Old Man Thunder

[Guest ___]

So, I had killed some time in Saijo City on my way to Takamatsu. Caught some nice looking and rather rare trains at JR Iyo-Saijo when I decided to hit the Saijo train barn. While looking at the display case of the little train museum, I noticed a book in romaji and was easily able to read and comprehend it.

 

I was dead certain, that after two and a half week in Japan, my second trip to Japan in six months, that I was finally reading Japanese (although romaji) without even thinking about it. Sadly, did I learn, it was actually in English.

 

Grabbed a snap shot of the open page and went on my way. Afterall, there was a 0-series shinkansen next door that I wanted to sit in before continuing east.

 

Got back to the states and while going through the iPhone snapshots of things I wanted to do further research on, discovered the book title of Old Man Thunder, Father of the Bullet Train.

 

Ordered a copy from amazon, and am about 85% through it right now. It's the story of Shinji Sogo, a man who in all reality is seems like the (successful) Japanese version of myself (and by that, a total asshole, who pretty much makes it a point to royally tick people off with no regards whatsoever to social norms).

 

Any case, copies can be found on the cheap on amazon, and it's pretty fascinating what had to be done in order to construction the new mainline for the shinkansen.

[cteno4]

It's a great little book, very fascinating account of those formative days! Loved it.

 

Jeff