Lets make a trip to Tokyo .

[cteno4]

Maybe we need to do a group or official JNS Official meeting.

 

a couple of years ago one of the clubs in australia tried to coordinate a japan trip with JRM members around the big model rr expo. just never quite worked out. big costs and timings were just tough...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Kitayama]

Well, I'll be in Kyoto from mid Oct to mid Dec of this year, and in Tokyo for the very last week of that. FWIW.

 

Hmmm... I'll be in Kyoto from mid Oct to end of Dec. Langauge studies in the weekdays, train travel in the weekends :-)

My wife will not join me on nerd trips in Kansai. 

[CaptOblivious]

Well, I'll be in Kyoto from mid Oct to mid Dec of this year, and in Tokyo for the very last week of that. FWIW.

 

Hmmm... I'll be in Kyoto from mid Oct to end of Dec. Langauge studies in the weekdays, train travel in the weekends :-)

My wife will not join me on nerd trips in Kansai. 

 

We should get together and nerd it up some, then!

[Nick_Burman]

 

There is a phrase for this that I've discovered recently: Nerd tourism. I like it.

 

Some 100Km west of Rio de Janeiro is the town of Volta Redonda where Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (National Steel Company) has its main plant. Like Yokkaichi, it's an industrial place (built for and around the mill) with no "tourist" interest. However the steel company did mantain a hotel (formerly a guest house but turned into a hotel and opened to the public) in the hills behind the town with a good but distant view over the mill. My father and I availed of this accomodation several times, the terrace swimming pool being a definite incentive (especially after a few days travelling "in the bush") - and with the steel company subsidizing the operation prices were a bargain. However the nicest part was at night...from the terrace you could see the entire mill, all illuminated - it was absolutely mesmerizing, all the lights, the smoke, the steam, the noise. And from time to time the coke ovens would be tapped, enveloping the whole town with an eerie orange glow. For a teenager (I'm 34 today) it was absolutely fantastic... However this can't be repeated as the hotel was sold when the steel company was privatized in the 1990's. If it is still in operation, prices must have gone through the roof...

 

Cheers NB

[Nick_Burman]

Oh yes, that and the freight action.

 

I thought as much.

 

...The industrial, non-glamorous atmosphere of the place also appeals to me...

 

I'm with you on that. I grew up in inner-city Sydney when it was still full of old factories, power stations and railway yards, all of which fascinated me - as they still do. Like you my early railfan forays were to places I could get to by walking, riding the bike or catching the train. Best of all was going to work in the goods yard at Darling Harbour, which you'd have loved.

 

This is a wonderful short documentary film called "Island Shunters" which was made there in 1977. I couldn't imagine anyone being allowed access to make something like this these days. I knew most of these blokes, in fact a few of them are still around on the job today. A word of warning, though. If you're likely to be offended by robust use of the English language, turn the sound off! 

 

Ahh, memories.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

Gosh, you can cut the accents with a knife... One thing I always was amazed about Aussie railroading is the fact that personel can/could wear shorts/bermudas at work. This is inconceivable over here... on Vale's Vitoria a Minas Railway it's workboots, trousers, hard hats, safety glasses and ear muffs...in the open air and in the tropics!

 

Cheers NB

[scott]

When I read the Lonely Planet guide book and it describes a city as 'industrial port city, nothing of interest to tourists' I get a desire to check it out.

 

I know that feeling.

 

I have exactly the same reaction, although possibly to different kinds of scenes ("boring" rural areas rather than industrial cities). Most of our non-family-visit trips have been "nerd tourism," but with nerds who carry around binoculars and wear deeply unfashionable many-pocketed vests full of field guides. :-)

 

Birders are the only people I know who go to sewage treatment plants on their vacations. We have a few that we've returned to multiple times. 

 

Nothing annoys me more than the assumption made by the tourim and travel industry that if a place doesn't have a museum/art gallery/castle/cathedral/, or trendoid nightclubs full of so-called "celebrities", it's not worth visiting. But then, I realise that the travel mob aren't equipped to cope with people whose interests go beyond what they see in NW magazine.

 

And the travel-publishing industry has no clue that everything they do is completely uninteresting, even off-putting, to people who like to travel. Of course, independent "nerd tourists" are not the ones they care about.

 

My first long-term job after college, when I was trying to save up money to do some nerdy travel writing, was at a travel-publishing company in Miami. They turned out to be peddling worthless, glossy promotional publications for (mostly Caribbean) hotels and cruise ships. It was almost all focused on commercial attractions and shopping, and treated the destinations like rented playgrounds for tourists. I still call that my "bad karma" job, but at least I got out of it as soon as I could manage it. I did get a couple of "research trips" out of it (to the USVI, Virgin Gorda, Barbados, and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico), which were fun and interesting, but which really showed me the difference between tourist promotion and actually getting to know a place.

 

OK, I'll stop now. I could go on for pages like this. :-P

[Guest ___]

I never EVER do the touristy thing, and it has always driven my hosts nuts too becasue they plan my visits around all the touristy places they want to take me.

[Tecchan]

I never EVER do the touristy thing, and it has always driven my hosts nuts too becasue they plan my visits around all the touristy places they want to take me.

 

Means what? When you go to Kyoto for example, you don't go to Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari or Kyomizu Dera?

To Paris, not Le Louvre or Eiffel Tower. Roma the Coliseum, etc. ?

 

I don't consider myself like a touristy-tourist as I hate group tours and I like to be free, but if I go to Venice sometime, there it's likely that I will go to St Marc Place.

[westfalen]

There are some things you have to see, every city has a famous landmark like the Eiffel Tower, but once I've seen it I've seen it and I'm off riding or chasing trains.

[Martijn Meerts]

I never EVER do the touristy thing, and it has always driven my hosts nuts too becasue they plan my visits around all the touristy places they want to take me.

 

Means what? When you go to Kyoto for example, you don't go to Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari or Kyomizu Dera?

To Paris, not Le Louvre or Eiffel Tower. Roma the Coliseum, etc. ?

 

I don't consider myself like a touristy-tourist as I hate group tours and I like to be free, but if I go to Venice sometime, there it's likely that I will go to St Marc Place.

 

Actually, I've been to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.. Worst, the place I stayed at (only a day, traveled further after that) was right next door to the tower ;)

 

Also, I've been to the Vatican, went through the museum there and everything, yet I didn't get to see the sistine chapel ...

[ToniBabelony]

Same here, when I travel to famous cities, or places where there are landmarks, I rather go and visit the local cuisine and breweries, go train spotting and check out the daily life. I'm more interested in how people live and eat, rather then where all the other tourists are and where you can get your crummy steak and pizza with a horrible Heineken.

 

I've been on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but only after the 6th or 7th time I visited the place. Heck, I couldn't care less about it. There are some great restaurants in the Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods and some good Japanese ones as well.

 

Even in Bonn, I've not visited the Beethoven House, not even after 4 years living here.

[CaptOblivious]

I am soooo tired of visiting the top of the Gateway Arch. I do enjoy seeing landmarks, but I prefer to at least leave time for my own interests. We'll be staying literally a block from Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, and I know we'll see it once while we're there, because there will be time. Whether we see it a second time remains to be seen.

 

But, shoot, in Japan, the trains are a major cultural landmark. :D

[Guest ___]

I never EVER do the touristy thing, and it has always driven my hosts nuts too becasue they plan my visits around all the touristy places they want to take me.

 

Means what? When you go to Kyoto for example, you don't go to Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari or Kyomizu Dera?

To Paris, not Le Louvre or Eiffel Tower. Roma the Coliseum, etc. ?

 

I don't consider myself like a touristy-tourist as I hate group tours and I like to be free, but if I go to Venice sometime, there it's likely that I will go to St Marc Place.

 

Only found by complete accident. I do not own, or read travel guides, nor do I do any sort of research on that stuff. If I Were to go to  Rome and see the Leaning Tower, it would only be by freak luck, that I stumbled upon it while on a rental Vespa, or by dumb luck, that I got off the train there. A great example of this was I went to shoot the tram in tokyo, rode it from one station to another, got off found the Keihan0--Tohuku line, went the wrong way by accident where I ended up ion Saitama. Before taking the train in the other direction, decided to grab some shinkansen shots where I inadvertently found the railway museum.  his is just the way I travel.

[Martijn Meerts]

I never EVER do the touristy thing, and it has always driven my hosts nuts too becasue they plan my visits around all the touristy places they want to take me.

 

Means what? When you go to Kyoto for example, you don't go to Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari or Kyomizu Dera?

To Paris, not Le Louvre or Eiffel Tower. Roma the Coliseum, etc. ?

 

I don't consider myself like a touristy-tourist as I hate group tours and I like to be free, but if I go to Venice sometime, there it's likely that I will go to St Marc Place.

 

Only found by complete accident. I do not own, or read travel guides, nor do I do any sort of research on that stuff. If I Were to go to  Rome and see the Leaning Tower, it would only be by freak luck, that I stumbled upon it while on a rental Vespa, or by dumb luck, that I got off the train there. A great example of this was I went to shoot the tram in tokyo, rode it from one station to another, got off found the Keihan0--Tohuku line, went the wrong way by accident where I ended up ion Saitama. Before taking the train in the other direction, decided to grab some shinkansen shots where I inadvertently found the railway museum.  his is just the way I travel.

 

If you were to go to Rome and see the Leaning Tower, you'd have taken a very wrong turn somewhere. Or you'd be in an alternate/parallel universe where certain things got built in different places ;)

[to2leo]

Just my own rail travel experiences to Japan. I will sum it up in favourites and describe the city in one sentence.

1) Tokyo -model train shopping and sights, should be your last destination in Japan, unless you want to carry all those train items along.

2) Kyoto -love the sights and neigbouring Nara.  AVOID the weekend and holidays.

3) Hiroshima -tram ride, Miyajima UNESCO site, food and Mazda Plant tour.

4) Toyohashi -only for the Fireworks festival.

5) Osaka -Osaka castle and its central park.

6) Nagoya, Nagasaki and all others can be skipped if you are there for only one month or less.

 

Have fun!

[cteno4]

My wife and i were talking about if we were going to do a trip this year and she has suggested japan. she usually likes to strike out to new places as to many on her list and less interested in going back to someplace she has been before (we did 3.5 weeks in japan in 2003), but she made the point it would be good to support tourism and not show the rest of the world is now scared of japan and also since there will probably be many foreign tourists scared of radiation for a time it will be much easier and less crowded to travel. hopefully the yen will mellow a bit here as well. sounds all good to me!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

Just my own rail travel experiences to Japan. I will sum it up in favourites and describe the city in one sentence.

1) Tokyo -model train shopping and sights, should be your last destination in Japan, unless you want to carry all those train items along.

2) Kyoto -love the sights and neigbouring Nara.  AVOID the weekend and holidays.

3) Hiroshima -tram ride, Miyajima UNESCO site, food and Mazda Plant tour.

4) Toyohashi -only for the Fireworks festival.

5) Osaka -Osaka castle and its central park.

6) Nagoya, Nagasaki and all others can be skipped if you are there for only one month or less.

 

Don't forget Hokkaido!! It's like Japan's Alaska, and Kyushu, Japan in Hawaii

 

quote author=Martijn Meerts link=topic=4381.msg45914#msg45914 date=1300717811]

If you were to go to Rome and see the Leaning Tower, you'd have taken a very wrong turn somewhere. Or you'd be in an alternate/parallel universe where certain things got built in different places ;)

 

EXACTLY! That is entirely my point. That's typically how I find anything anywhere when I travel, by clear and total luck and aimless going somewhere where I have no clue on where I'm going. I could see the Watts Tower on a trip to NY. LOL

 

My wife and i were talking about if we were going to do a trip this year and she has suggested japan. she usually likes to strike out to new places as to many on her list and less interested in going back to someplace she has been before (we did 3.5 weeks in japan in 2003), but she made the point it would be good to support tourism and not show the rest of the world is now scared of japan and also since there will probably be many foreign tourists scared of radiation for a time it will be much easier and less crowded to travel. hopefully the yen will mellow a bit here as well. sounds all good to me!

 

If not for four grand tied up in new gear, I would have been on the first flight over after the quake.

[Guest ___]

Just my own rail travel experiences to Japan. I will sum it up in favourites and describe the city in one sentence.

1) Tokyo -model train shopping and sights, should be your last destination in Japan, unless you want to carry all those train items along.

2) Kyoto -love the sights and neigbouring Nara.  AVOID the weekend and holidays.

3) Hiroshima -tram ride, Miyajima UNESCO site, food and Mazda Plant tour.

4) Toyohashi -only for the Fireworks festival.

5) Osaka -Osaka castle and its central park.

6) Nagoya, Nagasaki and all others can be skipped if you are there for only one month or less.

 

Don't forget Hokkaido!! It's like Japan's Alaska, and Kyushu, Japan in Hawaii

 

If you were to go to Rome and see the Leaning Tower, you'd have taken a very wrong turn somewhere. Or you'd be in an alternate/parallel universe where certain things got built in different places ;)

 

EXACTLY! That is entirely my point. That's typically how I find anything anywhere when I travel, by clear and total luck and aimless going somewhere where I have no clue on where I'm going. I could see the Watts Tower on a trip to NY. LOL

 

My wife and i were talking about if we were going to do a trip this year and she has suggested japan. she usually likes to strike out to new places as to many on her list and less interested in going back to someplace she has been before (we did 3.5 weeks in japan in 2003), but she made the point it would be good to support tourism and not show the rest of the world is now scared of japan and also since there will probably be many foreign tourists scared of radiation for a time it will be much easier and less crowded to travel. hopefully the yen will mellow a bit here as well. sounds all good to me!

 

If not for four grand tied up in new gear, I would have been on the first flight over after the quake.

[Guest ___]

Just my own rail travel experiences to Japan. I will sum it up in favourites and describe the city in one sentence.

1) Tokyo -model train shopping and sights, should be your last destination in Japan, unless you want to carry all those train items along.

2) Kyoto -love the sights and neigbouring Nara.  AVOID the weekend and holidays.

3) Hiroshima -tram ride, Miyajima UNESCO site, food and Mazda Plant tour.

4) Toyohashi -only for the Fireworks festival.

5) Osaka -Osaka castle and its central park.

6) Nagoya, Nagasaki and all others can be skipped if you are there for only one month or less.

 

Don't forget Hokkaido!! It's like Japan's Alaska, and Kyushu, Japan in Hawaii

 

If you were to go to Rome and see the Leaning Tower, you'd have taken a very wrong turn somewhere. Or you'd be in an alternate/parallel universe where certain things got built in different places ;)

 

EXACTLY! That is entirely my point. That's typically how I find anything anywhere when I travel, by clear and total luck and aimless going somewhere where I have no clue on where I'm going. I could see the Watts Tower on a trip to NY. LOL

 

My wife and i were talking about if we were going to do a trip this year and she has suggested japan. she usually likes to strike out to new places as to many on her list and less interested in going back to someplace she has been before (we did 3.5 weeks in japan in 2003), but she made the point it would be good to support tourism and not show the rest of the world is now scared of japan and also since there will probably be many foreign tourists scared of radiation for a time it will be much easier and less crowded to travel. hopefully the yen will mellow a bit here as well. sounds all good to me!

 

If not for four grand tied up in new gear, I would have been on the first flight over after the quake.

[domino]

Hey again

 

It looks like im going this year to Tokyo , likely in week 42, so to get some thing started, is any body from JNS going to  Tokyo in week 42 this year, if so lets meet

 

regards

brian

[Guest ___]

2012 is probably when I am going to do the bi Hokkaido rail trip.

 

Post made three days before half the places I wanted to see on that trip were damaged heavily. Might just spend three months in Tokyo instead. I have a lot of liberty built up that I'll need to use.