Bus shelter gallery machiaijo. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Togatta Onsen Bus Stop services three bus routes. The Togatta Line operated by Miyako Bus Company, which runs between Miyagi Zao Royal Hotel in Togatta and the Shiroishi Zao Shinkansen train station in Shiroishi, stopping at 38 stops in between; the Okawahara Line, also operated by Miyako Bus Company, runs between Miyagi Royal Hotel and Okawahara Station and stops at 41 stops in between; and the Sendai-Zao Line operated by Miyagi Kotsu Company, which runs between Miyagi Royal Hotel and Sendai, and stops at 9 stops in between. There is a poem by Sendai born poet Miura Mai on the wall of machiaijo, a gallery by the Togatta Onsen Yu-no- Machi Bus Stop on the northern side of the street. This is where buses leave Togatta to go to out to the wider world. Machiaijo means waiting room, and this gallery looks like a bus shelter.

Poem at the bus stop gallery machiaijo by Miura Mai. Photo by Mayu Kanamori*

幾千の

歴史見届けし (ドラマ見届けし)

Bus Room(バスルーム)

  • 佐藤京子

 

Thousands of dramas

History now overseen

Bus Room

  • Satoh Kyoko (trans Mayu)

 

***

 

The Togatta Bus Stop

 

You can take a bus

to the mountains or the sea

or you can go west

to Aoso-san and meet

Dogu on Matsukawa

 

They will tell you this:

sit always with a straight back

yet bend with the wind

the mountains will watch over you

the river flows to the sea

 

  • Martin Edmond

 

 

遠刈田のバス停

 

バスに乗って

山や海へ行くことも

西の青曽山まで行って

松川で土偶と

出会うこともある

 

彼らは教えてくれる:

背筋を伸ばして座れ

風に吹かれて曲がれ

山が見守ってくれる

川は海へと流れる

 

  • マーティン・エドモンド (訳・マユ)