Prototype for everything (scenic edition)

[katoftw]

5 hours ago, railsquid said:

GDR Trabant in Japan, with British numberplates? Go ahead (though probably not on a public road):

 

 

I love how its got twin air horns.  And it need thoses, so you can hear the horn over the rattling lawn mower of an engine those crazy East Germans put under their.

[bill937ca]

Good, old fashioned winter snow storm hits Western Japan.

 

 

[railsquid]

"Covered sidewalks" along shopping streets are a common feature in Japan, but in recent years have been disappearing as redevelopment occurs, leading to very patchy "coverage", or as here a sole remaining segment in an area otherwise devoid of them:

 

[Sean]

I do like the covered sidewalks and wish there were more of them (or at least that fewer were being demolished…)

[Cat]

Sadly, not to be found in our modelling area of Mito or Katsuta.

[bill937ca]

A Japanese Manga Artist’s House  with odd angles. There are floorplans and elevation drawings.   https://www.archdaily.com/994595/a-japanese-manga-artists-house-tan-yamanouchi-and-awgl

[MeTheSwede]

I just remembered, I spotted something odd outside my room window when I stayed at a place in Asakusa, Tokyo, a few years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

I went out to investigate. Is that a house?

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, and apparently someone was at home.

 

 

[cteno4]

Ohh thanks excellent idea of a model scene. I’ve seen a number of plant overgrown houses like this in japan, seems to be a thing.

 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

If you ever utterly fail at scratchbilding a house or assembling a kit...

 

just put foilage all over it and you're good. 🙂

Edited February 10, 2023 by MeTheSwede

[cteno4]

Yeah just buy some beat up old structures at the train show! 
 

jeff

[Sean]

If you go to smaller cities and towns abandoned buildings covered in vegetation like that have become a very common sight. Its a result of Japan’s demographics, the shrinking of the population is way more evident in the countryside and the built environment there is being left to rot in many places. Some places are already little more than ghost towns. You don’t notice it in the big cities as much.
 

That specific place obviously isn’t abandoned, but places with elderly residents who can’t care for the property and let it get overgrown like that exist even in the big cities. People generally don’t do that otherwise since it violates a lot of social norms (I say this as a homeowner who has to be extremely careful not to let any leaves from trees in my yard blow over into neighbors property in the fall because of the complaints even just a couple can induce). The main difference is that in Tokyo most of the time those places get rebuilt after the owner dies since the land has value, while in the countryside they just get swallowed up by nature.

 

So yeah, if you want accuracy in a modern Japanese layout, cover a portion of the buildings with foliage (high proportion in small towns, lower in big cities).

Edited February 11, 2023 by Sean

[railsquid]

There's a place like that just south of Hachoji Station which has been falling down over the last few years, while still being inhabited by (IIRC) a pair of not all that elderly sisters: https://goo.gl/maps/ZyfWwi5DQKQmSEuX6

 

Problem is there's not much the "state" can do without the consent of the owners/residents, so every now and then these situations develop.

[Sean]

16 minutes ago, railsquid said:

There's a place like that just south of Hachoji Station which has been falling down over the last few years, while still being inhabited by (IIRC) a pair of not all that elderly sisters: https://goo.gl/maps/ZyfWwi5DQKQmSEuX6

 

Problem is there's not much the "state" can do without the consent of the owners/residents, so every now and then these situations develop.

That is a good example. Looks a bit like a gomi yashiki, which would be another cool contemporary urban Japanese scenery thing to put on a layout.

 

Shuttered shoutengai are another. 
 

With my own layout I’ve gone for a more upbeat representation of a Japanese city that glosses over these realities but maybe I should inject a bit more of them….

[bill937ca]

Mini train at the Kyushu Railway Museum. Just what some of you guys need for your back yard.   Video by AlmightyTrainSite Channel

 

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by bill937ca

[railsquid]

They have similar in the Omiya Museum:

 

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by railsquid

[bill937ca]

Kei truck with six oil drums.

 

 

[cteno4]

Lashing my ship captain father would be proud of!

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

At 2.35 of this video you will see the Kei truck I was actually looking for. A couple of oil drums and what looks like a pumping mechanism. With a few workmen this could be anywhere. Not sure why it has red lights.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by bill937ca

[marknewton]

1 hour ago, bill937ca said:

Not sure why it has red lights.

 It has a Shell logo on the door. So it looks to me like a mobile refueller. At a guess the red lights are for visibility if they're working at the side of the road.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[railsquid]

Looks like a pair of fire extinguishers.

[cteno4]

Yep looks like fire extinguishers.

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

A tiny Shinto Shrine hidden up an alley in Akihabara.  Hanabusa inari Akihabara 花房稲荷神社  Video by Fukai Nihon 深い日本

 

https://yattatachi.com/akihabaras-hidden-shrine-looking-between-tokyos-streets

 

 

 

Video by Photo-Neko / Walking With Tokyoite /フォトネコ クリエイターズ

 

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by bill937ca

[bill937ca]

Information and photos on guard pipes, I would have called them road fences.   😁

 

https://gazoo.com/column/daily/21/01/30/

[cteno4]

More design fodder for Joe!

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

More design fodder for Joe!

 

jeff

I was thinking that. But I didn't want to disturb his thread.