52 Fujis - Fujine

It’s been raining for two weeks straight. There was a brief respite on Monday, but as I was stuck indoors working, I saw little of it. Today, the sun seemed to be on the verge of his big comeback tour; although, he was in and out of the clouds so much, it was clear he’d forgotten his dance steps. Still, it was dry at long last, so I thought I’d get back on track with another Fuji.

I expected Fujine to be dull. My train to work passes through here every day, and all I’ve ever seen are factories. Factories and a temple. Fujine is the last stop on the Minobu line that’s still in Fuji city - 7km from the city centre, and 3km from Fujinomiya; there is very little else of note to be said about it.

It’s a weird little place, with odd little things popping up here and there, as though a team of deranged design pixies came here one night and had a crack at beautifying the place, before giving up and disappearing. A train shaped public toilet adorns the park near the station, herds of animals run amok on the wall enclosing the bike sheds, there’s an aquarium themed underpass, and some anthropomorphic vegetables advertize a local family store.

All this hard work hasn’t really paid off. Fujine can’t seem to crawl out of the niche that’s been carved out for it: its a storage cupboard. I kid you not.

People keep their trains here -

and (presumably the same) people keep their train tracks here -

The construction company building the new expressway keep their building blocks here -

And some people keep imaginatively decorated vehicles here -

(The seat cover suggested we “Respect The 70’s!” Something I’ll endeavour to do from here on in.)

Fujis remaining : 49

(More photos in the Gallery: Link.)

Don’t know what the 52 Fujis is about? Check this out.

Saturday, May 20th, 2006 52 Fujis, Japan Trackback URL for this entry