Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine - New Years on the Hankai Tramway

[bill937ca]

Each year millions of Japanese visit the shrines and temples at New Year's. This year 99.39 million visited Japanese shrines and temples and over 3 million people visited one shrine in Tokyo alone. These days are amongst the busiest of the year for Japanese railways and tram lines.

 

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090109p2a00m0na012000c.html

 

These scenes come from a Japanese blog and were taken on January 3, 2009 at Sumiyoshi on the Hankai Electric Tramway.  Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine is adjacent to the streetcar crossover, a short walk from the Hankai Tramway Sumiyoshi station and the Nankai Main Line Sumiyoshitaisha Station. It appears traffic is restricted to Hankai streetcars only.

 

A special hand written timetable with the date 1/1,2,3 at the top) was placed beneath the usual Weekday and Saturday / Sunday timetables.

 

Usually only one track is used in the Hankai Tramway Sumiyoshi station, but the traffic is so heavy both tracks were in use with cars "double parked" at times.

 

As many as 8 of the 10 161 series cars were in service at once.  Only 161 did not operate and 172 only operated on New Year's Day.

 

In all there are four pages on this blog about New Year's at Sumiyoshi Shrine. Article one appears to be photos from 30 years ago, the primary topic of this blog.

 

http://205-161-205.at.webry.info/200901/article_5.html

 

http://205-161-205.at.webry.info/200901/article_4.html

 

http://205-161-205.at.webry.info/200901/article_3.html

 

http://205-161-205.at.webry.info/200901/article_2.html

 

http://205-161-205.at.webry.info/200901/article_1.html

 

Apparently there has been all night service on many of the rail lines on New Year's Eve with the Keihan going back as far as 1923.  This is unusual as most Japanese rail lines shutdown early.

 

http://205-161-205.at.webry.info/200812/article_11.html

 

(My apologies to Mark, he's seen this elsewhere.)