Back from Japan

[Rocket]

Hello to all, my name is Rod Williams and I shoot a little video from time to time. You can see that here http://www.youtube.com/Rocketboy1950

I have just returned from Japan. I had planned 28 days on the ground and had done some intensive planning over quite a few weeks to ensure that I covered lines and companies from the remote to the big boys. I don't model but I tapped into this group to glean information on some of the lesser known operations.

At 1459 on March 11 I was just 5' from Akita on a Komachi when the lights went out and we came to a very rough stop. That rough stop lasted quite a while even after we stopped. Fortunately we stayed on the road.

We were rescued by taxi and taken to Akita about 6 hours later.

I was one of the lucky ones, I had a hotel room booked and I got a bed, albeit without food, heating, light or any means of communicating my safety to my family at home in Australia. 10 floors is a long way up with 30kgs of clothing and video equipment. It seemed hard at the time but I soon came to realise that I had nothing to complain about when the news started coming through of the greater tragedy that had occured on the east coast. My greatest difficulty was the mental anguish of being unable to contact anybody and the fear of the constant aftershocks that were waving my hotel around in space.

I spent three more days in Akita before I could secure a seat on a JAL flight back to Haneda. At the time word was that it may be impossible to get to Narita airport so I bit the bullet ( no pun intended ) and used the trains to go to Kansai where I had managed to get a seat home on Tuesday night.

The bulk of my videoing was aimed at West Japan but I never got there. I did get three of the first four runs of Hayabusa and I am the lucky owner of a reservation that I got from using it from Sendai to Shin Aomori. Yes folks I was in Sendai and Kesennuma and Sakari and Ofunato and Fukushima. My overall timing on Japan was bad, my timing on specific locations was life saving.

Thanks to this group I got footage at Sakari and of the Chichibu operation. I rode the Watarase and the Akitanairikujukan. I rode the Gono line in its entirety.

In the coming days/weeks I will be uploading footage from all of these trips plus more. I have already put up quite a bit and will continue with the editing for some time.

My thanks to group members for the information that I got here and I hope that you are able to enjoy some of my work.

Regards

Rod Williams

[Tenorikuma]

I'm glad you stayed safe, and I hope you'll come back so you can see the country without a once-in-a-millennium earthquake/tsunami event interrupting you.

[scott]

Glad to hear you're OK, Rod--your timing was very fortunate. I'll look forward to seeing your new videos--I recall seeing several of yours in the past.

[westfalen]

Glad you're OK as well, they just said on the channel 7 news as I type that 5 Australians are still unaccounted for. Pity you had to cancel the rest of the trip but I'm sure your family agree with your decision.

 

"At 1459 on March 11 I was just 5' from Akita on a Komachi when the lights went out and we came to a very rough stop. That rough stop lasted quite a while even after we stopped. Fortunately we stayed on the road."

 

I had a similar experience on a Shinkansen headed for Hakata in 1994, we came to a stop inside the second tunnel on Kyushu but luckily we got moving after 30 minutes. There were no English announcements on the train and we found out from an English speaking clerk in the ticket office at Kumamoto that there had been an earthquake.

[Guest ___]

Welcome aboard Rod, been reading your posts for ages on the yahoo groups.