Musashi-Sakai Station

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Musashi-Sakai Station South Exit

Musashi-sakai Station (武蔵境駅 -eki) is located in Musashino City (武蔵野市), part of western Tokyo, 23 km (14 miles) west of Shinjuku. It is served by the JR East Chūō Line, and is also the northern terminus of the short Seibu Tamagawa Line. It is not a major transfer station, and only local trains on the Chūō Line stop at Musashi-sakai. However, historically it is quite important, opening as one of the original stations on the then Kobu Railway in 1889. Today, it is the nearest train station to International Christian University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan headquarters. Tama (formerly Tamabochimae), the second stop on the line, serves The American School in Japan, Nogawa Koen (a beautiful and spacious park), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and other institutions.

The area around Musashi-sakai has the standard commercial activity common to suburban Tokyo train stations, with a branches of the Ito Yokado department store, JR-owned Hotel Mets, and the Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, as well as a shopping street (商店街) with many restaurants and small shops on the north side. The station has the standard taxi rank and bus stops, servicing bus routes between there and Hibarigaoka Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line to the north and Chōfu Station on the Keiō Line to the south.

Currently, construction is underway to elevate the railway lines in order to alleviate congestion along the Chūō Line. Work is scheduled to continue until 2008. This has meant considerable change in the station layout over the past few years, with many temporary structures added including a shift of the Seibu Tamagawa line platform from within the JR station to a separate makeshift building. There have also been works to make the station wheelchair accessible, such as the installation of elevators.