Konagai, a quaint town in Japan’s renowned Nagasaki Prefecture, is going viral for its vibrant fruit-shaped bus stops. These colourful and whimsical stops add a unique charm to Konagai’s streets and have
been dubbed “serotonin boosters” for visitors.
Influencer Ananya Ray recently shared a video showcasing these popular bus stops, highlighting their exact locations and offering tips on how tourists can best enjoy this delightful attraction.
Details About Tourist Hotspot
“In Nagasaki, they’ve come up with the cutest way to boost tourism: fruit-shaped bus stops. If you have a rental car, it’s definitely easier to drive around and capture them all. But I wanted to experience this like a local, actually taking the bus and stopping at each one,” Ray posted the video on Instagram.
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She recommended to her followers that one of the best ways to enjoy this whimsical side of Nagasaki is to take a local bus and enjoy a slower trip around the town.
“Save this if you’re looking for things to do outside Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, and send this to someone whose favourite fruit is one of these bus stops! Konagaicho Izaki, Isahaya, Nagasaki,” she added.
Inspiration Behind Konagai Bus Stops
According to a report by NDTV, these unique bus stops are inspired by Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage. Each stop is designed as a different fruit, creating a colourful experience for the tourists.
Konagai is located 16 kilometres from Isahaya city, within Nagasaki. While the world is familiar with Nagasaki’s tragic history of being hit by an atomic bomb on 9 August 1945, places like Konagai are making such efforts to add cheerful chapters to the region’s solemn past.
According to the Japan Forward website, Konagai once struggled with attracting tourists. However, in the 1990s, locals came up with this idea to create fruit-shaped bus stops for a travel-themed expo in Osaka. These proved to be a hit at the original expo and remain a popular attraction even today. These stops are designed like melons, oranges, watermelons and even a giant strawberry. One of the bus stops is even shaped like a tomato, a playful attempt to debunk the common myth that it is a vegetable.
Efforts like these are clearly helping Japan boost its tourism, which stood at a record 42.7 million arrivals in 2025. The country has come up with a plan to spread its tourism activities from popular destinations to even remote areas to manage the tourist influx better. It has also set a target of reaching 60 million tourists annually by 2030.
