グリーンライン

Overview

The Green Line (G) is the Yokohama Municipal Subway's second line: 10 stations over 13.0 km, from Nakayama in Midori ward to Hiyoshi in Kohoku ward, curving across the north of the city through Kohoku New Town. It is a linear-motor mini-subway like Toei's Oedo Line, with smaller cars and tunnels than the Blue Line, and it was the first linear-motor subway in Japan to carry passengers above ground, on about 2.4 km of open track. It meets the JR Yokohama Line at Nakayama, the Blue Line at the two Center stations and the Tokyu lines at Hiyoshi.

It opened on 30 March 2008. Legally it is Yokohama Municipal Rapid Railway Line 4, one part of a planned ring railway round the city (横浜環状鉄道); extensions from Hiyoshi to Tsurumi and from Nakayama towards Futamata-gawa have been studied, but the city counts them as long-term plans. The name was chosen from public suggestions in June 2006, together with "Blue Line" for Lines 1 and 3, and this line is green for the hills it runs through. The most popular suggestion was なかよし線, "the friendship line", made from NAKAyama and hiYOSHI. It reached the final three and lost.

Along the route

From Nakayama the line climbs at 58 per mille, its steepest gradient, and crosses the Tsurumi River on a truss bridge built on the slope. One end is about four metres higher than the other, so the whole bridge looks tilted. Kawawacho stands on a viaduct among fields, beside the line's depot.

Tsuzuki-fureainooka, at the southern edge of Kohoku New Town, was planned as Kuzugaya, after the local district. But the station straddles two districts, and residents already called the area ふれあいの丘, "the hill of meeting", so that became the name, with the ward, Tsuzuki, in front.

Center Minami and Center Kita are the Blue Line's stations, named for the south and north halves of the new town's centre, and between them the two lines run side by side on separate tracks. Kita-yamata and Higashi-yamata are named after the districts around them, both of which read 山田 as やまた. Takata was going to be Takata-cho until the site's address changed to Takata-higashi in 1998. Squeezed under a main road that already carried trunk sewers, it stacks its two single-track platforms on the third and fourth basement levels, which makes it the deepest station on the line.

Hiyoshi-honcho is a quiet residential stop, so often mistaken for the terminus that staff have to warn passengers. At Hiyoshi the Green Line platform lies at right angles to the Tokyu station, and half of it runs beneath the ginkgo avenue of Keio University's Hiyoshi campus.

Why play it

Ten stations take 108 keystrokes, and many of the names aren't read the way they look. Three in a row refuse a voiced consonant. 北山田 is きたやまた and 東山田 is ひがしやまた, not the やまだ of the common surname, and 高田 is たかた, not the たかだ of the Yamanote Line's 高田馬場. Type yamada or takada and the d is rejected. Kanji mode judges only the characters you commit, though, so if your IME only knows 山田 as やまだ, typing that reading costs nothing.

都筑ふれあいの丘 is the line's longest name at 18 keystrokes. The hint spells つづき tsuduki, as an IME wants it, but tsuzuki, the spelling on the sign, is accepted too, and the name ends on the double o of nooka. In Kanji mode the ward is 都筑, not 都築, the commoner spelling of the surname and one an IME may offer first, and ふれあい and の stay in hiragana.

センター南 and センター北 are the English word "Center" written in katakana, but you type the kana, not the English: senta-minami, with the long vowel mark typed as a hyphen. The English signs drop long vowels elsewhere too: Kawawacho and Hiyoshi-honcho are typed kawawachou and hiyoshihonchou. And at the Hiyoshi end comes one last trap: hiyoshihonchou, then plain hiyoshi, the very pair that staff warn passengers about.