I travel to a few of the local train stations to teach at different GEOS schools: Iya Nyugawa, Iya Saijo, Iya Awaii. They are, respectively, 30 and 50 km southeast of Imabari, and in the case of Awaii, 35km. west.
Iya means ‘stop’, ‘place’ or ‘village’ and was the Edo and earlier name of Ehime itself. So Iya Saijo means Saijo village, and Saijo, Ehime at the same time…I think. Shikoku means 4 (Shi) areas (ko): it consists of four provinces, Ehime, Kagawa, Tokushima, and Kochi. They used to be called Iya, Sanuki, Awa, and Tosa respectively. So the Iya thing is very traditional.
The town around Nyugawa is actually called Toyo. The town around Awaii is actually called Natsume. Saijo, as well as containing a great number of o-terra (Buddhist temples), not to mention jinja (Shinto shrines), is the home of Asahi beer, perhaps because of the purity of the springwater there.
Anyway, pretty much every Wednesday I find myself standing on the #2 platform of Saijo station, waiting for the 8:32 or 9:32 Shio Kaze (Sea Breeze), the semi-express train that will take me home. I like to stand under the pedestrian overpass and look at the way it’s built. I also get a good view of the train station, which is a modernist structure from perhaps the mid-late fifties. Saijo is a node where trains from the east end of the island and those from the west stop and begin their return runs. It has 3 or 4 extra layover tracks, and I often see conductors disembarking for layovers here.
I have figured out where the guestrooms are (I think there are maybe ten rooms), where the o-furo (bath) room is (condensation) and so on. But for me, the really interesting structure at this station is this overpass allowing pedestrian access to tracks 2 and 3 from the station proper. It’s built with old railway track, welded and bolted together, and thick wooden planking. I think it’s really cool.
This is the interior, all watched over lovingly by 'Meitante Conan' (the anime boy on the poster).
My best web research indicates that the Shikoku railway line was begun in the mid 1880’s, but probably was not extended west as far as Saijo until perhaps the 1920s or so. During the second world war some towns were damaged by bombing (the downtown of Imabari was flattened) and Saijo may have been bombed as well, as a shipbuilding port. So this structure probably dates from the rebuilding just after that war, though it may date back to the twenties, or even the turn of the twentieth century.
Up on the mountain to the south one can see a buddhist temple all lit up; I haven’t figured out its name yet.
The overpass at Toyo station, 17km. closer to Imabari, is similar, though with a lower 'Blade Runner' quotient.
An acquaintance tells me that the station at Sakurai, now a southern part of Imabari, was built in 1921. So the railway was extended to Imabari at that time. The exterior of Iyo Sakurai remains essentially the same as when it was built. It’s the prettiest station I’ve seen on the line.
