Think of train stations in Japan and the mighty Shinjuku station is sure to come to mind for many people. That is the world’s busiest train station, and Japan monopolises the top 50 list with only five of them not in this country. However, at the other end of the scale are some tiny stations which are usually unstaffed and used by very few commuters.

Station: Inazusa

Prefecture: Shizuoka

Line(s): Izukyūkō Line

Average No. of Daily Passengers: 25

This station may not be as small in size as the last one in this series (nearly three years ago now!!) but the number of passengers using it every day is significantly lower. Naturally, I was the only person to disembark at the one island platform of Inazusa on the day I went there which was not actually such a surprise as I was pretty much the only one on the whole train!

The Izu Kyūkō Line runs up and down the east coast of the Izu-Hantō Peninsula between Itō and Izukyu-Shimoda stations. It is a line I’ve been up and down numerous times over the years but I had never even noticed the name Inazusa when passing through en-route to the most southerly station.

Inazusa Station in Shimoda (Shizuoka Prefecture) has been open since December 1961, and is located 40.7 kilometres from the official starting point of the line at Itō. Thanks Wikipedia! After alighting from the train one has to walk down to the end of the platform where steps descend to the track which needs to be crossed to get to the small station building.

My arrival at Inazusa may have just been on regular train but I left on the more luxurious Kuro Fune (black ship) train which is Commodore Perry-themed train operating between Atami and Izukyu-Shimoda stations. There are a few other unstaffed stations on the Izu Kyūkō Line so I will probably stop off at them in the future when I’m passing through.

Click here to read ‘Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #1 – Kamiyagi’

Click here to read ‘Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #2 – Funamachi’