Friday, June 7, 2013

THE NEXT TIME YOU'RE IN KYOTO, JAPAN

Emperor Meiji ruled Japan from February 3, 1867 to July 30, 1912.  Among his greatest accomplishments was Kyōto Station as the major train station hub for Kyoto, Japan.  There was already a railroad leading towards Kyoto starting in September 5, 1876, but there was no train station to go along with it.  The Ōmiya-dōri (Ōmiya Street) Temporary Station was the temporary train station for Kyoto while the Kyōto Station was under construction.  And after a full year of construction, the Kyōto Station was completed and opened on February 5, 1877.
When Japanese Emperor Meiji died, his son and successor Emperor Taishō (He ruled Japan from  July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926) decided that the Kyōto Station wasn't good enough to satisfy him.  So he ordered the Kyōto Station torn down and replaced by a brand new train station for the city of Kyoto.  And so the Kyōto Station was torn down as ordered by Emperor Taishō .  A brand new Kyōto Station was built as a replacement on 1914.
And when Emperor Taishō died, he was replaced by his son Emperor Shōwa aka Emperor Hirohito---An Oriental born member of the Nazi Party.  And when Emperor Shōwa aka Emperor Hirohito joined forces with German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini against the United States of America, England and France during World War II, he used the Kyōto Station for public demonstration of invincible strength.  And when Japanese Empire of the Rising Sun troops departed the Kyōto Station for battle, disaster struck.  Seventy-seven people were crush to death as the Kyōto Station collapsed on January 8, 1934.  The final nail to the coffin was in 1950 when the Kyōto Station burned to the ground. The third and current version of the Kyōto Station was built and opened for business in 1952.
The fourth and current Kyōto Station is the second largest train station in Japan.  The Nagoya Station in Nagoya, Japan is the largest train station in Japan.  The fourth and current Kyōto Station was opened in 1997.  Not only does it function as a train station, it also has a shopping mall in the basement and also houses a post office, New Miyako Hotel and Hotel Keihan Kyoto.

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