It takes about 90 minutes to get there from Tokyo station. You can see a distinctive station building there. It looks as if it's made of bricks, and similar to Tokyo station. What's that?
The answer is Fukaya station on the JR East Takasaki line. Fukaya is a medium-sized city in Saitama Prefecture, about 80 kilometers northwest of Tokyo. The population is about 130,000, and famous as an area producing Fukaya leeks. The current station building was completed in 1996 imitating Tokyo station. It's because Tokyo station is made of bricks, which were produced in Fukaya City. Actually, Fukaya station is a steel-frame building, and its concrete walls are ornamented by brick-like tiles. Exactly, they're not real bricks. It's because JR East was afraid of a fall of bricks onto the tracks. When I visited Fukaya station, there were many people around the station. They were admiring both the beautiful station building and cherry trees in full bloom. It served a double purpose for them. I was also one of them.
To get to Fukaya station, my vehicle was the EMU E233-3000 series with Shonan-colored (orange and green-colored) bodies. It's one of the direct current trains on the JR East lines, and widely operated in the Tokyo metropolitan area. It was commissioned in 2008 to replace the old models such as the 211 series. A total of 525 cars were built by Tokyu Sharyo (present J-TREC), Kawasaki Heavy Industries and JR East Niitsu Factory from 2008 to 2017.
