Takii Station

When we were each assigned a train station to visit on the Keihan line, I didn't have a preference as to what station to venture.  I did however know that I wanted to explore an area that I hadn't been to yet, so I kind of just closed my eyes and picked a random station.  The random station that I chose was Takii Station, located in the city of Moriguchi in Osaka prefecture.  I liked the name of it because it was short and simple to pronounce.  And also as simple of a straight shot it was suppost to be to get to this station with no transfers, I still managed to get lost.  I got on a limited express cart which did not stop at my station and took me beyond where I needed to be.  I always seem to make things more complicated for myself!  I realized that I needed to be on a local train which stops at every station so I went back the other way and did it right the next time around.  When I first stepped off at Takii station I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere.  There was no one around me and the station was so small.

There was actually one man sitting and waiting on the side of my tracks who looked foreign and I wanted to understand why he was at this what seemed to be 'ghost station.'  With some awkward eye contact I think he thought the same thing.  I said hello and after he replied with a hello in English I felt comfortable talking to him about my study of the station and asked him what brought him to Takii.  He said that he was shopping at Sembayashi Shotengai, which is a popular shopping street next door located right outside of the Sembayashi train station.  He went shopping to kill time before he met up with a friend for dinner at a ramen restaurant right outside of Takii Station.  When I got out of the train station to do some exploring on my own I was a little scared.  The neighborhood didn't feel safe and there was graffiti drawn all around the station.  There was nothing around except for a few restaurants and I could see that Sembayashi was right down the street.

Being an artsy person though, I really liked the graffiti and thought that it added character to the small city.  Japan has the reputation of being a very clean country so it was interesting for me to see that this neighborhood did not really fit the mold.