Thanks MK, I'm really enjoying these pictures! That Hello Kitty train is a Series 271/281 Haruka Express EMU that runs Kyoto to/from Kansai International Airport (KIX) via Osaka. They all received Hello Kitty wraps in the past few years for some reason. And, while I suspect you know this, one major reason why the Shinkansen are segregated from other trains is that they are 4 ft 8.5 in gauge, whereas the regular lines are 3 ft 6 in gauge. There are a couple of lines where conventional EMUs (re-gauged to 4 ft 8.5 in) run on tracks used by Shinkansen (at reduced speed), and the Seikan tunnel between Honshu and Hokkaido is dual gauge, otherwise the two train networks are separate though often parallel. Daytime freight trains (with mostly container cars) are common on regular main line tracks outside of Tokyo.
MK, what an awesome thread. I got to go to Yokohoma in October for work. I wish I would have had more time to explore the rail system. We only took the metro to Shibuya Crossing. I did get to go to the Yokohama model railroad museum. Very nicely done. One of the hosts said they had track made for the layout from a real rail manufacturer and they bolted all the pieces together and spiked it down. Outside my hotel I could see a freight line that probably had 20 trains a day - most of them 10 or 12 tank cars behind electric locomotive. One day I noticed dozen people on the foot bridge with cameras on tripods. An old electric locomotive and 10 or so passenger cars went by (I didn't get a good picture because I was at breakfast). I texted my son and said I bet it was an F-unit and heavyweights. Haha. Probably more like a GG1. I absolutely loved Japan and can't wait to go back. I'll have to search out one of those Kato factory stores. John
John, awesome pictures! I'm assuming N-scale at the museum? I'm hoping to go back next year. Hopefully the dollar won't lose its strength. Yokohama would be on my list if we go. Did you find or go to any hobby stores? Given there's "one in every city" (based only on my experience ) I'm sure they are some in Yokohama.
While getting to a tourist spot in Kyoto, we had to take the train to the nearest station and walk about 1/2 a mile. It was an interesting walk as you had to go through traditional residential neighborhoods. No tourist shops, etc. You really get to see how people live and where they live. You quickly realize why N-scale is popular in Japan given the small living space. Look at the overhead wires crisscrossing! As we got closer to the crossing we heard bells! Yeah! Looks like a train was pulling in. Given the looks of the crossing and the surroundings, you thought it would be an industrial spur. But the trains was painted an odd color and it doesn't look like your traditional commuter trains. When you see trains painted like this in Japan they are usually themed tourist trains with limited distance runs. You can see the icon herald, which you don't see on normal trains. But that doesn't mean you can't take it for commuting if it gets your there. You can tell the office workers in their black and white office "uniforms". Definitely commuters. Then we come across this. An interesting car to say the least! It was parked next to a store and the wrought iron fence was open so I took a closer look. Cropping in the framed notice on the right. Hope you can read it as it's a crop. I should have zoomed when I was there. In our travels, we came across these familiar US branded food chains. I had a chuckle seeing Krispy Kreme in the Kyoto subways! I wonder if they have sushi donuts? (No, they didn't! ) And then there's Wendy's that sell shaved ice! Perfect when the temperature was 90+ when we were there.
The Yokohama Train museum was like #1 scale (or g-scale?). The also had an HO layout by the exit depicting Yokohama that looked like it was all Kato. Both layouts had lighting that slowly went from day to dusk to night with lights in everything. Before the layout they had displays of craftsman built models most from companies I had never heard of. All very nicely displayed and impeccably cared for. A couple of days after that on our way back to the hotel I saw a passenger car in the bottom of a skyscraper and found out there is also a 1:1 railroad museum about a block away. It's kind of a crazy place for a railroad museum. I never found a hobby shop in Yokohama. The closest I could find on Google was a half hour drive and I had already had enough adventure driving in Japan. I think I might have been driving on a sidewalk at one time but that's a story for a different time. I'm sure it was poor googling skills on my part but you're right, it sure seemed like there should have been a train store.
When it doubt always look for a Yodobashi store (see my earlier post) as they always have a good section of N-Scale trains in the toys floor. Looks like there's one right near Yokohama Station. They also participate in Japan's Duty Free program. https://www.yokohamajapan.com/things-to-do/detail.php?id=143 That's a pretty cool museum. There is a 1:1 museum in Kyoto that I saw 1-2 stops from Kyoto Station as I was riding the trains. The locos are outdoors but covered. I even saw an earlier, or even the first, Shinkansen on display that you can go into. Alas, yep, not enough time.
This is all fascinating. With every post, it gets better and better. Both the N scale scene and 1:1 trains are cool but now you've thrown in Krispy Kreme! Looking forward to seeing what's next
@BNSF FAN you have no idea how hard I'm laughing right now! I'm glad I can spread some joy around during these holiday times. BTW, to anyone that knows, is there a thread tool where you can print or save to PDF the entire thread from Page 1 to the end with all replies and pictures included? I'm realizing that with the time I'm putting into this, a copy would be great as it tells my whole trip!!!!
Before we move to our next city of Hiroshima, I want to drop a some pictures of two very popular tourist spots. First one is the Golden Pavilion. It's a Buddhist temple in the outskirts of the city reachable by a 40 minute subway ride. The brilliance of the color makes you wonder what kind of paint was used. Nah, paint is for amateurs! It's covered completely in 24k gold leaf! I don't remember how many pounds but it was over $1M worth of gold. As you can see, the brilliance is amazing when the sun hits it! The next one is Fushimi Inari Shrine. It is a Shinto shrine. The main path leads you up to the top of Mt. Inari. It's a 2.5 mile hike which take around 2 hours. The attraction is the main path which has 1,000 Tori gates that you walk under to get to the top. The tori gates are donated by businesses and each one has the business name, date and a wish or a thank you for a wish that came true. Here's a sign showing a rough approximation of the tori gates' path. Snap, snap! C'mon now, pay attention to the sign!
We move on to our next city. This post will be short as I ponder how I want to present my next post after this. It is Hiroshima and you know what immediately comes to mind when that city's name is mentioned. We arrived via the Shinkansen thanks to our JR Rail Pass. It was another smooth, on time, very enjoyable ride! As we were leaving Hiroshima Station we passed a Visitor's Center so we decided to wander in. VERY help staff. While my wife was talking to the girl over the counter I noticed this on the counter. It turned out these Oragami cranes were made by the girl herself! She wasn't very old and definitely was born after WWII. It piqued my curiosity as to why she made these cranes and only these cranes. As our stay progressed I realized that the ENTIRE city was very peace minded. You can see these peace crane icons everywhere. It's interesting as many of the citizens were born after WWII and did not experience the bombings and certainly not the atomic bomb. The message of Peace were prevalent everywhere. It was odd as we can sense peace the entire time we were there. I know, what does peace feel like? I can't describe it in words but it's an inner-self feeling. After the Official Visitor's Center we grabbed something to eat. As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought this over. That was interesting! It turned out that they got the bottle from somewhere and used it to hold table water. They don't serve alcohol so where did the bottle from from? The white part is some kind of silicone sleeve (to protect the bottle?). We didn't take many subways as buses and trolleys were the things in Hiroshima. We did take an inter-city train later on to get to a famous island but I'll get into that later. Some of the trolleys that were around the 1940's are still running today! There were 3 that survived the atomic bomb, was rebuilt and continues to run today. You can see the new and old running together. I even came across a die cast model of it which I had to get. It was only $3.50! What caught me initially was the scale...1/162?! Close enough to 1/160 N-Scale but 1/162 is an odd scale! Maybe they designed it to fit the box? I never got to the bottom of it. Other vehicles (cars and trucks) of that series all had different scales. But the outer boxes were all the same size.
I'm going to take some liberty here and shy away from trains for this post only. If you feel this is not for you, just skip it. For me, as a kid and learning about August 5, 1945 in school and elsewhere it has always been in my mind that one day, maybe, just maybe, I would be able to visit Hiroshima. Growing up and becoming an engineer (not train), the science aspect always draws me to this point in history. Of course I was interested in the science and technology part. This doesn't mean that I totally ignored the human aspect and the ramification on mankind of this fateful day. After visiting the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima I was profoundly moved on what war and nuclear weapon can do to mankind (not that I didn't know before hand). It's one thing to read about it and another thing to be at the site where it all happened. Let's not turn this into a political debate but after spending an afternoon here, I hope that every heads of state, every politician, every military general, every person in this world, I don't care what your religion is or what your political belief is, EVERYONE needs to come and visit this memorial AND go to the museum. Upon arrival I was greeted by the immaculate grounds of the memorial. The museum is on the right. Normally the place is packed with school kids but we came after school hours just before closing. I have heard that every school that is within a day trip of here have made it a point to take every student here to learn about the effects of using nuclear weapon and hopefully these future generations will never use it again. The museum's entrance fee was only 200 Yens, about $1+. I was wondering why so cheap? They intentionally made it affordable as they want everyone to be able to visit. It was almost an enticement to go in. After paying your admission, you start your tour of the museum. You are lead to this area where there are floor to ceiling photos of what Hiroshima was back in the days. The panoramics gave you a sense of being there. The normal happenings of daily life. Here is just one example that I captured with my camera. As you finish strolling along the panoramics of the city back then you come face to face with this before going into another room. In the room, you are greeted with a circular movie that is in a loop with the audio of a single aircraft flying overhead. It is a simulation of what you would have seen if you were on the Enola Gay that fateful day. Look carefully at 12 noon near center. You see the atomic bomb just drooped. It was definitely jaw dropping to see that video as you can see the before, during and after. Then you venture into another room but before you go in, you were met with this sign. We went in and was immediately overwhelmed by what we saw. I will not post pictures that I took unless people really, really, really want to see them. We were shocked, heart broken, sad, wondered how human beings can do this to each other. The lighting was dark to really set the mood. I have never seen so many people crying in a museum. The displays and photos were not as gruesome as I thought but they were POWERFUL in their conveyance of what happened that day and the stories that tell what followed in the days, weeks, months and years later as a result of the radiation. It was quite interesting that the entire museum had ABSOLUTELY NO politics in the displays and messages. It did not say who was right or who was wrong or who started it. It's main message was that nuclear weapons should never be used again. After leaving the museum we headed over to the Cenotaph. I had to look up the meaning of that word. It means a memorial for those buried elsewhere. As you look through it, you see an eternal flame and beyond that the iconic A Bomb Dome that many have seen in pictures. The dome is actually separated by a river from the actual grounds. The A Bomb Dome across the river and up close. The original purpose of the building was an exposition hall that the city built. Being the gem of the city, it was built very sturdily with lots of steel, concrete and masonry. Here is a model of the before and after. About a few blocks away we came across this non-descript podium with no fan fare, no spot light, nothing that yells "Come look at this". It's the brown thing on the left. We went in for a closer look. It was a plaque marking the exact spot where the bomb exploded 1800 ft. overhead. My God! 3000-4000 degrees CELSIUS! It's mind boggling and incomprehensible what that really means, even to an engineer! Finally, before leaving the park we came across this little shrine outside on the side of the A Bomb Dome. I was curious why all the water and tea left behind. Doing some Googling, it was a people's shrine to the victims. One of the immediate effect of the bomb, if you survived, is tremendous thirst. Victims were screaming they needed water. IF THIS POST OFFENDED ANYONE I APOLOGIZE AHEAD OF TIME. I KNOW THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TRAINS BUT AFTER VISITING THE MUSEUM I HAD TO TELL MY STORY. BACK TO TRAINS IN THE NEXT POST.
Thank you, I've been there, I know the feeling. I still find myself in tears when I think about that display case filled with scorched and tattered remnants of the school uniforms Japanese children wear to this day. Or the Children's Peace Memorial and the hundreds of thousands of folded paper cranes that had been left there. The point is not whether or not it was necessary to drop that bomb, it's simply that thousands of children just starting life paid a price for folly of adults they never knew. Unfortunately, this is still happening. Hiroshima is a special place in other ways, I hope you found the Okonomimura (Okonomi Village) the food there is inexpensive and incredible (and doesn't necessarily involve seafood). The other amusing thing for me is that my first visit to Hiroshima was actually a day trip from Osaka, with a Rail Pass one can use the Shinkansen like a subway, the frequency and trip time are pretty much the same.
Thank you for posting this. I get the same feeling as when I have visited the Vietnam Wall and the USS Arizona memorials. Sobering.
Back to trains! All this holiday stuff gets in the way of trains! After the reality check of the Peace Memorial Park, we went on to the next hot spot in Hiroshima. We had to take a train to the island where it was. Yeah, at first thought I was thinking the same too, car float! The train is operated by JR West, unlike JR East which handles most of the Tokyo area. The train is famously known as the "Red Wing". This is due to the red passenger safety bolsters between cars. You can see that in the lead car with the words "Red Wing" on the bolsters that are retracted. During the train ride I was able to get another cab ride. This time there was a trainee driving the train with an instructor grading her. During the whole train ride I observed there was NO dialog between the trainee and the instructor. Totally "fly on the wall" testing. Talk about stress! There was also some MOW equipment along the way. Even their MOW equipment is pristine. It looks like it just came from the paint factory! I guess the Red Wing in Hiroshima is pretty popular and/or famous as Kato actually made a model of it. If you saw my post in the "What was your latest purchase?" thread, I added it to my order from Plaza Japan. Time to put a decoder in it and add some lighting! Now I have two Kato sets (the other being the N700S Shinkansen) that I actually rode in! So how did we get to an island via train? It turns out JR West also own a ferry or two. Once you get off the train, a short walk brings you to a port where the ferry is. Our JR Rail Pass covered the fee since JR owned the ferry. The ferry takes you to Miyajima Island with the famous UNESCO giant tori gate. The tori gate is over 50 ft tall though it seems taller if you see the people in the water near it and scale up. It was low tide when I took the picture and you can see the black part which is normally hidden in normal/high tide. The structure is made with camphor tree wood which resists rotting and insect invasion but the entire structure is painted with lacquer. Still, I'm amazed it remains sound in sea water and they don't have to replace it every few years! Finally, once we got back to Hiroshima station, a vintage train pulled in. I don't know the model but it was not a special run and was in pristine condition! Amazing!
That's a KiHa 47 suburban DMU, 40 to 45 years old (type number is on the footplate at the bottom of the door). The huge variety of different types of trains and liveries is half the fun of traveling in Japan . My family does think I'm a bit strange...
Thanks for the ID! Now let me see if Plaza Japan or Hobby Search has it. Your family may think you are strange but we don't. Stay tuned. Spoiler alert. We'll be going to Osaka next where I hit the mother load!!!!! You ain't seen nothing yet. EDIT: WHOA!!!! I've never seen that website before. What a great resource for Japanese rail!
Seems like your participation in the T Trak layout at Altoona next year will be spectacular . . . can't wait to see the Red Wing chasing its American brothers and sisters around the layout.
I'll be there with it! I also got the Kato EM13 decoder and FL12 light controller with it. This way I can run it on the bigger DCC loops. Oh, also interior lights too. Full blown hop up! I can then say "Yeah, I rode THAT."
I'm REALLY going to have to get to Altoona this coming year... Also, don't forget that the National N Scale Convention is in Bethlehem, PA in June 2024. Plenty of T-Trak represented there as well.
