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Hi Friends, I know that @Tony Galiani was waiting for this report ... So that, let's begin this (very) long serie of posts, depicting my travel to the Rising Sun Country. As it's somewhere my 10th or 11th travel ... I'm familiar with Japan. As I've announced it a couple of weeks ago ... ... I was in Japan for a mix of leisure and work, landing on september 10th, 2023 at Tokyo Narita airport, rsp 17:35 JST (time is important ...). Landing doesn't mean disembarquing (at 17:45 JST). As usual NRT is really convenient and fast and despite I've got a checked luggage to collect, I'm around 18:10 in front of the Skyliner desk, queuing, absolutely not stressed. Guess what ? you're in Japan ... people are efficient ! (to be fair, I was flying First Class with Emirates, and you're given a 'Fast lane' card. Anyway, even without 'fast lane' it's really fast at NRT) Why not the N'EX ? First of all the N'EX is slower and less comfortable (to me) but .... look at the waiting line full of tourist exchanging their JR Pass voucher It's 18:13 when I've got my Skyliner ticket ... and the train leaves at 18:16 meaning in less that 3 minutes. Welcome in Japan, no stress two minutes after you're on the platform, boarding the Skyliner (reason why I didn't made an orgy of photos ...) (this shot below is from a former travel in 2016, just to show you how it looks like ... at that time there were no fences and sliding doors) It's really a comfortable place to travel (to answer a question below, yes N'EX has free Wifi as Shinkansen and other JR limited Express). Anyway, I do not need it as I've purchased an 'unlimited' Data Card for 29 euros in France ... very easy to use, and cheap too) and if you need to plug your laptop of cellphone charger, everything is there (sorry for the poor quality) Commuting in Nippori (instead of Ueno... it was raining) a looooong corridor to the JY Yamanote line direction Shimbashi, my favorite place to stay in Tokyo

4 sets x 6 car consists to be introduced by 2023, on the Skytree/Nikko/Kinugawa Lines. Slated to become the flagship of the fleet. Will be built by Hitachi Kasado. https://tetsudo-ch.com/11937581.html Tobu press release: https://www.tobu.co.jp/cms-pdf/releases/20211111115910j-Hxsy54wjgySVaKcD-UrQ.pdf

JR Hokkaido will be loaning their C11 207 steam locomotive to Tobu Railway, which intends to run a tourist-oriented train on the Kinugawa Line. The service is planned to start in the FY 2017 season, running between Shimo Imaichi and Kinugawa Onsen Stations, a distance of 12.4km. This will be the first time in around 50 years that Tobu will run steam services. http://www.travelvision.jp/news-jpn/detail.php?id=68640

It will be designated the 500 series. Eight 3 car sets will be built by KHI. Features include full active suspension on all cars and permanent magnet synchronous motors. The three car sets will be designed to couple/uncouple en route with other three car sets to expand/shrink consists depending on passenger demand and service patterns. Introduction scheduled for spring 2017. This is the first order for rolling stock by Tobu awarded to KHI since 1946. http://www.tobu.co.jp/file/pdf/4c10174fc83e8d1045e7adde5e16c37a/150422.pdf?date=20150421135208