My Japanese Trip Aug/Sept 2010 Part 2

[westfalen]

Hakone part 4.

 

Tomorrow's the day my bank account has been dreading, hobby shops.

[to2leo]

Hakone part 4.

 

Tomorrow's the day my bank account has been dreading, hobby shops.

 

Fortunately, you got our maps as to where you can visit first before draining your money and found them later at a cheaper price!

[westfalen]

Hakone part 4.

 

Tomorrow's the day my bank account has been dreading, hobby shops.

 

Fortunately, you got our maps as to where you can visit first before draining your money and found them later at a cheaper price!

I'll probably spend just as much but buy more.

[westfalen]

westfalen,

Will your group be doing some shooting at Shinjuku Station before you leave for Hakone? You are probably familiar with what I'm going to say, but here goes. I can recommend the southern tip of platform 5/6 as you can get the 8:25 (Odoriku?) coming up from the south. If you are lucky, you can get the Chuo rapid line Orange 201, the last one in service.

Took your advice this morning, not a bad spot, I was lucky enough to get the 201, the shot's a bit blurred because it took me by surprise but the video came out ok. After a half hour or so I moved north to Yono, a couple of stops south of Omiya on the Keihin-Tōhoku Line just after the Musashino freight line rejoins the line. I saw quite a few freight trains with a variety of locomotives. In the afternoon I browsed the hobby shops at Akihabara and the Kato shop, I didn't buy a lot but got a Kato C62 at a discount and picked up a stack of Kawai freight cars at Tam Tam as well as a Tomytec Thomas train which I decided I had to have when I saw it. I was going to do a bit more train watching in the afternoon but browsing hobby shops takes time even if you don't buy much. I also spent more time at Yono than I expected when the freights kept coming and then later went into Yodobashi Camera saying to myself "just a quick look".

[westfalen]

Oji, Yono.

[westfalen]

Yono part 2.

[gmat]

If you are looking for some cheaper used rail magazines, you might visit Icarus. The name is usually listed in its katakana spelling. Ikarasu, I think. It is on the main street between Yotsuya and Ichigaya Stations. It should take less than 10 minutes on foot. From Iichgaya, go down over the bridge and turn left and follow the main road that runs parallel to the tracks. It goes slightly uphill towards Yotsuya Station. Go past the police box, (stay on the left of the police box) the building with the exercise center and past several display rooms. The small parking area to the entrance of Icarus is lined with a hedge. Some of the rail magazines were 200 yen or so. Icarus is mostly devoted to airline fans, but they have a good train DVD section. But almost no train goods, but lots of airline display models. The used magazines are on the table in front of the store and on the bookshelves in the back of the store. They should have a white price sticker. Very good selection of current train magazines and some train books. The books are on the wall on the right as you enter the shop (past the aviation books) and the magazines are in front of the cashier counter. (Also past the aviation magazines.)

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[gmat]

The last two of the 183 is a School Excursion Special. It paused at Shinjuku 10:00 to 10:09 every day this week. If you look closely, there are probably primary school kids (6th grade, I guess) sitting by the windows.

Best wishes,

Grant

[westfalen]

The last two of the 183 is a School Excursion Special. It paused at Shinjuku 10:00 to 10:09 every day this week. If you look closely, there are probably primary school kids (6th grade, I guess) sitting by the windows.

Best wishes,

Grant

Putting a train like that on a school excursion highlights one of the differences between Australia and Japan, back home the little s@%ts would have trashed it in five minutes.

[gmat]

If you have the good fortune to be in Japan during a three day holiday, the evening before and certainly the morning of the Saturday is quite busy with many Holiday trains. Some are regular local trains with special holiday titles or older or uncommon visitors. I saw a bunch between 7:30 to about 9:30 at Shinjuku yesterday. Did you see or catch any yesterday, Westfalen? It was the first time for me to realize this. Hope that you have a safe trip back.

Best wishes,

Grant

[westfalen]

If you have the good fortune to be in Japan during a three day holiday, the evening before and certainly the morning of the Saturday is quite busy with many Holiday trains. Some are regular local trains with special holiday titles or older or uncommon visitors. I saw a bunch between 7:30 to about 9:30 at Shinjuku yesterday. Did you see or catch any yesterday, Westfalen? It was the first time for me to realize this. Hope that you have a safe trip back.

Best wishes,

Grant

Didn't notice anything unusual while I was there, I didn't realise it was a holiday weekend. I know all about three day holidays though, a friend and I were in Japan in 1997 and had been happily traveling around in non-reserved seats until we tried to go from Kushiro to Sapporo on the Friday evening of the Health and Sports Day long weekend. Even though we arrived early every seat on the Super Ozora was taken and people were even sitting on the floor in the passage leading to the front door of the lead car, we ended up in an alcove intended for stowing skis with me sitting on a shelf and my friend standing in front of me strapped in with the straps for holding the the skis.

 

I'm back home ok. Just finished watching the Cassiopea DVD after dinner, not bad for the price of a pack of sugar frosties. I've got a lot of video watching ahead of me with the video I took myself (I'll post some as I work my way through it), DVDs I bought and the ones you gave me.

 

Yesterday to fill in time before we headed for the airport some of us went to the railway museum at Omiya, we could have spent twice as long there as we did and I spent most of what was left of my money in the gift shop.

[westfalen]

Omiya Museum part 2.

[westfalen]

"The Yamanote line has two sets of specially marked cars. One is for Suumo and the other I haven't seen close up. Sorry, no photos yet."

 

Is this the one? It ran alongside us on the way back from the museum.

[ShinCanadaSen]

MMMMMM Pocky's ! Not as good as strawberry Pucca's but still very good. :)

[gmat]

Westfalen,

Yes, that was the other. The men pictured are members of the group YMO. You may know one, Ryuichi Sakamoto from the last Emperor. He acted well, but unfortunately proved that intonation is as important as pronunciation is speaking a foreign language.

Have you looked at the NHK train and pictures dvd?

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[westfalen]

Westfalen,

Yes, that was the other. The men pictured are members of the group YMO. You may know one, Ryuichi Sakamoto from the last Emperor. He acted well, but unfortunately proved that intonation is as important as pronunciation is speaking a foreign language.

Have you looked at the NHK train and pictures dvd?

 

Best wishes,

Grant

Thank you very much for the DVDs, I've watched them several times, they would have been worth my while staying up to watch. The footage of steam from the 50's, 60's and 70's is especially great, my model purchasing lately has been leaning toward that era now I'm inspired even more. I was going to say not a shinkansen in sight but there is one sequence of a D51 departing Tokyo station alongside a 0 series in October 1970 with more people on the roofs of nearby buildings than Shinjuku in the rush hour, I'm assuming it could be the last regular steam departure from Tokyo?

[bikkuri bahn]

but there is one sequence of a D51 departing Tokyo station alongside a 0 series in October 1970 with more people on the roofs of nearby buildings than Shinjuku in the rush hour, I'm assuming it could be the last regular steam departure from Tokyo?

 

That was a three day event- 10,11 and 18th of October, commemorating the end of steam operations on the Takashima Freight Line in Yokohama, the steam train was a rinji ressha(special) rather than a regularly scheduled train.  I'm not sure when the last regularly scheduled steam passenger trains operated out of Tokyo Station, but I assume it was at an (much) earlier date.

[bikkuri bahn]

As for the last regularly scheduled steam services from Tokyo Station, that may have ended with the complete electrification of the Tokaido Line in Nov. 1956.  The Tsubame and Hato ltd expresses, which previously had been handled by C59 and C62 types, were instead entrusted to the EF58.  After that, steam fans had to go to Ueno, which would remain steamy into the next decade.

[westfalen]

As for the last regularly scheduled steam services from Tokyo Station, that may have ended with the complete electrification of the Tokaido Line in Nov. 1956.  The Tsubame and Hato ltd expresses, which previously had been handled by C59 and C62 types, were instead entrusted to the EF58.  After that, steam fans had to go to Ueno, which would remain steamy into the next decade.

Then it may have one of the first appearances of steam at Tokyo station since 1956, either way it would explain the crowds of fans. If the loco had been in regular use on the Takashima line, even though it was on a special at the time, it may still have been the last visit to Tokyo of a steamer in regular service as opposed to 'preserved' locos such as today's D51 498.

 

Anyway it gives a good excuse to run steam beside my '0' series.