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Two 24 series cars have been moved to Kan-onji City, Kagawa Prefecture to be used as a hostel. It's the project of an udon shop owner who used crowdfunding to collect almost 17 million yen for their purchase and relocation. The hostel is to open in late 2021. They were retired in 2008 from Naha service (Shin-Osaka to Nishi Kagoshima), and were parked on a siding at Akune Station, Kagoshima. There they were operated there as lodging from January 2009 until October 2014. The cars are OHANEFU 25 206 and 2209. Both were built in 1976 by Fuji Heavy Industries. 2209 (originally 209) was modified in 1991 to have eleven 2-person "duet" rooms. KSB and the crowdfunding page indicate the cars were 1,000,000 yen each, currently around 9,250 USD. KSB doesn't mention transportation, but the crowdfunding page does; 7,500,000 yen or just short of 70,000 USD. The cars were moved from their original location to Usuki, Oita where they continued on a car ferry to Yawatahama, Ehime. There appear to be two different amounts shown for situating them at their new location, 500,000 and 6,000,000 yen on the crowdfunding and coolkagawa.jp sites, respectively. The former may just be the sections of track they're sitting on, although even that seems low. They are to be repainted, get connections for electricity and running water, and apparently have a green house sort of structure built over them. Protecting them from the elements sounds like a good idea but I wonder how this will work in summer. Figs and mangoes may be grown for guests to pick. Pictures at Akune, in better condition: http://c5557.photoland-aris.com/ohanehu252209.htm Crowdfunding pages: https://readyfor.jp/projects/bluetrain-naha and https://readyfor.jp/projects/bluetrain-naha-2020 Article with shelter illustration: https://www.coolkagawa.jp/news/entry-1345.html New location already marked on Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/mGDWSEUrbATAm52K8 KSB Setonaikai Broadcasting The man himself, Suit Train, on location for their arrival at Yawatahama Port

*Related to the thread started by Santa Fe about his/her trip, and since it has some bearing on people's travel plans, I post this here rather than in the "off topic" section. Occupancy rate of 84.1%! That's possibly the highest in Asia. Average daily rate increase of 31% from the previous year in Osaka. Big numbers. http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article83841.html