New Year Plans

[gmat]

Japanese spend the week before New Year's Day doing Osoji, a 'Spring Cleaning.' My wife and I spent the last few days cleaning up the apartment. My wife started earlier as I had a private lesson running until last Saturday. It paid well, which made my wife feel happier. I will wake up early tomorrow, or rather not sleep and head out to Shinjuku and see what might leave on New Years Day, probably not much. I'll try to shoot the sunrise or perhaps Mt. Fuji.

I was able to get a seishun 18 ticket and my wife said she'll give me some travel money. So I'll take a couple of trips this week. More on Mondays or Saturdays until either the 10th or I use up the days. Those are the days with no lessons. I'll probably go to Aizu-Wakamatsu again to shoot the SL and see the snowy landscape. Then a trip on the Koumi Line again, perhaps all the way to Bessho Onsen also again. Then I'll try to reach Omae Station again. Heavy rains stopped the trains last time. Sorry, I'm pretty routine in my travels.

As my trips are always budget trips, I will start with the first local train at about 4:45 in the morning and come back late at night.

 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Going out to a comedy club tonight.

 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

[bikkuri bahn]

Too bad JR East no longer offers their otoshidama free kippu which allowed unlimited travel on all JR East lines (including shinkansen unreserved seats) for all day on New Years.  I used that once many years ago to ride the Yamagata Shinkansen a year or so after it opened.  Now you could use it to get as far as Shin Aomori.  

 

Happy New Year.

[miyakoji]

Too bad JR East no longer offers their otoshidama free kippu which allowed unlimited travel on all JR East lines (including shinkansen unreserved seats) for all day on New Years.  I used that once many years ago to ride the Yamagata Shinkansen a year or so after it opened.  Now you could use it to get as far as Shin Aomori.  

 

Happy New Year.

 

Do you recall how much it was?  They still have the holiday pass, don't they?  They used to have a super holiday pass, which covered as far west as Nagano, I think.

[gmat]

I ended up riding on the Gotemba Line and at Gotemba Station, after a 25 minute walk, surreptitiously walked up to the fourth floor of an apartment building and snapped a few pics of white capped Mt Fuji. On the way to Numazu, found out that I could have snapped a better pic two stations down from the station platform. Went on to the Gakunan Line and rode it till the end and got off at two stops and shot pics of the approaching and departing trains as well as the switcher and wamu boxcars. There was an older retired gentleman also taking photos, who by chance had worked for Hitachi, I think, and worked on similar engines. He knew a lot, but I really could only get the ghost of what he wanted to say. Very nice guy. On the way back, we sat in front of a lady who proceeded to talk my ears off about using my camera to take some very nice photos of Fuji-San. First time it happened. Stopped at Atami but decided not to go to the end of the Ito Peninsula. On the way home as I type this.

Am thinking of riding 6 hours each way to Nagoya to ride the Utsube and Hachioji Lines. May do it next Monday.

Will they really close the line in March?

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Do you recall how much it was?  They still have the holiday pass, don't they?  They used to have a super holiday pass, which covered as far west as Nagano, I think.

 

It was 8000 yen when it came out, a real bargain if you really "flogged the dia" and say started using the pass 12:01am on Jan. 1, though possibly raising the ire of relations by doing so.  But an early morning say 6am run out of Tokyo on a Tohoku Shinkansen could take you up to Morioka, where you could (then) still ride kiha 52s as well as locohauled red 50 series coaches on local trains. You could then take the Ou Line back for a portion, getting back to Tokyo maybe in the nick of time before the midnight deadline.

 

Dunno about the current situation, except it seems more oriented to regional passes, rather than all system.  Not as good a deal for railfans.

[bikkuri bahn]

Will they really close the line in March?

No, it seems a decision to close or not will be determined this coming summer. Anyway, better to visit sooner rather than later.