Railfans in Japan

[kuro68000]

Back in the news again, and not for a good reason.

 

[Tony Galiani]

This has got to be tough on the train crews and station staff.  They are not going to want to see someone hurt while they are on the job so it has got to be stressful for them.

Tony

[bill937ca]

All this just for a work EMU towing an out of service train!

Edited October 20 by bill937ca

[bc6]

I agree with you bill and a dirty train at that.

Edited October 22 by bc6

[bill937ca]

4051 is a Hankyu Railway "rescue car." Appearances of this car would be unscheduled and very rare.  Before electronic communications maybe only half a dozen railfans would know of this run.  As this was an after hours recovery, today it would be on social media all day and the whole world shows up!!

 

 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/阪急4050形電車

 

A quieter scene of the recovery.

 

 

Edited October 20 by bill937ca

[Beaver]

This then is why most railway companies ban tripods, steps and other photography aids from their premises. Because they will make the horde of photographers problem much worse. Too many steps and even full blown ladders to count in that video.

[RS18U]

When we visited in March my wife was amazed at how many people she observed taking pictures of trains.  Nothing like this, but not something we see a lot of here in any case.  I had fun taking pictures of people taking pictures of the trains.

[eldomtom2]

To my outside eyes, Japanese railway photography is a very peculiar subculture, with arcane standards for "good" photos that lead to endless identical shots.

[bill937ca]

But there is a much larger market for publication judging by the  number of prototype railway magazines.

[Kamome]

I honestly think the focus towards hobbies here can just be purely escapist and perhaps a required selfishness, as a way to balance the conformist mentality that is required of them in pretty much all other aspects of their existence. A group of photographers can evoke that little bit of necessary rebelliousness that I doubt any one of them would dream of doing individually.  

 

All interests have their obsessives, but any form of railway enthusiasm does seem to get the lion's share, resulting in any form of railway related hobbies being a taboo. I never tell people what my hobby is, as there are pre-determined negative ideas of what that entails. In the UK, we use there term "anorak" which slang usage originates from a waterproof jacket worn by train-spotters.  Now the term is used for those with solitary, obsessive interests, who possess social ineptness. It's pretty much the same definition as Otaku.

 

I remember taking my kids to see the recent Minions movie, and there was a photo opportunity to have your photo taken with 2 people in minion suits which we later found out, to my youngest son's dismay, needed a pre-booked ticket . The queue consisted mainly of adults with no children, all dressed in their Minion merchandise. Out of about 20 groups, there were only 2 groups with children. You equally observe many young woman who look like they pretty much living at Tokyo Disneyland as well as adults running for events when their children look a lot less enthused.   While these observations make me chuckle, I do like the way people here express themselves without fear of judgement or reprisal, then Monday, it's back to business as usual.

 

[kuro68000]

The best photos, IMHO, are the rural ones that combine the train and the natural beauty of Japan.

 

That sort of thing seems to be separate from this type of photography where the goal appears to be to just capture a not even particularly rare train, like it's a Pokémon trading card or something. I've noticed that trading cards seem to be very popular now - Akihabara has only a few electronics shops left, but loads of new card ones. Maybe that has something to do with it.

[kuro68000]

Looks like they are at it again...

 

I'm actually quite shocked by their behaviour here.

 

[bill937ca]

That is several years old.

 

 

Edited October 28 by bill937ca

[Kamome]

To be honest, the guy on the bike could’ve been any fair weather cyclist in Japan. Being both an avid cyclist and motorist, there seems to be a general rule that it’s other people’s job to avoid these kinds of moronic cyclists. I’ve experienced this a lot as they text and shoot out across roads without looking for anything that could quite easily turn them into a pancake. The kids seat and sometimes child within is generally used as some form of traffic deterrent or makeshift airbag. You can generally cut up cars on your bicycle as long as you don’t make eye contact with the driver, and perform a brief bow to say thanks for not killing me.