One of the memorable and unique features of the Japanese rail experience is the assortment of jingles to be heard before your train vacates the platform. Apparently the station manager gets to choose the jingle himself – except for in special circumstances such as at Maihama (Disney) station. Here a young lad and his electric piano entertain Tokyo shoppers with a selection of crowd-pleasing jingles.
It seems a common feature of Japan’s rail system to name new trains. There’s the Hikari (meaning light beam), the Nozomi and so on. East Japan Railways also held a poll not long ago to name the new E5 series Shinkansen.
The new fast train between Narita airport and Tokyo, which debuted on the 17th of this month, is called, somewhat prosaically, the Skyliner. However, the track it runs upon, between Narita and Keisei-Takasago Station, has the far more inspirational moniker Narita Sky Access.
Here’s a few words on the line and train it self – which is, typically, fast and quite lovely to behold.
Read more »
Before I knew about A-Train I discovered another, pretty unique, Japanese train-themed game called Densha de Go!
The community for DDG was friendly and more established than it seems to be for our beloved A-Train (perhaps due, in part, to the pick-up-and-play-ability of the game – quite literally you can get the hang of it in minutes).
So I got hold of a copy, really, really enjoyed it, and lurked around the Densha de Go! forum occasionally. Then (I think this is what happened) some chancer bought the domain name that Butch had been using and made his own – completely crap – DDG site. Butch was rather irritated by this and disappeared in a cloud of red mist. The forum slowly died. Read more »
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 »
A-Train 9 (A列車で行こう９) Demo
In a couple of days Artdink of Japan will release A-Train 9, the latest instalment in their series of Urban Development/Train Management games. In the West we’ll have to wait and see if any distributors are willing to regionalise the game and give it the exposure it deserves (Last year, DHM distributed A-Train 8 in Europe. It was a low-key event, relying mostly upon word of mouth and chatter around the web forums). Read more »
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
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
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
Features | MarkE231 | 
06/08/2010 23:20 | 
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