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.

Click this link for more info.

Name in kanji : 武蔵新城
Kanji meaning: new castle
Station opened : August 11th 1927
Trainlines: JR Nambu
# Passengers daily : 31,000
Distance from CityHillsAndSea HQ: 47 km
Located in: Nakahara ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa

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Things to Do

If you head south from the station, past Shinjo Park (which has some cherry blossoms but not much else) then you’ll happen across the 江川せせらぎ遊歩道/ Egawa-seseragi-yuuhodou, which roughly translates into Egawa (or E river) small stream promenade. It’s a pretty long path running along a small stream (surprise surprise) and makes for a pleasant walk.

There’s a covered shopping arcade, those are always kind of fun. Shinjo’s is called Aimoru Arco and you can take a Google Streetview tour of it by clicking here, and learn more about it at the homepage here. (Japanese only, I’m afraid.)

And um, erm… that’s all?

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All About Musashi Shinjo Station

This is the third Musashi station on the Nambu line, following on from last week’s entry, Musashi-Nakahara. Shinjo is, sadly, the least interesting of them all.

There are plenty of shops to busy yourself in and the station building has a kind of funky retro vibe :

… but there’s nothing really to suggest that this place would ever be in need of a tourist office. Or a tour guide.

I must have missed something – I’ve no idea why the area is called ‘new castle’ because I certainly can’t see any evidence of any such fortifications nearby. I had a hunt for any explanation but came up empty.

If anybody out there has any juicy chunks of information on a secret castle nearby, do let me know.

UPDATE

The amazing Hiroshi of KHKQ Beside Trains has this information regarding the name:

武蔵新城’s 城 is not “castle” but a variant of “庄”. It stemmed from 庄園, which means a manor, and there was actually such a place near the station in the 13th century. It is believed that the character 庄 was later substituted by 城, which has the same pronunciation.

as posted on TWITTER

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Station Rating

It’s a busy little place, plenty of shops for your errands & lots of eateries… but not a whole heap else.

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Musashi Shinjo Station Gallery

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