Lovely densha and bishojo!

There’s a talented Japanese artist going by the moniker Vania600 who has been producing the most breathtaking images. The subject matter of his work seems generally to revolve around Japanese trains and anime-style girls in uniform. Take a look!

Read more »

Train-themed Japanese green tea

For just over a year now Mokku Company, purveyors of novelty drinks, assorted confectionary and miscellaneous goods, have also offered a brand of green tea contained within a E231-style container. Read more »

JR East employs first female bullet train operator

I’m gratified to announce my return to this blog (after an absence partly caused by the recent volcanic ash….) with a smile-inducing story involving a female train operator. Her name is Yukie Sakai.

Personally, the thought of which gender the driver of the train I was riding had never crossed my mind before. I suppose that, subconciously, I generally assumed the driver to be male and middle-aged.

JR East has appointed its first female bullet-train operator on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, it was announced on Tuesday, as Yukie Sakai boarded the Tokyo-bound “Hayate-Komachi” bullet-train at Sendai Station in front of reporters.

The 29-year-old Sakai was born in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. According to JR East, she joined the company in April of 2001 and gained experience as a conductor and a train operator on non-bullet train lines. In October of 2009 she began learning as an apprentice on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, and on March 23 of this year she obtained her bullet-train operating license. She began operating on the Tohoku line by herself on April 9.

Sakai joins about 400 male bullet-train operators in the company. JR Tokai and JR West already have women actively contributing as bullet-train operators.

Original Japanese lanuage story HERE plus image of a smiling Yukie.

I’ll be updating my fan site progress – such as it is – in the next few days so do call back if interested.

J-railways concerned with train suicides

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.

Read the whole article HERE

What irritates Japanese commuters the most?

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

Original article

Classic long-nosed trains end their run

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.

Read the full story HERE

Cat promoted to executive rail position

Have you heared about Tama the station master cat? I love this story – it’s so Japanese.

Tama was adopted by the real station master of Kishi Station ,Toshiko Koyama, in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. Koyama would feed Tama and other strays at the station. Read more »

Three JR Firms Agree on E-Money Tie-Up

Travellers on London Transport can use a Smart Card called Oyster.

In Japan you can also buy goods and other services with your rail/bus Smart Card. The three main railway groups – JR East (Suica card), JR Tokai (Toica Card) an JR West (Icoca Card) said Monday that they have agreed to tie up on electronic money services using their respective smart cards. This means that goods may now be purchased with your, for instance, Suica Card in shops owned by JR West and so on.

Full report HERE