Hamanako-Sakume Station

photo by Bakkai at Japanese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

In winter the gulls on the platform outnumber the passengers: ‘the station where they dance’.

When winter comes, dozens of black-headed gulls (ユリカモメ, yurikamome) settle on the platform and fly low beside the waiting passengers. Local volunteers feed them to coincide with the arrival of trains, around 10:00 and 14:00, and at those times the birds outnumber the people. Visitors wear a hat, because of the droppings.

The station opened in 1938 as part of the old Futamata railway, now the Tenryū Hamanako Railway: it is an unstaffed station on the shore of Lake Hamana. The Mikkabi tourist association nicknames it ‘the station where the gulls dance’ (ゆりかもめ舞う駅) after the black-headed gulls (ユリカモメ), winter migrants that gather there when it is cold.

ℹ️ The station is always accessible, with no staff and no admission ticket for the site: you only pay for your train ticket. Car park for about ten cars. By car, about 6 minutes from the Mikkabi-chō interchange on the Tōmei.

🚉 Hamanako-Sakume · in front of the station

Sources: mikkabi-tourism.com · ja.wikipedia.org · dailyportalz.jp · commons.wikimedia.org

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