Why Did You Come to Japan? SL Banetsu Monogatari Appearance

[SL58654号]

I wanted to share this here for your viewing pleasure. 😄
In the fall of 2016 I went to attend Rikkyo University in Tokyo. It was my second venture to Japan at that time and I thought it would be my last. I'm glad that I was wrong! 
I wanted to seek out as many locales that offered steam for pleasure while I had the chance. One stop on my personal itinerary, after having at least seen the SL Hitoyoshi and Paleo Express for the first time, was to see SL C57 180 and ride the Banetsu Monogatari.
While searching through Shinjuku bus station to find a ticket booth and reserve myself a ticket for the bus trip and the SL ride itself, this Japanese TV crew found and offered me an interview, just to ask what I was doing in Japan and where I was going... This shows you what happened.

My segment begins at 35:26 exactly, but you can see previews for my adventure earlier in this show.
It was a memory of Japan 🇯🇵 I'll never forget. Hope you'll enjoy. 🌸

[cteno4]

Wow! That such a great piece SL! Kudos for you being such a good sport for the piece and your honesty and humanity! Those types of surprise interviews can end up getting so warped at times it’s a great credit to you that it came out so wonderful. 
 

I can see why a treasured memory for you, I have very many personal memories of my travels in Japan like this I treasure. Not on video like your’s but at least on neurochrome.

 

kudos,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

@cteno4 Even though I was being somewhat of a geek over trains (though I'm unembarrassed about that, as I should) I was so thankful that they portrayed me in a positive unassuming light throughout the whole journey. I just wanted to show Japan how far a foreigner would go for his genuine love of trains.
 

[cteno4]

I forgot to ask where in Pennsylvania you are from. My mom is from Mechanicsburg. I’ve spent lots of time there.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

I think it was all in your reactions that kept it very true and human and something real and not spinning off I to that reality tv fodder those types of shows can sometimes roll into. It seems to have pushed a good chunk of the show into a nice railfaning piece. 
 

jeff

[SL58654号]

26 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

I forgot to ask where in Pennsylvania you are from. My mom is from Mechanicsburg. I’ve spent lots of time there.

 

jeff

I'd rather keep too many specifics obscure online, but I'm from a very small village near Allentown. I'm the region where the Strasburg Railroad isn't/wasn't prohibitively far for me to visit. My town was served by a now long-abandoned short line railroad called the Chestnut Ridge Railway, which had scrapped all of its steamers by 1957. 

[kuro68000]

Wow, they did a whole section about you! They clearly put a lot of effort into it too, getting all that B roll too. And you are so well spoken too. You really explained your love of steam engines so well. I think you achieved your goal, and Japan needs some positive views of foreigners at the moment.

 

Can I ask, did they ask you to speak English? It seems like you have decent Japanese. It's interesting that they translated some of your words using katakana... I'm not going to read too much into it, but it's an interesting choice.

 

I see you were accosted by an oji-san. I swear some of them hang around touristy places looking for foreigners to talk to.

 

Do you still live in Japan?

[SL58654号]

30 minutes ago, mojo said:

Wow, they did a whole section about you! They clearly put a lot of effort into it too, getting all that B roll too. And you are so well spoken too. You really explained your love of steam engines so well. I think you achieved your goal, and Japan needs some positive views of foreigners at the moment.

 

Can I ask, did they ask you to speak English? It seems like you have decent Japanese. It's interesting that they translated some of your words using katakana... I'm not going to read too much into it, but it's an interesting choice.

 

I see you were accosted by an oji-san. I swear some of them hang around touristy places looking for foreigners to talk to.

 

Do you still live in Japan?

Thank you very much. It was an honor to be on the show, let alone have them follow me on my steam locomotive excursion. I wish that I could've done the same with the SL Hitoyoshi when I rode that! They were somewhat surprised by my reserved nature, compared to the more rambunctious style they expected of other Americans, I would say.

Well, I wasn't required to use Japanese, and I was only just starting out with my learning of it at Rikkyo at the time. 

Yes, we exchanged New Year's cards that January, and he even owns a rice cracker making business. He sent me a whole box as a New Year's gift! 

Yes I am. My time in Japan back at Rikkyo (as well as my adventure on Why Did You Come to Japan?) solidified my intention to return after I finished university in America and I found a way to come back, which I did in the spring of 2019. I've been in Kumamoto Prefecture (hence my fixation with the SL Hitoyoshi) ever since then...
And my adventure is just beginning... 🌸

[MeTheSwede]

Thanks for sharing.

 

You didn't look and sound like a random foreigner picked up at the bus station, but rather like someone NHK World ought to hire. Quite impressive! 😮

 

The ojiisan on the train presenting himself as Japanese made me burst out laughing. 😆

 

 

 

[SL58654号]

21 minutes ago, MeTheSwede said:

Thanks for sharing.

 

You didn't look and sound like a random foreigner picked up at the bus station, but rather like someone NHK World ought to hire. Quite impressive! 😮

 

The ojiisan on the train presenting himself as Japanese made me burst out laughing. 😆

 

 

 

I am grateful for your remarks. 

Well, I thought that I had to sit where my assigned seat was, and it so happened that he was there, so I made some small talk...

[Gunzel]

That’s awesome, always enjoy watching this show. 

[SL-san]

22 hours ago, SL58654号 said:

It was a memory of Japan

And what a memory!

One of my favourite memories is taking a trip on SL Yamaguchi from Shin-Yamaguchi to Tsuwano and return behind SL C57-1 in October 2008. 

That line is not so far from you in Kumamoto...a trip for the future perhaps.

 

Graeme

 

[SL58654号]

3 hours ago, SL-san said:

And what a memory!

One of my favourite memories is taking a trip on SL Yamaguchi from Shin-Yamaguchi to Tsuwano and return behind SL C57-1 in October 2008. 

That line is not so far from you in Kumamoto...a trip for the future perhaps.

 

Graeme

 

Indeed, I already have taken the SL Yamaguchi between those two stations, but behind D51 200.
I have both D51 and C57 1 (which I haven't seen in the steel yet, get it?) in N gauge by KATO.