NHK program on Tetsudo Boom including women fans

[gmat]

Broadcast right now. Recording it, but need to get a better and more reliable recorder. Anyone else watching it in Japan?

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[gmat]

Had a bit on an older woman who remembered trains from when she was younger. Another had a father and his six year old son traveling around Nagano. Showed the father visiting a train schedule book fair and later planning an itinerary using a schedule book. They showed their station stamp notebook and they also met a Taiwanese woman fan and talked with her.

 

Tonight on TV Tokyo's Sora Kara Nihon o Mite, (Looking at Japan from the Sky) the two clouds travel along the Joban Line.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Just missed the Joban Line program, unfortunately...

[bikkuri bahn]

Tetsudo Boom including women fans

 

To add, I always take these reports with a grain of salt.  First of all, as anyone living in Japan knows, whenever there is a "boom", there is inevitably the "bust" following.  The growing ranks of "railfans" are mostly made up of the casual variety, who like riding trains, eating ekiben, or (most annoyingly) taking pictures at last run ceremonies (often teenagers with their line-of-sight obstructing cell-phone cameras)- where were they when the trains in question were still running day in and day out??  Of this casual railfan category, women make up a small minority.  Of the what I call the "true" hardcore railfan category (sometimes dubbed the "maniac" マニアック category), women fans are nearly mythical in existence.  As far as women railfans that have been profiled, I consider the woman who lives in Kansai (I can't recall her name), who follows freight trains and takes interest in old lengths of rail, as one of these true fans (fellow fans can easily smell a fake or a genuine fan).  I don't consider the tetsudo idols as true fans, because they make their living on their novelty, and the prurient interests of some lonely male rivet counters.

[Tenorikuma]

One of the model train magazines I just bought here in Japan features a college girl who collects trains.

[Martijn Meerts]

One of the model train magazines I just bought here in Japan features a college girl who collects trains.

 

It's obvious I live in the wrong country =)

[gmat]

True, but they do exist.

 

 

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[Guest ___]

Tetsudo Boom including women fans

 

To add, I always take these reports with a grain of salt.  First of all, as anyone living in Japan knows, whenever there is a "boom", there is inevitably the "bust" following.  The growing ranks of "railfans" are mostly made up of the casual variety, who like riding trains, eating ekiben, or (most annoyingly) taking pictures at last run ceremonies (often teenagers with their line-of-sight obstructing cell-phone cameras)- where were they when the trains in question were still running day in and day out??  Of this casual railfan category, women make up a small minority.  Of the what I call the "true" hardcore railfan category (sometimes dubbed the "maniac" マニアック category), women fans are nearly mythical in existence.  As far as women railfans that have been profiled, I consider the woman who lives in Kansai (I can't recall her name), who follows freight trains and takes interest in old lengths of rail, as one of these true fans (fellow fans can easily smell a fake or a genuine fan).  I don't consider the tetsudo idols as true fans, because they make their living on their novelty, and the prurient interests of some lonely male rivet counters.

 

I actually want to smack myself at the moment for also forgetting her name. She's been on TV several times and often appears in Railfan Magazine. I was lucky enough to have met her last year by total randomness while at Osaka Station. Sadly she did not speak English and we just stood there pointing at each others cameras, the copy of Railfan that poked its head out the top of my Domke, and the occasional blurb of "207" and ""Haruka" I got a picture of her somewhere in the archives I'll have to dig for.

[keitaro]

Tetsudo Boom including women fans

 

To add, I always take these reports with a grain of salt.  First of all, as anyone living in Japan knows, whenever there is a "boom", there is inevitably the "bust" following.  The growing ranks of "railfans" are mostly made up of the casual variety, who like riding trains, eating ekiben, or (most annoyingly) taking pictures at last run ceremonies (often teenagers with their line-of-sight obstructing cell-phone cameras)- where were they when the trains in question were still running day in and day out??  Of this casual railfan category, women make up a small minority.  Of the what I call the "true" hardcore railfan category (sometimes dubbed the "maniac" マニアック category), women fans are nearly mythical in existence.  As far as women railfans that have been profiled, I consider the woman who lives in Kansai (I can't recall her name), who follows freight trains and takes interest in old lengths of rail, as one of these true fans (fellow fans can easily smell a fake or a genuine fan).  I don't consider the tetsudo idols as true fans, because they make their living on their novelty, and the prurient interests of some lonely male rivet counters.

 

when i was in denden town i went into kids land i think it was called ??

 

 

anyway they have 4 levels of hobby trains are on the top level.

 

anyway i spent a good 3 hours in the shop on lvl 4 looking at every train they had hahah.

 

while i was there 2 girls came in maybe uni age 18 -24 ish they were buying trains 3 if i remember right a shinkansen and 2 others i remember because they kept looking at me and saying i was hot.

 

i'm not good with JAPANESE but they were saying Kakkui realy not sure on how to spell it

 

but i think they do not come out at night only day not the first time i seen a girl in there during the day.

 

having said that not many....

 

i could be wrong and there boy friends sent them to get it hahaha

 

 

 

Edit*** i'm a moron and wrote i'm not good with english where infact i meant japanese hahaha

[gmat]

Keitaro,

If it's OK, 'kakkoii' might be an acceptable way to spell it. You must already be rather good looking. Nothing exists within a vacuum.

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

I think I found the program gmat saw on NHK.  It's an episode of current event program "Close-up Gendai". For those that can understand Japanese, you can see what I think is the first half of the program here(click on the red button):

 

http://cgi4.nhk.or.jp/gendai/kiroku/detail.cgi?content_id=2989

 

I found the part about the college coed interesting- she's a student of Keio Univ, one of the top private institutions in Japan, and she joined the univ. railway club, which actually has a long history and have published books in the past, including a rolling stock profile back in the sixties.