Musashi-Sakai Station (RotW)

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RotW is my Railways of the Warrior project. Visiting all the Japanese train stations with Fuji in the name & the 12 castles with the original keep still standing wasn’t enough to satisfy my love of lists, so now I’m working through all the stations with Musashi in their name.

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Things to Do

There’s a nice temple – Kanonin – a stone’s throw from the south exit.

If you still feel spiritual after that, then Kizuki shrine is about five minutes walk from the station & features a mini Mount Fuji.

Down the road from there you can find some orchards, which is cool to see in the city (you can see some on Google Street View here).

The Musashino Municipal Museum is a fair walk from the station – I didn’t make it out there, so I can’t tell you if it’s worth the trip personally… but it’s something to consider should you be in the area.

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All About Musashi-Sakai Station

Musashi-Sakai is a double Musashi – both Seibu & JR operate lines out of this station.

It’s not terribly exciting as Musashis go but it doesn’t seem like a bad place to live.

Outside the station you have your usual big box stores that seem to be going out of their way to turn every town into a homogenous hodge podge of ABC Mart, Uniqlo, Starbucks & Muji. (Nothing against those stores, by and large; it’s just that the increasingly bland sameness of everywhere is mildly depressing. )

If you have a little wander though, you can find some points of interest. For example, the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University is based here. One of their buildings is unusual architecture to see in Japan :

Unfortunately, that’s as close as I could get as it’s being renovated. At least, I hope that it is – I’d hate to find out it’s being demolished.

Not far from NVLU is Kizuki shrine which has a miniature Fuji within its grounds. This is a tiny little rock mound that you walk up, bow deeply to the kami-sama who lives inside the shrine at the top, and then your pilgrimage to Mount Fuji will go swimmingly. You may want to donate some sake, as some previous worshippers have done, just to be 100% safe:

For the spiritually inclined, there’s also a Buddhist temple – Kanonin – near the station, but, owing to technical difficulties, we are unable to offer you any photographs of this temple at this time. I can point you in the direction of this Musashino City sightseeing website, however, where you can find some information & some nice pictures.

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Station Rating

Musashi-Sakai seems like a pleasant enough place to live but it’s not much of a tourist destination. Probably better to continue down to Kichijoji & check out Inokashira Park which is also home to the Ghibli Museum.

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Musashi-Sakai Station Gallery

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