Shinchi Station – Fukushima

After passing Sakamoto station, I left Miyagi Prefecture and continued into Fukushima prefecture, along the coast. Road 6 was blocked so I had to make this detour to reach one of the refugee centers I had planned to visit. This part of the coast had been the subject of intensive searching as one train complete with passengers had disappeared around this area and it wasn’t until waters receded a few days after the tsunami that a helicopter spotted the missing train, right near the mangled remains of Shinchi station. The military had just finished their search when I passed. It seems the train had stopped safely and all passengers had evacuated before the tsunami hit. Map coordinates for this station is 37.9284616667,140.9126416664.

There is something special about seeing a train destroyed. A train is a potent symbol of society, of the public, of you and me. I could have been on that train, I ride similar trains along similar coastlines almost daily. After seeing thousands of wrecked cars along the coast, this train made me speechless. I have used this train a few times over the years. Of the station itself, similar to Sakamoto station, nothing much remains. The stairs, concrete restrooms, one of the platforms, nothing else.


The twisted yellow metal and shard of concrete you can see jammed under the train is actually the complete remains of the station building. The tsunami smashed the train into the building and wrapped it around the ruins until this is what remained.