Japan In Your Local Community

[ATShinkansen]

This topic actually has two related parts to it:

 

1. Who else here is actively involved in Japanese community organizations?  I’m a member of two groups in my city, the Japan America Society of Greater Austin (JASGA) and the Austin Japan Community (AJC)

 

2. Who else lives in a city with a sister city in Japan?  For Austin, it’s Oita.

[cteno4]

1. Our club, Japan Rail Modelers of Washington DC, has done events with our layouts over the years with the Washington DC Japanese embassy, the Japan-American society of Washington DC’s Sakura Matsuri, and the Japan National Tourism Organization’s Japan Week in NYC. Just precovid I was in discussions with the Japan Information & Culture Center (JICC) in DC to create a Tokyo street scene and train station diorama for for an exhibit they were doing on Tokyo. Sadly covid killed the exhibit. We have interacted with both JR East and JR central at events as they both have offices here in DC. We hope to start doing some more smaller events with the various Japanese groups in the DC area in the future here.

 

pre covid I use to go down to music and films put on by the Japan Information & Culture Center in DC. Fortunately it’s near the metro line we are near. Slowly events are starting to happen again.

 

2. The state of Maryland has a sister relationship with Kanagawa Prefecture. Other than that only Baltimore has a sister relationship with Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.

 

Our club entered into a sister club relationship with Iwate Rail Modelers' Circle (IRC) in Iwate Prefecture in 2009. Both Iwate and DC are on the 39th parallel.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[ATShinkansen]

Wait, what are JR East and Central doing here in the US!?

Edited April 3, 2023 by ATShinkansen

[bill937ca]

Just now, ATShinkansen said:

Wait, what are JR East and Central doing here!?

Tourist info offices.  Many, many moons ago there used to be an office at Rockefeller Center that issued  hard copy summary timetables. I have a bunch in a file folder.

[cteno4]

Actually JR east and central  have folks here also to sell technology and train drivers come over to spend time learning about us rail operations. I’ve gotten to meet a couple of the driver groups that are over, usually a dozen or so at a time. Here in DC the JR east and central groups focus mostly on technology at events and some tourism, but the tourism group is only a couple of people that are DC staffers, not folks from japan line the rest of the staff. They have some nice large scale models (like 4’ long) of end cars to show off shinkansen design. Lots of PR posters and videos of shinkansens wizzing around! I think the offices are a bit reduced in recent years from what they were a decade ago, but still seem to be around. I hope to meet up with them at the Sakura Matsuri and meet the current staff as the Japanese staff rotates out every few years. One of our club members did some STEM tech events on mag lev with the JR central folks.
 

A number of years ago the JR east North America director gave us 3 very nice trains and a Tomytec throttle system when he went back to Japan as a parting gift as he was a model railroader himself and loved bringing us to events. JR East paid for all our expenses to go to NYC for 5 days to do Japan week about 8 years back. It was super generous of them to do that and very wonderful they suggested to the organizers that we come up to NYC when one of the 4 main exhibits had ro drop out 5 weeks before the event. We ended up creating a custom layout to fit the exhibit space (different shaped to the layout we had then) and it turned out to be a huge hit at Japan Week. You know you are a hit when the marketing director for Seiko (nest to use with a big fancy exhibit) came over and commented that we were sucking everyone in. I apologized but he said no it was great as folks were then turning around and entering their exhibit and staying longer than usual and he was very happy we were there! I think JR east was very happy we were able to pull it off and make them look good for suggesting us.

 

we are just fortunate here with the density of Japanese groups with it being DC. Also offices here for a lot of Japanese businesses and all the main TV stations. We had a jrm club member that was with Tepco on a 2 year rotation as they have an office here and another member who was the wife of the primary NHK corespondent here in DC. One of our former members is also a driver for the embassy. We have gotten to meet the Japanese ambassador several times as well.

 

it’s great to see there are a few Japanese organizations in Austin! Hey have some sort of an annual festival, don’t they?

 

cheers

 

jeff

[ATShinkansen]

I believe there’s an Austin-Oita festival, and I think JASGA has one, as well.  I haven’t been to either one yet, I don’t see anything posted on their websites yet.  A few weeks ago, I went to a jazz event put on by JASGA, and there was mention of a combined JASGA/AJC event in the near future.  Hopefully my railroad will be far enough along to display there!

[cteno4]

That would be wonderful! I think one of the former JNS members did a temporary setup of shinkansens at a Japanese cultural event in Austin a number of years back.

 

getting anything out there will really be well received by the public, they are always so surprised when they see some great model trains at an event.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[ATShinkansen]

The JASGA director already knows about my hobby; she was really excited when I shared pictures of my collection and layout construction progress, so word’s already out to some degree about me being a densha otaku!

[cteno4]

If she is a good cultural ambassador she will realize it’s a perfect way to connect with the public here! Everyone loves model trains and Japanese trains look so wild it’s even more of an eyeball grabber! I was shocked at the response we got at the first Sakuri Matsuri years ago! NYC response was also wildly awesome at Japan week, actually the best, most heartfelt public response we have ever had. I have never been thanked so much so nicely for a layout display. We were mobbed for 4 days straight. I really prefer the cultural events over train shows/events as folks are so much more appreciative and interested in what we are doing. Also folks want to talk about all things Japanese as well so lots of fun tangents.

 

hope you get to do something soon here at an event! They really are fun. Even just a loop of track and some trains will get eyeballs. Out first layout was just track with colored construction paper under it to be virtual scenery and a bunch of buildings placed around. Construction paper roads and vehicles on top. Folks loved the perceived scenery and temporary setup on the fly and it sparked a lot of “hey I could do something like that!” Which was really good to hear and encourage. With later more finished stuff it started to be more of the opposite of “I could never do something like that…” not good.

 

jeff

[ATShinkansen]

I brought up my desire to display it once last year when talking about events or workshops for this year.  I haven’t brought it up again yet as my layout is still far from ready.  And I haven’t even begun to look into the logistics of transporting it.  But everyone I’ve shared photos of my layout with has loved it, and one of my classmates from my weekly Japanese class has even seen it in person (unfortunately, I couldn’t run trains yet at the time), so I know the interest is there.

 

 I’m with you on being drawn to cultural events over train shows.  I really like sharing my interests in context and perspective of a larger setting.  That’s what has made my interest in Japanese trains stand out from my other railway interests: the trains are just part of a bigger picture, one where my own interests go beyond the railhead.
 

I also personally like the visual effect of the cleaner, more simplistic scenery style, as I’ve seen in the photos of the earlier layout on your website.  I’m trying to keep that look as much as possible.

 

One disadvantage I have is that, unlike JRM of DC, I’m just one person working on this by myself, which means I’ll need to find help to set up and operate the layout.  I’m thinking I’ll need to write up an operating and assembly manual, as I anticipate the people I recruit to have no knowledge or experience of trains at all, real or model.

[cteno4]

Well maybe start out with something smaller and simpler to do an event. Agreed it is a lot of work and we were ambitious as we had a half dozen plus very active in setting up the big layouts. But you can go smaller and simpler with like 2 banquet tables side by side and just loop (could even have viaduct straight track in ends so all 90 curves) and a ground line or two and they could wander a bit. Small Kato or Tomix shainkansen station and a coupe, of ground line platforms. Keep the shinkansens to 7 or 8 car and sidings at a minimum. Or even jus a shinkansen loop with a station and some buildings outside the station and the rest blank to just get one scene in and trains running. We have done this with some of our Ttrak setups with over the end curve of the Ttrak being where the shinkansen station was and just bare viaduct loop in a big T formation with shinkansen loop being top of the T and Ttrak the upright. Worked well as we could run shinkansens and not have to fill a huge area with stuff.

 

Still a lot to transport and sent up by yourself. That is really hard! But doing something small may be easier to get going and then maybe find others in the area interesting in helping. 
 

Ttrak loop may also be an option. Setting up a small Ttrak loop is not so hard, but it’s an investment in money for modules (using the wooden canvases can help reduce this) and track, but you could share the buildings and even scenery bits with your home layout.

 

we get great response at the local Buddhist temple’s obon festival with just a little 6-8’ loop of Ttrak.

 

best of luck with it, hope something can happen.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[marknewton]

On 4/3/2023 at 1:55 PM, ATShinkansen said:

2. Who else lives in a city with a sister city in Japan?  For Austin, it’s Oita.

I live in the Sutherland shire, our sister city is Chuo city, a special ward of Tokyo.

 

The tramway museum I volunteer at has a Japanese connection as well:

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[maihama eki]

Colorado Springs is city sister to Fujiyoshida, celebrating 60 years of sisterhood? last year. Both cities have an iconic mountain nearby. Fujiyoshida: Mt. Fuji and Colorado Springs: Pikes Peak.

 

There is a small monument to this in downtown Colorado Springs with a Torii.