Japanese Railway Photography Poll

[Guest ___]

Bored, and housebound due to a totaled Jeep, bad weather, and unemployment. So, I'm trying to jump start the new "photography" forum until I can think of something else to do to piss away the time.

[CaptOblivious]

Since I wasn't the railfan I am now when I was last in Japan, I didn't do much rail photography. My interest was in photographing scenes of daily life—some of which included trains. When I get back there—eventually—I think the focus might shift a little ;)

 

Akihabara Station

 

Shiodome Station (Oedo Line)

[Guest ___]

I wasn't a J-railfan on my first trip either. It was the Kyoto trip that got me in to all this four years ago.

 

Good ole Akiba Station. Not as bad to shoot at as I thoguht it would be.

[scott]

I've never been to Japan, but I'd probably click "Stations scenes" and "Railway landscape."

[Guest ___]

I love Japan for their platform pass. I always wondered how many stations I could visit on a single platform pass.

[stevenh]

Platform Pass?

[Guest ___]

Platform Pass?

 

Yeah, it's a ticket that costs ¥135 that allows you on to the station platforms just so you can photograph trains. (Or see people off)

 

Nyujoken: If you want to pass the ticket gates of a station without taking a train, for example, to wait for somebody on the platform or to get to the other side of a large station complex, you have to purchase this type of ticket. Depending on the region of Japan, it costs between 120 and 160 Yen, which is basically the price of the cheapest train ticket available.

[Tenorikuma]

Platform Pass?

 

Yeah, it's a ticket that costs ¥135 that allows you on to the station platforms just so you can photograph trains. (Or see people off)

 

Nyujoken: If you want to pass the ticket gates of a station without taking a train, for example, to wait for somebody on the platform or to get to the other side of a large station complex, you have to purchase this type of ticket. Depending on the region of Japan, it costs between 120 and 160 Yen, which is basically the price of the cheapest train ticket available.

 

You can actually board most trains with one of those passes and go pretty much wherever you want so long as you don't actually exit any train platform until you get back to the original station. The Shinkansen and any train that requires a special class ticket (like Meitetsu's mu-class trains) would be the exception.

[Guest ___]

You can use a platform pass on the shinkansen platforms too. I sorta cheated and rode from Tokyo to Ueno and back, by accident. I stepped onto a stopped Shinkansen at Tokyo to look around and get some quick snapshots of the interior when the door closed on me before I could get out, LOL.

[alpineaustralia]

I thought platform passes were international. They have them here in Oz as well except you certainly wouldnt buy one to photograph our trains.

[Guest ___]

I've never seen one outside of Japan. You guys might have them down under having never ridden a train down there. I've never seen a platform pass in the UK+Ireland, SEA, Scandinavia, or Japan. I can only speak for where I've been.

 

It'd be nice if we had them in the states so Amtrak wouldn't try to cart everyone with a camera off to jail.

[scott]

It'd be nice if we had them in the states so Amtrak wouldn't try to cart everyone with a camera off to jail.

 

....or tell people just off a train to leave the platform because "it's not safe."  :o    ::)  I haven't done as much train travel as most of you guys, but I never once heard such a thing in England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, or Italy. Sheesh.

[Guest ___]

England I understand has been a little bit more pushy with rail transport since the attacks in London a few years ago. But everywhere else they don't care. I ruined my day-ticket in Ireland the guy at the ticket booth just waved me through without taking his eyes off his Gameboy.

[Martijn Meerts]

At some point in The Netherlands they introduced that you had to have a valid ticket to be allowed on a platform, not sure if they still have that in place, but even if they do, I can't say I've ever been checked. They have the same rules in Norway, but again, I've never been checked here ;)

[Guest ___]

I took the Acela up to Philly last month and they could care less if I took pictures of the trains as long as I was shot from the platform my train was on, and that I was on the platform between the boarding call and train departure from Union Terminal, DC.

[bikkuri bahn]

Please note that with at least the Shinkansen platform pass, there is a two hour time limit, so take care not to get too carried away taking pix and losing track of time- all too possible at exciting stations like Hamamatsu or somewhere on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line.

 

As for picture subjects, I primarily focus on rolling stock, but also take an interest in station facilities, especially remnants from the JNR era.

[Guest ___]

2 Hrs? Really, is this just a JR East thing? Granted, I've never spent more than 2 hours in Kanto shooting shinkansens, but in Kansai, I've spent entire days shooting without a problem.

 

I would assume it is not so much the ticket as the gate itself that is making note as there is no option to choose "standard" platform pass as opposed to "shinkansen" platform pass on the ticket machine.