Japanese rail has a long-held association with retail shopping. The numerous rail companies in Japan found a way around profit caps imposed on them by the government by investing in retail and housing. Situated close to or inside busy stations, these subsidiary companies cater to the demands of commuters and generate around ¥1 Trillion (£700, 000, 000) profit every year (and, need I mention, this is the basis of gameplay in the A-Train series).
Now it looks like JR East are moving into the up-market grocery business with their aquisition of the Kinokuniya Supermarket Chain. Kinokuniya’s online store can be viewed HERE. It’s gives a pretty good idea of what they offer although the online business is not being sold.
Apparently housewives love Kinokuniya because of its range of foreign produce like Norwegian brown waffles, Spanish olives and such like. They also cure their own ham and offer many delicious cheeses and fish, vegetable and meats. I think they also have a chain of book stores, though, again, these are not being purchased.
I’ve posted a small item already about the blue lighting employed by some J-railways in an attempt to dissuade and deter the anxious and depressed from committing suicide beneath their trains.
This related item takes a rather more general view of the problem and relates it directly to the famed punctuality of the Japanese rail system. The general thrust of the article highlights executive frustration with the suicides, their apparent helplessness to prevent them and an honest admission that the complex and numerous reasons behind suicides are not a concern for the rail companies.
Fact is, they’re businesses – that’s the bottom line here, surely. There’s very little they can actually do to improve the lives of, or counsel, the suicidal, but short of erecting platform barriers at every Tokyo station, there seems little they can do to stop those determined to end their own lives.
It looks like A9 release has be pushed back slightly (thanks to Alex on the forum for bringing this to attention). It often happens, I guess – either tweaks to the code of the game (though it seems a little late for that), or else some distribution issue. Whatever.
Thought I’d share this new video I have from the December 2009 preview. The various new features are explained and demonstrated. Here we see the flexibiltiy of track and building constructuion as well as the new Power Plant feature.
Please note that I have added some basic translation of my own (read: my wife’s) to the video so it’s worth watching the entire film if you’re curious about what is being explained.
Taking the train in Japan and want to avoid annoying fellow passengers? Keep conversation to a whisper, turn down your iPod and put your cellphone on vibration mode, a recent survey by the railway association showed.
Many foreigners who ride on Japan’s vast network of subways and commuter trains complain about the pushing and shoving that accompanies getting into the train and the reluctance to give up seats for senior citizens and pregnant women.
But for Japanese commuters, noise is the biggest issue, with loud conversation and music from headphones the top two offenders and cellphone ringtones in fourth place, the survey by the Association of Japanese Private Railways showed.
Applying make-up ranked as the sixth-biggest breach of rail etiquette, worse than being drunken, which at number 9 just edged out bringing strollers onto crowded trains.
Here are the top 10 examples of bad rail manners according to the association’s online survey, with responses from about 4,200 people:
1. Noisy conversation, horsing around
2. Music from headphones
3. The way passengers sit
4. Cellphone ringtones and talking on phones
5. Pushing, shoving when getting on and off trains
6. Applying make-up
7. Littering
8. Sitting on the floor of the train
9. Riding the train drunk
10. Riding a crowded train with a child in a stroller
These classic trains will soon be withdrawn from service bringing to an end a run which began in the 60’s during a time of rapid economic growth in Japan.
The grace and beauty of the trains has won them many fans among the Tetsudō Otaku of Japan.
The Noto express train between Tokyo’s Ueno Station and Kanazawa Station in Ishikawa Prefecture, the only regular train using the vehicles, will be abolished when the JR group revises its nationwide timetable in March.
Have you heared about Tama the station master cat? I love this story – it’s so Japanese.
Tama was adopted bythe real station masterof Kishi Station ,Toshiko Koyama, in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. Koyama would feed Tama and other strays at the station. Read more »
Another quality Youtube post from TrainHobbyNet. Normally I wouldn’t show this video here due to it not being Japanese. However, it’s just unique and unusual enough to be granted special dispensation. I really like what this guy is doing with his train films.
Don’t know much about the movie’s background other than this being a coal-mining train in China.
News | MarkE231 | 
27/01/2010 21:34 | 
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