In Japanese, the word for a level crossing or grade crossing is 踏切, fumikiri ふみきり, which can also be interpreted as “railroad crossing”. Here’s the sound of a fumikiri warning bell:
Here are a few of my favorites:
(1) The old crossing by Shimo-kitazawa Station 下北沢
The trains now run underground, so this lively crossing is a thing of the past.

(2) Backstreets of Toshima-ku (map)
Waiting for the Seibu-Ikebukuro line to pass.






(3) Numabukuro 沼袋

(4) Shinsen station 神泉駅 (map)
Fumikiri next to the Inokashira Line tunnel, which leads to Shibuya Station.

(5) Chitose-karasuyama Station 千歳烏山駅, Setagaya-ku (map)
A classic street-level train crossing in a classic residential neighborhood on the Keio Line. Chitose-karasuyama is the site of a former danchi that remained vacant for several years, which I wrote about in Ghosts of Showa: the Karasuyama apartment complex, gated communities, & the fight for Tokyo’s soul.
(6) Nerima-ku, between Musashi-Seki station 武蔵関駅 and Higashifushimi station 東伏見駅 on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line (map)

Naturally, these crossings can be dangerous if you’re not careful…or if you decide to throw yourself in from of a train. In fact, just weeks after I remarked on a cute pedestrian crossing (map) near Hatagaya Station 幡ケ谷駅, my friend told me that a woman threw herself in front of a Keio New Line 京王新線 train at that very spot.
(7) Fumikiri Jikan 「踏切時間」
Fumikiri Jikan (“Railroad Crossing Time”) is a manga structured around schoolgirls talking while they wait for trains to pass? That’s so Japan.


See also:
Scene from the Ozu classic, An Autumn Afternoon (1962) 秋刀魚の味:

Train crossing near Tokyo Sky Tree:
Train crossing at night:
Links:
- I was waiting for a train in Tokyo
- Scenery with railroad crossing 踏切のある風景
- Fumikiri Jikan 踏切時間 “Railroad Crossing Time” – an anime and manga structured around waiting at train crossings
See also:
Blue lights, often used on train platforms to discourage suicide, are also used at fumikiri train crossings:
[…] Fumikiri 踏切: Japanese railroad crossings […]
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[…] I mentioned train crossings. There are plenty of those, trust me. There’s even a specific word for these: fumikiri 踏切: […]
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Did you found unusual train cross in that fumikiri mention above ?
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[…] (seen here before the fumikiri was […]
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