Utsunomiya Station — Local services in Utsunomiya

Last visit in October 2020

A pretty much standard medium-sized city main station that is served by Shinkansen. It's located at the eastern edge of the downtown, a legacy of rail infrastructure construction in Japan in late 19th and early 20th century where stations tend to be build outside the city center or at some distance from local seat of power due to cheaper cost. Gradually the downtown expanded, but in the case of Utsunomiya it didn't grow as much as in larger major cities.

Nevertheless, it has the standard amenities of relatively large stations, such as accommodation, department stores, F&B (note that gyoza stores in or near the station tend to be not as good as the one in commercial district), bus terminal etc. Note that it's pretty isolated to other rail operators other than JR, for example, the Tobu station is located some hundred meters away right at the heart of the city, with only some buses connecting the two stations.

Recently a tramway was opened that runs to the east of the city, but having the last visit in 2020, I haven't got a...

The main transportation hub of the area.

JR Utsunomiya is standard medium-sized city main station that is served by Shinkansen, local metro as well as LRT tram. It's located at the eastern edge of the downtown, a legacy of rail infrastructure construction in Japan in late 19th and early 20th century where stations tend to be build outside the city center or at some distance from local seat of power due to cheaper cost. Gradually the downtown expanded, but in the case of Utsunomiya it didn't grow as much as in larger major cities like Tokyo.

This station is only operated for JR line and it is isolated to other rail operators for example, the Tobu station is located some hundred meters away right at the heart of the city, with only some buses connecting the two stations. Station is connected with shopping mall like Tonarie. You will find good hotel staying options nearby station.

Station staff are knowledgeable and cooperative, the station is quite spacious, and you're minutes away from a dumpling/ gyoza 🥟 shop which is what Utsunomiya is...

The station has everything you need. However, the coin lockers were SUPER INEFFICIENT, and brings the star rating down, due to only having one panel for payment and selection of lockers. This is further exacerbated by not having a cash payment option. We had to wait in line for people before us to complete their storage, so only one person could use the lockers at a time. We also watched an older lady walk away with her stuff as there was no cash option. Furthermore, the retrieval process is a pain in the a$$. BIG THUMBS DOWN! This could be improved by either having some actual cash coin lockers available, or each locker having their own payment panel and print a qr code retrieval receipt instead of a 15 digit retrieval number that has to be...