Ishibashi Station (Osaka)

Ishibashi Station (Osaka)

Ishibashi Station (石橋駅, Ishibashi eki?) is a train station located in Ikeda, Osaka, but is on the border with Toyonaka to the south and Minoo to the east. It serves as a transfer point for the Hankyu Minoo Line on one side and on the other side is an express station on the Hankyu Takarazuka Line．The station has five platforms connected by tunnels, two for Osaka-Takarazuka service, and three for Minoo service.

Ishibashi is home to one of the two campuses of Osaka University, and it is perhaps because of its large student population that Ishibashi has a rather bohemian, and certainly foreigner-friendly, feel to it. Ishibashi station is surrounded by an interesting, scruffy, ugly, but entirely safe warren of bars, karaoke boxes, and izakaya restaurants along with more traditional small-stall shopping streets.

The word Ishibashi literally means Stone Bridge, referring to the old stone street bridge immediately north of the station over a small river that serves as the northern end of the shopping area, which is called Akai hashi.