Local Line Nostalgia: Tales of the Kishin Line

[Shirokuma Literature Club: On a Sunny Day]
*Dedicated to the theme hosted by Kosuke Komaki

On a sunny day, I visited my hometown.

I took a photo at the railroad crossing near the station,
which I have been familiar with since I was a child.

The JR Kishin Line.

The 'Ki' stands for Himeji Station in Hyogo Prefecture, the starting point.
The 'Shin' represents Niimi Station in Okayama Prefecture.
It represents.

Since it is a local single-track line
with only a few trains per hour,
the crossing alarm does not ring
very often after a train has passed.

In particular, the distance between this station and the next downbound station
across the city border is unimaginably far
for those living in the city.
(About five stations' worth for urban trains?)

The train that just passed must reach the next station
and pass the other train there,
otherwise the train going in the opposite direction cannot depart.

That is the nature of a rural single-track train.

It is truly laid-back (laughs).

Nowadays, trains with this kind of appearance,
which look like hand-me-downs from some city,
are running on the tracks.

However, until I started working,
there were still red diesel locomotives at the front,
and the passenger cars were blue,
looking exactly like the Galaxy Express 999.

The floor inside the train was made of wooden planks.
It had an oily smell of wax.
The seats in the passenger cars were of the face-to-face box type.
The green seats had a texture
that felt like velvet.

Yes.

It looks exactly like the seats
where Maetel and Tetsuro sat.

The author, Leiji Matsumoto, must have
used local lines like this
without a doubt.

In terms of age, is he about the same as my husband?
If so, I imagine he might just barely
have memories of steam locomotives
from the era before they were replaced by diesel.

I imagine that the design for the Galaxy Express 999
was surely born from those memories.

My husband says he remembers them, but
I have no memories of steam locomotives.
Is it because of our slight age gap?
By the time I was old enough to remember things, red diesel engines
were already pulling the passenger cars.

Round lights were installed on the ceiling of the passenger cars,
and when they were turned on at night, the interior was filled
with a warm, orange glow.

To be honest, it was dim,
but that, too, had its own charm.

The deck doors were manual.
You could open them normally even while the train was moving!

Since it was hot in the summer (no air conditioning),
believe it or not!!
The doors were left wide open!!

That would be absolutely unthinkable today.

Even so, no one ever fell out.

If things were like that today,
passengers glued to their smartphones
would be falling out in droves.

It was such a carefree era.

The residents of small country towns
all rely on this local line.

Going out for fun, shopping,
going to school, commuting, and going to the hospital—
if you're going anywhere, it's the Kishin Line.

The population is limited, so
when you ride every day, everyone's spot
sort of becomes fixed,
so you naturally get to know each other's faces.

If you went to the same school or got a job in the same area,
classmates would gather together to talk about recent events
and sometimes even discuss their romantic troubles.

The train clattered along through the rural landscape.

Inside those passenger cars, the memories and youth
of so many people were riding along, too.

I also commuted to high school on the Kishin Line.

There was only one girl who commuted with me.
I spent three years being rocked on the train with her, as she rode two stops further than I did.
We spent three years together, swaying on the train.

It was the end of autumn,
on the way home from a day when we stayed late
preparing for the school festival.

We waited a long time for the Kishin Line, which has few trains,
and boarded a train that was a little later than usual.

As we were chatting together,
a group of rough-looking young men
started bothering us.

Two high school girls in uniform.
With nowhere to run, we were in a bit of a bind.

The conductor appeared once
outside the connecting door,
but he seemed to get scared after seeing the situation,
turned around without opening the door,
and scurried away.

Hey, wait a minute! 💦

This was back in the days before mobile phones.
There was no way to call for help.

That was when it happened.

Clatter!!

The connecting door opened,
and two men entered.

One was young and wearing a dark suit,
but the pattern on his tie was extraordinary.

He clearly looked dangerous 💧

The other one had a definitively dangerous vibe.

A shaved head with an incredible razor-cut design.

Even though it was night, he wore purple-tinted gold-rimmed sunglasses, and a thick gold necklace shone against the chest of his wide-open bright red shirt.

The tips of his white shoes, as he walked with a bow-legged gait, were as sharp as the drill of Getter Robo-2!

The young men who had been harassing us froze in silence for a moment at the sight of this unusual pair.

Huh?!

The man with the shaved head looked at me and raised his voice.

Oh! Long time no see!

He took off his purple sunglasses and smiled broadly.

Oh! It's you, Uncle!

To my surprise!

The scary-looking, yakuza-style man was a childhood friend of my father's from the neighborhood. He was a funny guy who used to play with me a lot when I was little.

I had heard he left home young and was running a restaurant, but to run into him here after all these years!

Hey you guys, why don't you step aside?

When the man said that, the group that had been harassing us left in silence, as fast as a rabbit.

The man sat down heavily next to me, legs spread wide.

Huh, you go to that high school? That uniform is cute.

Thank you. I was in trouble because they were bothering me. You saved me!

"Huh? Is that so?"
"Man, if I'd known, I would've smacked you"
"for it!"

Saying that, the old guy
laughed heartily and pulled out a giant
alligator-skin wallet.

"It's not much, but take this,
and go get yourselves some parfaits."

With that, he held a 5,000 yen bill
between his fingers and waved it around.

"No, old man, that's not right."

"Why not?"

"Because my dad told me not to."

"What, you're so stiff. Your dad was
a troublemaker back in the day, too."

The old man looked disappointed, but
he put the bill away quite quickly.

"Well then, you two should come by
my cafe again. The Napolitan
is delicious, you know."

I promised him I'd definitely go, as he said that
with his gold tooth shining.

A few days later, my friend and I
went to visit the old man's shop.

It wasn't exactly the kind of entrance
a high school girl would walk into (lol),
but the old man was overjoyed and gave us a huge welcome,
treating us to a mountain of
delicious Napolitan, and even gave us
cream sodas on the house.

My father had previously said

about the old man:
"He's got a troublesome nature, always wanting to pick fights
with strong guys, but he's actually kindand gets lonely easily."

He was right,
that fits him perfectly.
That's what I felt.

Another summer evening.

I was sitting alone at a window seat,
reading a book.

We were waiting for a train coming from the opposite direction to pass,
so we wouldn't be departing for a while.

The side road running along the station
is the route to school for the nearby elementary school.

When the school bell rang,
a few local elementary school boys
came running over with cheers.

One boy was holding something long in his hand
and waving it around in circles.

Suddenly, the window behind my seat opened,
and a man shouted loudly.

Hey! You there, kid!!
Isn't that a snake's shed skin?!

If I recall, the person in the seat behind me was a salaryman speaking urban dialect
(meaning standard Japanese).
He was likely on a business trip from the Kanto region.

He seemed to find the snake's shed skin quite rare,
and kept calling out to the elementary schooler.

Hey kid! Could you show that to me?
Hey kid! Hey kid!!

However, the elementary schooler completely ignored him.

It's no wonder.

The elementary school boys around here

don't even think that the term

"kid"
is referring to them (lol).

The pair of salarymen
silently closed the window.

That's a shame, mister.

Around here, you can find snake skins
all over the place when it's in season.

I'd even tell you where the secret spots are, if you wanted. 😆

While I was thinking that,
the outbound train arrived,
and they passed each other safely.

The diesel engine began to roar loudly,
and the twilight scenery
began to drift by slowly.

From the disaster prevention speakers,
the melody of "Akatombo" (Red Dragonfly)
echoed through the mountains.

That beautiful countryside view from the train window
is still vivid in my heart even now.

The world is truly on a path toward ever-increasing speed.

We've grown accustomed to terms like "time performance,"
cutting out all waste, saving time, saving time,
and every day is dizzying.

That's why, every once in a while, I want to ride a single-track local line
like the Kishin Line,
and while gazing at the mountains and rivers, mindlessly
listen to the sound of the rails.

The scenery from the window has surely changed
since those days, but
I'll try to let my thoughts wander to my old school that has since closed,
and the friendship between my father and my uncle,
who now both reside on the other side.

Yes, that's right.

When the riverbed by that iron bridge
is dyed yellow with a carpet of canola flowers,

I'll take a little train journey.

Yes,
on a sunny day in the coming spring.

#ShirokumaLiteratureClub
#OnASunnyDay
#LetsTalkAboutOurHometown
#ILoveThisTown
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