Nanba West Sakuragawa Station Apartment

I came away with a really poor impression of the area. My Suica card showed a trip starting at a time when we weren’t even at a station, and the attendant immediately kept insisting that I hadn’t paid. He was extremely rude, loud, and unhelpful, and the whole thing was embarrassing. He repeatedly told me to scan the card again, as though that would fix the error. We couldn’t explain that the card had made a mistake, and he didn’t seem willing to listen. It felt like he’d already decided we were trying to cheat the train system. Why assume the worst instead of considering a misunderstanding?

A small station with no shops or food, but the station stamp is cute. It’s handy for getting to Namba, with both the subway and Hanshin line here. I couldn’t figure out where the elevators were, though, so getting through with luggage was definitely a challenge.

Nankai is clearly closer, and trains here are pretty sparse. I still use the Hanshin side more, so that’s the one I’ll describe. The station serves both the Hanshin Namba Line and Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line. Each has one island platform and two tracks, with the Hanshin station’s eastern end connecting to the Metro station’s western end. The Namba Line was first built using the siding at Kintetsu Namba Station. That meant another siding was needed on the Kintetsu side, and one was built west of this station. Now Kintetsu trains that aren’t in service run as far as this station’s west side. The operators also change here, which is why the onboard announcement voice changes. Honestly, Shiomibashi would have been a better name.

You can transfer between the two stations underground, so you’re mostly sheltered from the rain, and the connection to Nankai Railway’s Shiomibashi Station is good too. The Hanshin and Osaka Metro stations aren’t right beside each other, though: Hanshin Sakuragawa Station is west of the Shiomibashi intersection, while Osaka Metro Sakuragawa Station lies farther east, toward Namba. The Metro station opened on April 16, 1969 (Showa 44), as the terminus of Line 5, now the Sennichimae Line, when the Noda-Hanshin to Sakuragawa section opened. Hanshin Sakuragawa followed on March 20, 2009 (Heisei 21), when the Hanshin Namba Line was extended from Nishikujo Station to Osaka-Namba Station. Despite the distance between the two station namesakes, the underground passage means you hardly get wet on rainy days.