Wait for the train at the Slam Dunk crossing in Kamakura
A place: Japan
What you remember afterwards isn't the train, small and green, already leaving, but the waiting: the barrier bell, the specific hush of thirty strangers holding phones still — and behind it all, the sea doing nothing dramatic. Kamakura-Koukou-mae station sits on the Enoden line, an easy rattling ride from Kamakura itself, and you don't need a ticket to stand at the crossing, only to leave on the train. The gap in traffic matters more than the train's timing. Twice a bus ruined it. The third time, nothing moved, and the shot was just an empty road, a train, and everyone's shoulders relaxing.
Practical
- Cost
- Free; ~$1–2 Enoden fare if riding
- Best time
- Any season; clearest skies October–March, avoid the June rainy season
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time it takes
- 20–40 minutes waiting for a clear shot
- What people get wrong
- People assume they need a ticket just to stand at the crossing, when that's only required to ride the Enoden line itself. Most bad photos come from timing the train but not the traffic, or forgetting it's a working level crossing with real cars and a barrier that comes down fast.
- With
- Alone