The Kusatsu Onsen Bus Terminal, a popular gateway to Kusatsu Onsen in Gunma Prefecture, held its final day of ticket sales at the counter on March 31st.
The Kusatsu Onsen Bus Terminal is located in Kusatsu Town. In addition to serving Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi Station on the JR Agatsuma Line, buses heading to the Tokyo metropolitan area and Nagano Prefecture also pass through the terminal, and it is also known by its original name from when it opened approximately 60 years ago, “Kusatsu Onsen Station.” The ticket counter is equipped with the same terminals as JR’s “Midori no Madoguchi” (Green Window), and currently, it is the only bus terminal where you can purchase JR train tickets from all over Japan.
However, due to the spread of online reservations and cashless payments, ticket sales at the counter ended on March 31st. Even on the final day, tourists continued to buy tickets one after another. A tourist said, “I was thinking of going to Ueno. It’s convenient to be able to get everything done at once (by train and bus). This was my first time using it, and it was helpful. I wonder if it’s better to keep it as it is, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
As the ticket is printed with “Kusatsu Onsen Station,” some railway enthusiasts were seen buying tickets between Kusatsu Station and Minami-Kusatsu Station in Shiga Prefecture as a final memento.
A railway enthusiast from Kansai said, “I saw that (this ticket) was popular on the internet, and since I’m from Kansai, I wanted to try it. I guess it can’t be helped for the sake of efficiency, but I think there are people who want this kind of ticket, so I sincerely hope that (the ticket counter) will remain.” The staff at the ticket counter also had special feelings. Akira Horie, 66 years old, has been in charge of sales for 48 years.
Akira Horie (66), Kusatsu Onsen Bus Terminal: “It’s the way of the times, I suppose, that we’re in the age of ticketless travel, so these kinds of analog things inevitably struggle to grow, which is really sad. I loved this world too, and I think it was my love for it that kept me going this far. I’ve always done this with the feeling that I wanted customers to have a pleasant experience returning from Kusatsu, so I hope I can achieve that until the very end.”
Ticket counter sales will end at 5:30 p.m. on March 31st, and from April 1st, only bus tickets will be sold at automatic ticket machines.
