Netizens Surprised to Find What Japan’s Painstaking Train Station Art Is Made Of

An amazing collage in black and pastel-yellow shades, which can be found at Nishi-Umeda Station in Osaka, Japan, has recently drawn a lot of attention online. Twitter user @ soichih0213 shared several photographs of the artwork, depicting a rapid train arriving at a platform, and revealed it was made of… fragments from passenger tickets!

The mosaic, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the station, was created by an Osaka Municipal Subway employee, who preferred to stay anonymous but has reportedly worked there for 30 years.

Made from 153,600 tiny waste pieces, which are generated from ticket punching machines installed near the platform gates, the masterpiece took 300 hours to complete, with the mysterious artist coming to the station office after work, using a pair of tweezers to painstakingly place each fragment.

According to a spokesman, the creator of the mosaic has been very interested in art since early childhood. However, he wouldn't sacrifice his private life to complete such an artwork again — the project turned out to be stressful in the end.

"I won't do it again," the author wrote in a note accompanying his work.

However, it seems that the employee couldn't resist the temptation — another image composed in a similar way with a whopping 174,720 ticket punched-out pieces can be seen not far from the first one. This time, his note says "Oops, I did it again…"