東豊線 (Toho Line) · Line introduction

Overview

The Toho Line (H) is the youngest of Sapporo's three and the last new railway line in Japan to open in the Showa era — 2 December 1988, with just over a month of the era left to run. Its 14 stations cover 13.6 km from Sakaemachi, the northernmost subway station in Japan, southeast to Fukuzumi, which it reached in 1994. It exists because Higashi-ku had the population but only buses, and because the Namboku Line was by then running at peak loads over 200%. It was also mocked in its day as a 政治路線 — a line drawn by politics rather than by demand — and its early ridership came in well below forecast. It still carries the fewest passengers of the three, though the trend has been upward.

Along the route

Sakaemachi, Shindo higashi, Motomachi and Kanjo dori higashi work down through Higashi-ku; Higashi kuyakusho mae is ten minutes' walk from the Sapporo Beer Garden and its museum. After Kita jusanjo higashi the line reaches Sapporo and then Odori, the two downtown hubs it shares with the Namboku Line — though the transfer at Sapporo is made outside the gates, so which of the four possible changes you can actually make there depends on which way you happen to be going. South of Odori come Hosui Susukino on the eastern edge of the entertainment district, Gakuen mae, where the university is wired straight into the station entrance, then Toyohira koen, Misono, Tsukisamu chuo and Fukuzumi, the station for the Sapporo Dome, which gets extra trains laid on when there is a Consadole match or a concert.

Why play it

This is the line where ひがし piles up. Shindo higashi, Kanjo dori higashi, Higashi kuyakusho mae and Kita jusanjo higashi all carry it — three of them at the end, one at the front — and by the fourth one your fingers will be reaching for higashi whether the name wants it or not. The other snag is Hosui Susukino, ほうすいすすきの, which is not the Namboku Line's Susukino a block away but a separate station with a separate name. If you have already run the Namboku Line, everything you learned about すすきの now arrives four morae late.

Line data

Everything below is derived from the station data the game runs on, so it always matches what you actually type on the 東豊線 — all 14 stops of it.

Operator: Sapporo Municipal Subway
Line symbol: H
Stations: 14
Shape: Terminal to terminal
Termini: 栄町 — 福住

How much typing is this?

Typing every station name on this line takes 170 keystrokes, an average of 12.1 per station. The longest name is 北13条東 (kita-jusan-jo-higashi) at 20 keystrokes; the shortest is 美園 (misono) at 6. Those counts come from running each name's kana through the game's own romaji engine, so they are what your fingers actually do — not the length of the printed spelling.

Along the way: 1 names contain a small っ, which doubles the next consonant; 4 contain a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ, where the engine accepts both the Hepburn and Kunrei spellings (sha or sya, shu or syu); and 1 end in ん, whose trailing n folds into whatever comes next rather than standing alone.

Where you can change trains

2 of the 14 stations on this line connect to another line in the game. Follow any symbol to that line's guide.

さっぽろN 南北線
大通N 南北線 T 東西線

Every station on the line

All 14 stations in order, with the official station number, the name in kanji, the kana the typing is derived from, and its Hepburn romaji.

#	No.	Station	Kana	Romaji
1	H01	栄町	さかえまち	sakaemachi
2	H02	新道東	しんどうひがし	shindo-higashi
3	H03	元町	もとまち	motomachi
4	H04	環状通東	かんじょうどおりひがし	kanjo-dori-higashi
5	H05	東区役所前	ひがしくやくしょまえ	higashi-kuyakusho-mae
6	H06	北13条東	きたじゅうさんじょうひがし	kita-jusan-jo-higashi
7	H07	さっぽろ	さっぽろ	sapporo
8	H08	大通	おおどおり	odori
9	H09	豊水すすきの	ほうすいすすきの	hosui-susukino
10	H10	学園前	がくえんまえ	gakuen-mae
11	H11	豊平公園	とよひらこうえん	toyohira-koen
12	H12	美園	みその	misono
13	H13	月寒中央	つきさむちゅうおう	tsukisamu-chuo
14	H14	福住	ふくずみ	fukuzumi