ブルーライン

Overview

The Blue Line (B) is the Yokohama Municipal Subway's main line: 32 stations over 40.4 km, from Shonandai in Fujisawa to Azamino in Aoba Ward. On paper it is still two lines — Line 1 from Kannai to Shonandai and Line 3 from Kannai to Azamino — but trains have run straight through Kannai since 1976, and the pair only got one name when a second line arrived. "Blue Line", picked from public suggestions, went into use on 30 March 2008, the day the Green Line opened.

It was built a section at a time. The first six stations, Isezaki-chojamachi to Kamiooka, opened on 16 December 1972, months late after floods twice swamped the works. The line reached Yokohama and Kaminagaya in 1976, Shin-yokohama and Maioka in 1985, Totsuka in 1987, Azamino in 1993 and Shonandai in 1999. The result is one of the longest subway lines in Japan, and an unusual one: it runs on standard gauge with a third rail, and no other railway's trains run onto it. A rapid service added in July 2015 passes a number of stations between Totsuka and Nippa.

Along the route

Shonandai, shared with the Odakyu Enoshima and Sotetsu Izumino lines, is the only station outside Yokohama. The line heads east through Shimoiida, Tateba, Nakada and Odoriba — a name said to come from a local legend of dancing cats — to Totsuka and the JR Tokaido and Yokosuka lines, comes up into the open beside the depot at Kaminagaya, and dives again to Kamiooka, the transfer to the Keikyu Main Line.

There it turns north. Gumyoji is named, by way of an old streetcar stop, after the temple regarded as Yokohama's oldest — but the temple stands by Keikyu's Gumyoji, a separate station about 500 m away and not a transfer in the game. Maita, Yoshinocho and Bandobashi lead to Isezaki-chojamachi, a name that joins two neighbourhoods, and then come Kannai, Sakuragicho, Takashimacho and Yokohama.

North of Yokohama the line swings west through the two Mitsuzawa stations, following the old streetcar route rather than a straighter line under private land, and passes Katakuracho and Kishine-koen to Shin-yokohama, the Tokaido Shinkansen stop. The next station opened in 1993 as 新横浜北 and was renamed Kita-shin-yokohama in 1999 because passengers kept mistaking it for Shin-yokohama. Beyond it the line runs largely above ground through Kohoku New Town — Nippa with the second depot, Nakamachidai, Center Minami and Center Kita, where the Green Line crosses, and Nakagawa — to Azamino on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line.

Why play it

Thirty-two stations make this a long run, and its readings often refuse to do what the kanji suggest. 中田 is なかだ, not なかた — the local reading, settled on before the station opened. 立場 is たてば, 蒔田 is まいた, 新羽 is にっぱ, and both 永谷 stations are ながや. 弘明寺 is ぐみょうじ, and 上大岡 is かみおおおか, three o's in a row: kamioooka. The line cannot decide how to read 町, either: 吉野町, 桜木町, 高島町, 片倉町 and the two 三ツ沢 stations take ちょう, while 伊勢佐木長者町 and 仲町台 take まち. The 町 names are also the heaviest here — 伊勢佐木長者町 and 三ツ沢下町 are 18 keystrokes each, against five for 蒔田 and 新羽.

Other traps sit in ん and the long bar. 関内 is kannnai, because ん before な takes a doubled n; 新横浜 is shinnyokohama for the same reason, and 北新横浜 follows straight after, the very pair that got the station renamed. センター南 and センター北 are katakana, so the ー is a keystroke of its own: senta-minami needs the hyphen key. And in Kanji mode, 三ツ沢 takes a full-size ツ. The bureau's own pages print it both as ツ and as a small ッ, and only ツ matches here.