just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 23, to complete the new route from Hokkaido that covered 10,700. 7 kilometers over 24 days.
She said that it was a luxurious trip as I made it in time for the opening day because I was stranded for two days midway through the route due to a typhoon. I am happy that I got a chance to ride the Kamome, the new bullet train on the Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen Line. Over the past 50 years, hard-core train buffs have plotted the longest one-way trips around the nation using some of the 4,000 or so Japan Railway JR stations. There is a rule. The travelers must use a single one-way ticket for a continuous fare calculation, which doesn't allow them to stop at the same station or go through the same route twice.
The passengers must keep moving to other trains on the extensive railway network. The one-way trip ends when they arrive at a station they have already passed through.
A limited number of enthusiasts have lived out of their dreams of completing the longest route, which requires frequent stopovers and nearly a month of travel.
The ticket alone costs about 90,000 yen $620 and there are accommodation expenses.
The previous record was said to be an approximately 10,682 km journey starting at Wakkanai Station on the Soya Line of Hokkaido Railway Co. JR Hokkaido in the northernmost main island. It ended up at Hizen-Yamaguchi Station on the Nagasaki Line of Kyushu Railway Co. JR Kyushu in Saga Prefecture.
The route passed through Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Fukuoka prefectures after entering the main island of Kyushu.
It would swing west at Shin-Tosu Station in Saga Prefecture and pass through Isahaya and Haiki stations in Nagasaki Prefecture. The last stop, the Hizen-Yamaguchi Station, changed its name to the Kohoku Station on Sept. 23.
The Takeo-Onsen station, located between Haiki and Kohoku stations, was connected to the new line after the Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen Line opened.
The transfer to a bullet train at Takeo-Onsen Station and riding it to Shin-Omura Station added 18 km to the previously longest route.
The city of Omura is happy about the development.
The Shin-Omura Station has created such a buzz among rail buffs, according to Omura Mayor Hiroshi Sonoda at a news conference in August.
The city government is presenting a special certificate to those who complete the new longest one-way train trip.
The new route is not the longest one-way trip in Japan's history of train travel.
Travel writer Shunzo Miyawaki once wrote in a book that he took a one-way train trip in 1978 that took about two months to complete.
The route covered 13,319 km, almost equivalent to the diameter of the Earth, beginning at the now-defunct Hiroo Station in Hokkaido and ending at Makurazaki Station in Kagoshima Prefecture.
The competition's dynamics have been changed by railway network realignments. The island of Shikoku is no longer part of the longest route because it is connected by a single line with the main island of Honshu.