A train bound for Futakotamagawa and a train bound for Oimachi were meeting at Kuhonbutsu Station

Oimachi Line stopping at Kuhonbutsu Station

Kuhonbutsu Station is famous for its short platform. That's right. Because the platform is shorter than the trains that stop there, there are some cars whose doors do not open. It is unexpected that there is a station where the doors do not open even though the train has stopped, and one feels as if one has been caught in a trap. How many people immediately understand this unexpectedness when they hear it, despite repeated warnings in the train announcements?

It is not easy for people to understand more than they imagine, even in their native language. I felt this way when I was traveling in Uzbekistan in Central Asia. I met a Japanese man who was traveling along the Silk Road by bicycle, and when I heard that there was an elderly group of travelers from Japan, we went to meet them. Finally, I was told, "Your Japanese is very good." I guess their belief that there was no way they would meet Japanese people in such a remote place prevented them from understanding. I thought that there was no way I would meet a Japanese-speaking person in a place so far away from Japan. It is not easy to understand when you are presented with something outside of your own self-created frame of reference.

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