Toni’s Spring 2023 Japan Trip

[chadbag]

8 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

@chadbag - Thanks.  Good to know.  My winter plan had been to fly from the US directly to Sapporo (works out to three flights from RDU) then train back.  Summer in Hokkaido seems nice - and I am now thinking we should stop in Aomori after a conversation with another guest at the hotel in Kyoto.  So lots of thinking to be done on this but I am counting on going to Japan again next year. Hopefully for a longer trip if I can better manage my music schedule.

 

WRT Aomori, we were at the breakfast room in our hotel when an older Japanese lady started chatting with us - her English was very good and I guess she wanted to use it.  She told us she was from Aomori and I told her I hope to visit there sometime during apple season.  Without missing a beat, she very definitely corrected my pronunciation - wondering if she was a schoolteacher before she retired.

 

Ciao,

Tony

 

When we were in Japan in 2019 we spent a few days in Hokkaido and stopped in Aomori on the way.  Right at the time of their summer festival.  We got to see the evening parade and buy some festival swag and drink some Apple juice.  We were only there for a partial day but it was fun. I'd like to visit again.  My wife had lived in Aomori a few months back 20-25 years prior and was showing us where she had been in the city.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by chadbag

[Tony Galiani]

We are currently in Greece and it is quit a change from Japan!  Not that we did not know that and expect it.  As one of my co-workers pointed out - she was born in Greece - its a wonderful place but also quite chaotic.  

 

People are very nice and helpful which is one similarity though.  We were on the bus to Nafplio when we stopped in Corinth to pick up passengers.  One was an Asian backpacker and I could see people gesturing to her and to our bus to make sure she got on the right bus.  Once on the bus, carrying a piece of paper with handwritten directions, other riders looked out for her.  We were passing through towns when one young girl ran up to the bus driver to alert him to stop to let the backpacker off while others were calling to him and gesturing to her that this was her stop.  Nice to see.

 

Sadly, the infrastructure and train situation has little resemblance to Japan.  Our bus out of Athens ran next to a double track electrified main line between Athens and Corinth.  For forty minutes or so I kept a look out but did not see a single train.  In Japan I would have only waited a few minutes to see one.

 

Once past Corinth, I saw the remains of the Pelopennese meter gauge system.  It was shut down pre-Covid and, while there had been plans to reopen the line, nothing has come of it so far.  The odd thing was that it appeared to be in very good shape despite the rails being covered in a patina of rust.  It had concrete ties at every location I saw, the gravel was in decent shape with very few weeds or plants growing on the roadbed and no trees or bushes growing onto the right of way.  All the bridges looked good and there was a three span girder bridge over what is now a dry wash but which I expect could get a lot of water if there were to be heavy rains.

 

The situation in Nafplio was not so good.  There is a goods shed and two grounded coaches in decent shape as the are protected by a steel fence.  However, a short distance away, in front of the passenger station is a plinthed locomotive and one coach.  The loco is (if Wikipedia is accurate) an 2-6-0T built by Krauss.  It and the coach are covered in graffiti (as is much of Greece!) and makes a very sad picture.

 

While I like being here I am starting to think that one long trip to Japan may be on the books for next year as opposed to shorter trips to multiple destinations.  We shall see.

 

Ciao,

Tony

Edited June 18, 2023 by Tony Galiani
corrected wheel arrangement

[Tony Galiani]

Back from Greece but I need to mention one amazing train sighting.  We were in Athens walking by the Roman Agora where there is a open air section on one of the Metro lines.  Noted a typical Athens Metro train go by - completely covered with graffiti.  But then a few minutes later a second train came by - same type, not new stock - totally clean without any graffiti whatsoever.  I was so surprised that I stopped to watch - first time in my trips to Greece that I have seen an untagged train.  Wonder if that will ever happen again?!

Ciao,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Finally got a few pictures from my trip.  I rarely take any pictures since my wife takes hundreds (thousands?) of pictures each trip though it takes her some time to get around to sharing them.

Here is one from our first Shinkansen ride.  She has little train experience - she grew up in New Brunswick, Canada as the passenger service there was being phased out and so most of her experience has been the grubby metros in some of the European cities we have traveled to.  She was wowed by the Shinkansen and the Tokyo area metro trains - they made quite an impression on her.

Will post a few more later on.

Ciao,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Old and new at the Kyoto Railway Museum.  I enjoyed our visit and was also surprised how much my wife enjoyed it.  The only downside was that we were quite tired and did not stay as long as we would have liked.  We had walked over there from our hotel (in the rain from Typhoon Mawar) and took a couple of detours - to get an umbrella for me and then another as we took a  wrong turn.  And before we got to the museum, we visited the Kyoto Aquarium so even restorative lattes and cake at a nearby Starbucks didn't help much with our lack of energy.  However, we liked Kyoto and realized there is a lot more to see - I also missed the Poppondetta shop in the Aeon Mall! - so we do plan to get back there.

 

After riding the current Shinkansen, it was fun to see the original which you can walk through.  High tech in its day but looking a bit crude now.  And the old and new express trains are a nice contrast.

 

Ciao,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

A couple more pictures from the Kyoto Railway Museum.  There are several layouts there but I found these dioramas to be the most appealing to me.  I particularly like the small diorama with the KiHa entering the rural station.  Just a single track scene but very effective with the railway fitting into the landscape rather than dominating it.  I spent a bit of time just taking in all the details.

Ciao,
Tony

[JR East]

On 7/11/2023 at 2:58 PM, Tony Galiani said:

Just a single track scene but very effective with the railway fitting into the landscape rather than dominating it

 

They applied the basic principles of a good .... photo. Choose a nice background and wait for something interesting happens in the foreground (*)

 

Here the small shrine, the stairs, etc ... is great. The arrival of the KiHa is the nice foreground. 

 

(*) usually the main part of photographers do exactly the contrary. They're shooting the foreground without taking care of the background. Result : when they are back from holidays / event / etc ... they realize that the background is rottening the picture. Of course, when you've someone noticing this for photobombing ...it's worst. 

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by JR East
typo

[Aleks]

On 7/5/2023 at 4:19 AM, Tony Galiani said:

Finally got a few pictures from my trip.  I rarely take any pictures since my wife takes hundreds (thousands?) of pictures each trip though it takes her some time to get around to sharing them.

Here is one from our first Shinkansen ride.  She has little train experience - she grew up in New Brunswick, Canada as the passenger service there was being phased out and so most of her experience has been the grubby metros in some of the European cities we have traveled to.  She was wowed by the Shinkansen and the Tokyo area metro trains - they made quite an impression on her.

Will post a few more later on.

Ciao,

Tony

Late into this thread but just realized I took a photo of that exact spot back in December. I was hopping on a Shinkansen to go to Shinagawa 🙂 . Why not with a rail pass.