Random photos of stations I have visited

[kuro68000]

 

Narita Airport.

 

One criticism I'd make of the NEX, although I haven't used it for years, is that the markings on the platform for where the cars will be always confused me for some reason. Maybe it was tiredness kicking in and lack of Japanese ability back when I used to use it, but somehow the Skyliner seems a lot easier.

 

 

 

Tsukuba Express, probably at Aoi or somewhere like that.

 

 

 

I think this is the Yamanote Line, or the Keihin Tohoku line. What are the yellow barriers between the two sets of tracks for?

 

 

 

 

 

Managed to crop the station name out of the first photo, well done me. I had this set as a model, I like the colour. By the way the colour here is a bit wrong, my white balance must have been off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asakusa and the nearby Maneki-Neko (beckoning cat) shrine.

 

 

 

 

 

Takao station near Mount Takao. A train takes you through the tunnel to the base of the mountain where you can get either a cable car or a ski lift up to the top. I swear I had photos of it but can't find them now, I need to go and check what happened to my collection as it's all supposed to be uploaded.

 

Anyway, apologies for the declining quality, this is why I love the Pixel. Yeah I could do better if I knew what I was doing with a DSLR, but I definitely don't know what I'm doing.

[kuro68000]

 

Possibly Hachioji, or maybe Takao.

 

 

 

Yokohama Motomachi.

 

 

 

Akihabara the day after the earthquake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would love to know where this is.

 

 

 

Somewhere in China, I took the monorail to this park just because I wanted to take the monorail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure where this is but the tracks are very close to the pavement. More yellow barriers... Maybe they line up with the doors to prevent people walking out the wrong side if the wrong doors open? But then why the ones in the middle?

[bikkuri bahn]

Quote

Managed to crop the station name out of the first photo, 

Nerima Station, on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line.

 

Quote

Would love to know where this is.

The city with the river running through it is Hadano, in Kanagawa Prefecture.  (Odakyu Main Line serves this city)

 

Quote

Not sure where this is but the tracks are very close to the pavement.

That is Ichikawamama Station on the Keisei Main Line, in Chiba Prefecture. The sidewalk/pavement being close to the tracks is typical of private railways, given their interurban origins.  

Edited January 28, 2021 by bikkuri bahn

[miyakoji]

One picture in that group with the river appears to be in Hadano, Kanagawa.

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, mojo said:

 

I think this is the Yamanote Line, or the Keihin Tohoku line. What are the yellow barriers between the two sets of tracks for?

 

 

Easy-peasy - Chuo-Sobu line approaching Higashi-Nakano station.

 

More recent view from the same spot in this video: https://youtu.be/penUi2tjTac?t=706

 

Yellow barriers are no longer there; I always assumed they were to demark a safe space for maintenance workers or anyone else who needed to be around the tracks, but that's just my laysquid guess.

 

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, mojo said:

 

 

 

Not sure where this is but the tracks are very close to the pavement. More yellow barriers... Maybe they line up with the doors to prevent people walking out the wrong side if the wrong doors open? But then why the ones in the middle?

 

These two are at Higashi-Jūjō (Keihin Tohoku line).

[roadstar_na6]

Phones usually save geotags with the pictures nowadays, so you should be able to get the listings from them.

[kuro68000]

13 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

Phones usually save geotags with the pictures nowadays, so you should be able to get the listings from them.

 

Yeah, all the more recent ones are fine, it's only the older ones and the ones I did on an DSLR and earlier than that a Coolpix and earlier than that a film camera that I'm not sure about.

 

I was looking through my old data and I do have some GPS data for some of the DSLR ones, but there isn't an easy way to integrate it into Google Photos. You can add it to the JPEGs but Google doesn't seem to pick it up.

 

My memory is pretty poor so these days as well as having the phone tag the photos I also enable location history so that Google keeps a record, and then download that as a .kml file for safe keeping. It's handy for reviewing later and for working on my project to visit every Hard Off in Tokyo and beyond. Hard Off is always fun to visit and in doing so I get to visit a lot of places I might not otherwise have had reason to go to, and wonder around a bit. Next time I'm going to make an effort to document my travels better, rather than taking random photos I'll be a bit more systematic.

[kuro68000]

I found the photos of the Maglev and Railway Museum in Nagoya.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ywgbg5T5ApoWogXF9

 

I though I had some photos of the cats living in the park nearby but can't find them now.

[kuro68000]

 

Tsukuba Express. I happened to get on one evening and there was nobody around in the end carriage. It was the 1st of January in 2012 so probably due to the New Year holiday.

 

 

 

Bookshop somewhere, possibly Akihabara but many of the larger shops have a really good selection like this. These are all electronics books. Actually some of them are "mooks", which are like a cross between a magazine and a book. They stay on the shelves longer than magazines but are published more regularly than books, and take a magazine format with different articles and authors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very handsome train.

 

 

 

 

Sagamiko Station. I could have sworn I had a lot more photos of this area.

[kuro68000]

19 hours ago, miyakoji said:

One picture in that group with the river appears to be in Hadano, Kanagawa.

 

19 hours ago, bikkuri bahn said:

The city with the river running through it is Hadano, in Kanagawa Prefecture.  (Odakyu Main Line serves this city)

 

How on Earth do you identify these places? Just happen to be familiar with them or is there some technique I'm not aware of? Google image search?

[Keith]

1 hour ago, mojo said:the New Year holiday.

 

 

 

I just love the random bright red vending machine that seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

 

Keith

[miyakoji]

3 hours ago, mojo said:

 

 

How on Earth do you identify these places? Just happen to be familiar with them or is there some technique I'm not aware of? Google image search?

In two of those pictures, there’s a utility pole with a sign that says “because it’s an intersection, confirm it’s safe left and right” or something like that.  At the very bottom of the sign is the city’s name.  I just look for signs that I can make out.  Either it gives away the location, or I can google its text if its distinct enough.  Bikkuri can read as well, much better than I can, although he may also just know the location.

[railsquid]

The ones I've pointed out are locations I know or recognize (in a "I'm sure I've been there" sense), easy enough to correlate with Google maps / street view, and like miyakoji says, there's a fair bit of information hidden in the detail. The Higashi-Jūjō one looked very much like somewhere on the Keihin-Tohoku line north of Tabata, I thought it was Nishi-Kawaguchi at first and had to check for other likely candidates. Also it's fun locating pictures :).

[railsquid]

 

4 hours ago, mojo said:

2 hours ago, Keith said:

I just love the random bright red vending machine that seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

 

Keith

 

 

 

It's in a suburb of Toyohashi, wouldn't surprise me if there's a fair bit of foot traffic from the private parking lot on the other side of the road; I imagine that river might attract a few anglers, for example.

Check out the area for yourself; vending machine is still there so presumably profitable for both the vending company and the owners of the structure behind it: https://goo.gl/maps/cRrQc6gDCncuXtrdA

 

Now, how did I locate that, you ask? Easy. It's obviously a photo taken from some sort of Shinkansen (see window reflections) running fairly close to the sea (as the Tokaido Shinkansen is wont to do); the bridge in the background is carrying another railway, so it's just a case of scanning for locations where the Tokaido Shinkansen crosses a river close to another line, probably the Tokaido Honsen.

Edited January 29, 2021 by railsquid

[kuro68000]

8 hours ago, Keith said:

I just love the random bright red vending machine that seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

 

Keith

 

One of the great things about Japan is that areas are often mixed use, with residences and shops and small factories and offices all together. Plus people don't have a huge amount of room to store stuff at home so small supermarkets and convenience stores are very popular, and of course vending machines.

 

Because they keep the beverage cool or hot they are handy when you don't have a fridge or a kettle.

[cteno4]

I’ve been way out in rice fields in the middle of no where in japan and there sitting out on the side of the one lane road with noting around but rice paddies for like a km or more, a little red soda machine! I guess there for those wiring in the fields and the few idiots like me who decided to walk to what ever I was going to see. Actually was a life saver as I had another couple of km still to hike and I was hot! I’ll have to dig the picture out for 84 I took of it as it was just so wild one little coke machine out in the middle of rice paddies! Such a happy little sight.

 

jeff

[serotta1972]

Yakumo Station in Hokkaido.

[JR 500系]

5 hours ago, serotta1972 said:

Yakumo Station in Hokkaido.

 

 

Oh man the Kiha-261 in renewal livery.... Really need this model!

[kuro68000]

 

 

Akihabara. Not sure what is going on here. Sometimes you see bottles of water used to keep animals away, the theory being that they see their reflection and think there is another animal there. To be fair my cat would probably fall for that.

 

 

 

 

Not sure...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoyogi Park.

 

 

 

 

 

Showa Kinen Park.

 

 

 

A shrine in Akabane.

 

 

 

On the Chuo Line somewhere, maybe Ochanomizu. In fact I think it is Ochanomizu, I recognize that bridge and the bend in the river is right after it heading towards Shinjuku.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shrine in Ohara, near Kyoto. Found this by accident, I was in Kyoto and decided to just get a bus headed out into the sticks and see where it took me.

[cteno4]

Or I wonder if just water to dump a few on the tree each day? Just drop off a pile every few weeks filled from the tap.

 

One of our little Japanese markets here (very traditional, it’s like 15’x15’ crammed to the gills, isles about shoulder width wide, and evens 3 person sushi bar) has the usually bunch of potted plants along the front side on the side walk. They have a large water bottle that has the drain hose in it from the ac unit hanging over the door and just use that water on the plants! In the summer it fills up fast here with the humidity. Clever.

 

jeff

[kuro68000]

 

 

]

 

 

 

 

Kasuga-taisha in Nara. The lanterns are donations, and over the years they ended up with too many.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chion-in and surrounding area, in Kyoto. I love the raised platforms around the gardens, feels almost like walking over a pond. A bit childish maybe, the the old "floor is lava" game.

 

 

 

The Rainbow Bridge between Odaiba and the mainland. For some reason there is a mini copy of the Statue of Liberty, but facing the wrong way.

 

 

Fuji TV building at Odaiba.

 

 

This cemetery in Yokohama was built by Europeans when the first arrived. Nearby are some houses they built too. Some are still standing but many are long gone, with a few collapsed remains preserved. They didn't heed the warnings when they arrived, built on top of a hill and without accounting for earthquakes. They thought that Japanese buildings were just primitive and weak, not understanding that a bit of flexibility goes a long way to stopping them falling down on top of you.

 

 

Fans of a certain film may recognize this location in Shibuya.

[JR 500系]

I always love to see these photos, it makes me feel like i'm right there in Japan! Thanks for sharing these!

 

16 hours ago, mojo said:

 

 

 

Is it me, or is the deer at Nara getting skinnier due to lesser tourist feeding them 'Senbei' (rice crackers) ?

[kuro68000]

7 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Is it me, or is the deer at Nara getting skinnier due to lesser tourist feeding them 'Senbei' (rice crackers) ?

 

Well that was taken in 2006 so... I don't recall thinking they were underfed. I didn't take any photos of the larger groups of them unfortunately.

 

I got a bit distracted actually. Was walking along a path when some young school kids came the other way with their teacher, all in their bright yellow hats. Every single one came up to me and said hello! Then later I passed some slightly older kids, maybe 12 or so, who asked me to sign their books and some basic questions in English like what my name was. I tried asking them some questions back in Japanese, although my skills were quite limited back then.

[railsquid]

On 2/1/2021 at 10:01 PM, mojo said:

 

 

Fans of a certain film may recognize this location in Shibuya.

 

I recognise the location (the vending machine is a dead giveaway anyway), but which film?