5 ms·

En Route: A Magazine About Trains in Japan [pdf]

110 points by keiferski 3y ago

lovegrenoble 3y ago
Traintastic news from around Japan, super
einpoklum 3y ago
This issue highlights the Hokuriku [1] region, containing a coastal strip on the northern side in the middle of Honshu. The photos are magical; and so are the illustrations on pages 8 and 9 of the PDF. [1] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_region
- coobird 3y ago
  Note that the Hokuriku region is where the large earthquake struck on January 1st and at least some of the places listed has been affected. One example is the "Royal Squid" on page 31 -- the website says that they're going to be closed indefinitely. While the building did not collapse but the tsunami flooded the building, and the parking lot is uneven.[1] Seems like precautions would be necessary before visiting some of these sites, especially those in the Noto region of Ishikawa prefecture. [1]: https://ikanoeki.com/blog/%e4%bb%a4%e5%92%8c6%e5%b9%b4%e5%b9%b4%e8%83%bd%e7%99%bb%e5%8d%8a%e5%b3%b6%e5%9c%b0%e9%9c%87%e3%82%92%e5%8f%97%e3%81%91%e3%81%a6/ https://ikanoeki.com/blog/%e4%bb%a4%e5%92%8c6%e5%b9%b4%e5%b9...
jansan 3y ago
I have the impression that Japan is the center of trainspotting worldwide. When I lived there, I often went hiking with a Japanese friend who would often ask me if it was a problem to make a little detour, because at station X there is currently the rare train Y and he would like to take a picture. I never declined, so I participated in quite a few trainspotting events despite having no particular interest in trains. I have never seen this in Germany. Not once. Maybe there is a trainspotting scene in Europe, but it seems to be much, much bigger in Japan. I may be biased due to my personal experience, so hopefully someone with real insights can shed more reliable information.
- busfahrer 3y ago
  I had several experiences similar to what you describe. One of my favourites was a TV show we stumbled across while visiting Japan. It was sort of a game show, where three blindfolded contestants had to sit on a bench that had been taken from a train, and they had to guess which type of train said bench was taken from, simply from the feel of the bench. The programme then continued with what seemed like various stats and tidbits about the correct train type.
- LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
  Uhm. When I grew up in .de I've been part of the youth movement collecting 'Vorsichtsbefehle' and 'Bremszettel' from the engineers in their locomotives. From maybe 1979 to 1982, that is ;-) We were thrilled when we spotted the Lufthansa Airport Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_403_(1973) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_403_(1973) , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_VT_11.5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_VT_11.5 , or gave us free cab-rides from Bonn to Cologne, or Koblenz and back on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_103 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_103 ! Later from about 1990 to 2008 in different parts of Germany (mostly Rhine-Ruhr-Area and Hamburg) whenever I saw lots of people on bridges or roadsides with cameras and tripods I knew there was something special on approach, and stopped if time permitted. It was often worthwhile because of thundering steam :-) Meanwhile I moved away and visit only 1 to 2 times per year, but it still is like this. Maybe you are not watching? Or your ways don't go along where the rail tracks are, often enough? Thinking about it, I haven't seen any of it over the whole Covid-phase. That was a definitive dent. I hope it starts again.
  - gerikson 3y ago
    The trainspotter in their anorak, notebook or camera in hand, is a staple UK trope. Or it was when I was growing up.
- Tor3 3y ago
  There are a number of special trains which are only passing now and then, so yes. Sometimes they're just painted in a special way, but at other times they're different physically, with maybe extra facilities (I went a couple of times on some sets which had newly installed coffee machines in a designated car. The train also had a very different (and nice) look. Used for the 'limited express' service).
dgrr19 3y ago
I am not a fan of trains, but it really looks amazing!
tkgally 3y ago
That’s a beautifully produced magazine. I’ve lived in Japan for forty years. While I would not consider myself a train enthusiast, it’s hard not to get affectionate about them after having ridden them for so many years. My four-year-old grandson, who lives with me, is definitely already a fan. He can identify dozens of different trains and train lines, and currently his favorite song is about railway crossings [1]. It helps that we live a five-minute walk from one of the busiest places for trains in Japan [2]. For his birthday last month, I bought him a huge, incredibly detailed picture book about trains [3] that we have been reading together. It will be interesting to see how his interests evolve as he gets older. Fans tend to focus on particular aspects of trains—riding them, photographing them, recording their sounds [4], learning their schedules, etc.—and there are terms for each type of enthusiast [5]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NN_EZA8lX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NN_EZA8lX4 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4po1SlK0c0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4po1SlK0c0 [3] https://zukan.gakken.jp/live/train_new/ https://zukan.gakken.jp/live/train_new/ [4] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB%8A%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB... [5] https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail-travel/railway-fans https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail...
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
  I gotta admit, that song is pretty catchy. I can see why he likes it so much!
- rburnsanims 3y ago
  I've been in Japan 5 years now and my enthusiasm for trains has really taken off since I got here. I just showed my one year old this song and he's loving it. I really enjoyed the Hara model railway museum in Yokohama as it's not just nice model railways but also the biography of Nobutaro Haras life and his travels around the world documenting trains.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- 3y ago
sho 3y ago
> It doesn’t hurt that Japan’s rail network is often touted as one of the world’s best Ha! One of? I'm going to tout it right now as the world's best, hands down, full stop, not even close. Second and third place - maybe Germany and France? Western Europe fills out most of the top 10. One can argue about exactly who goes where. But you can't argue with number one, it's Japan, by a mile, in fact by 19,029 miles.
- efournie 3y ago
  Germany's long distance trains are comfortable but the reliability of the Deutsche Bahn is abysmal. In 2023, more than one third of their long distance train were delayed, a metric that has been going down for quite a while. My own experience is much worse, with three out of five long distance trips canceled without notice and a fourth one replaced by a voucher for a 450km taxi ride. In a country the size of Germany clamoring to have an environmentally oriented politic, train should be a convenient alternative to both car and airplane but unfortunately the train network is a joke.
  - traceroute66 3y ago
    > a fourth one replaced by a voucher for a 450km taxi ride When can I move to Germany ? In the UK if your train gets cancelled its either: 1. "Tough shit. Suck it up buttercup" 2. The infamous Rail Replacement Bus Service Most of the time option two doesn't even get offered. So yeah, you would not find me complaining if the train company offered me a taxi voucher if my train was cancelled !
    - cmplxconjugate 3y ago
      In 2018 I spent ~£6300 on train tickets for personal holiday travel all over the UK. Of that, almost 50% of it was refunded due to meeting requirements for partial refunds due to delayed/cancelled services. After that experience, I purchased a car and motorbike and I will never be convinced to give up my independence in exchange for that abysmal service. It was completely morale breaking. What's worse is I then worked in Japan during 2019 and experienced some of the best service I could possibly think would be reasonable. It's hard to defend in any form the absolute depressing state of the UK rail service.
supersrdjan 3y ago
For Japanese train enthusiasts I recommend this Youtube channel with over 1000 cabin-view train ride videos from Japan: https://www.youtube.com/@HKASAMA https://www.youtube.com/@HKASAMA I made a little python script/alfred workflow that plays an arbitrary 7 minute segment from an arbitrary clip from that channel. So I have a keyboard shortcut to drop me into a random train ride whenever I want to chill out (without risk of getting sucked into the social media wormhole)
- aunetx 3y ago
  Would you mind sharing your script? I'm quite interested to be honest, I've stopped YouTube completely some weeks ago but this kind of interaction is what was good about it retrospectively :)
  - spidersouris 3y ago
    Interested too.
    - Erazal 3y ago
      same here, I was thinking of doing just that as a screen-saver! My initial idea before reading your comment (probably hard too implement) - take around the "most replayed segment" if there is one. Would love to have the script to play around!
- johncoltrane 3y ago
  A couple of others: https://www.youtube.com/@ayokoi https://www.youtube.com/@ayokoi https://www.youtube.com/@AUNZRAILFAN https://www.youtube.com/@AUNZRAILFAN
bjourne 3y ago
What's with the foliage being so close to the tracks in the photos? Isn't that a safety hazard? Optical illusion?
tgtweak 3y ago
Also the name of the magazine found on Air Canada flights...
Duanemclemore 3y ago
This is a stunning publication. It clearly wants to be consumed in print. This reminds me of my grandfather. It's just over ten years since he died. A poor farmer's son from Central Kentucky, he saw the world from there to Korea when he was drafted. He never got more than a high school education, but had a life-long love of books and knowledge, especially geography. He would read a map like other people read books and had a complete set of state gazetteers for the US. He loved all forms of transit, which was largest single other category of books in his modest but very personal and interesting library. Growing up poor and never making a lot of money himself he was tight with it as you can imagine. My grandmother died before he retired, and when he did he moved in with my parents. After a health scare post-retirement my mother convinced him that since he couldn't take what little he had with him he might as well do some things he enjoyed while he could. So twice he took the train from the rust belt Midwest to Seattle and from there took Inner Passage cruises. He wasn't one to take pictures, and didn't talk a lot. But the enjoyment he got from these trips was obvious - he'd come back looking literally like a new man. Anyway, any time I visited Grandpa in his room (where he was just content to sit unbothered and read) I couldn't help but pick up one of the myriad interesting books or magazines he had lying around. This certainly would have made the stack, he probably would have even excitedly showed it to me. I haven't thought about that old cowboy in a while. Thank you for inspiring some meaningful memories.

110 points by keiferski 3y ago

Traintastic news from around Japan, super

This issue highlights the Hokuriku [1] region, containing a coastal strip on the northern side in the middle of Honshu. The photos are magical; and so are the illustrations on pages 8 and 9 of the PDF. [1] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_region

coobird 3y ago
Note that the Hokuriku region is where the large earthquake struck on January 1st and at least some of the places listed has been affected. One example is the "Royal Squid" on page 31 -- the website says that they're going to be closed indefinitely. While the building did not collapse but the tsunami flooded the building, and the parking lot is uneven.[1] Seems like precautions would be necessary before visiting some of these sites, especially those in the Noto region of Ishikawa prefecture. [1]: https://ikanoeki.com/blog/%e4%bb%a4%e5%92%8c6%e5%b9%b4%e5%b9%b4%e8%83%bd%e7%99%bb%e5%8d%8a%e5%b3%b6%e5%9c%b0%e9%9c%87%e3%82%92%e5%8f%97%e3%81%91%e3%81%a6/ https://ikanoeki.com/blog/%e4%bb%a4%e5%92%8c6%e5%b9%b4%e5%b9...

jansan 3y ago

I have the impression that Japan is the center of trainspotting worldwide. When I lived there, I often went hiking with a Japanese friend who would often ask me if it was a problem to make a little detour, because at station X there is currently the rare train Y and he would like to take a picture. I never declined, so I participated in quite a few trainspotting events despite having no particular interest in trains. I have never seen this in Germany. Not once. Maybe there is a trainspotting scene in Europe, but it seems to be much, much bigger in Japan. I may be biased due to my personal experience, so hopefully someone with real insights can shed more reliable information.

busfahrer 3y ago
I had several experiences similar to what you describe. One of my favourites was a TV show we stumbled across while visiting Japan. It was sort of a game show, where three blindfolded contestants had to sit on a bench that had been taken from a train, and they had to guess which type of train said bench was taken from, simply from the feel of the bench. The programme then continued with what seemed like various stats and tidbits about the correct train type.
LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
Uhm. When I grew up in .de I've been part of the youth movement collecting 'Vorsichtsbefehle' and 'Bremszettel' from the engineers in their locomotives. From maybe 1979 to 1982, that is ;-) We were thrilled when we spotted the Lufthansa Airport Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_403_(1973) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_403_(1973) , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_VT_11.5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_VT_11.5 , or gave us free cab-rides from Bonn to Cologne, or Koblenz and back on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_103 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_103 ! Later from about 1990 to 2008 in different parts of Germany (mostly Rhine-Ruhr-Area and Hamburg) whenever I saw lots of people on bridges or roadsides with cameras and tripods I knew there was something special on approach, and stopped if time permitted. It was often worthwhile because of thundering steam :-) Meanwhile I moved away and visit only 1 to 2 times per year, but it still is like this. Maybe you are not watching? Or your ways don't go along where the rail tracks are, often enough? Thinking about it, I haven't seen any of it over the whole Covid-phase. That was a definitive dent. I hope it starts again.
- gerikson 3y ago
  The trainspotter in their anorak, notebook or camera in hand, is a staple UK trope. Or it was when I was growing up.
Tor3 3y ago
There are a number of special trains which are only passing now and then, so yes. Sometimes they're just painted in a special way, but at other times they're different physically, with maybe extra facilities (I went a couple of times on some sets which had newly installed coffee machines in a designated car. The train also had a very different (and nice) look. Used for the 'limited express' service).

dgrr19 3y ago

I am not a fan of trains, but it really looks amazing!

tkgally 3y ago

That’s a beautifully produced magazine. I’ve lived in Japan for forty years. While I would not consider myself a train enthusiast, it’s hard not to get affectionate about them after having ridden them for so many years. My four-year-old grandson, who lives with me, is definitely already a fan. He can identify dozens of different trains and train lines, and currently his favorite song is about railway crossings [1]. It helps that we live a five-minute walk from one of the busiest places for trains in Japan [2]. For his birthday last month, I bought him a huge, incredibly detailed picture book about trains [3] that we have been reading together. It will be interesting to see how his interests evolve as he gets older. Fans tend to focus on particular aspects of trains—riding them, photographing them, recording their sounds [4], learning their schedules, etc.—and there are terms for each type of enthusiast [5]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NN_EZA8lX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NN_EZA8lX4 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4po1SlK0c0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4po1SlK0c0 [3] https://zukan.gakken.jp/live/train_new/ https://zukan.gakken.jp/live/train_new/ [4] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB%8A%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB... [5] https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail-travel/railway-fans https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail...

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
I gotta admit, that song is pretty catchy. I can see why he likes it so much!
rburnsanims 3y ago
I've been in Japan 5 years now and my enthusiasm for trains has really taken off since I got here. I just showed my one year old this song and he's loving it. I really enjoyed the Hara model railway museum in Yokohama as it's not just nice model railways but also the biography of Nobutaro Haras life and his travels around the world documenting trains.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
3y ago

sho 3y ago

> It doesn’t hurt that Japan’s rail network is often touted as one of the world’s best Ha! One of? I'm going to tout it right now as the world's best, hands down, full stop, not even close. Second and third place - maybe Germany and France? Western Europe fills out most of the top 10. One can argue about exactly who goes where. But you can't argue with number one, it's Japan, by a mile, in fact by 19,029 miles.

efournie 3y ago
Germany's long distance trains are comfortable but the reliability of the Deutsche Bahn is abysmal. In 2023, more than one third of their long distance train were delayed, a metric that has been going down for quite a while. My own experience is much worse, with three out of five long distance trips canceled without notice and a fourth one replaced by a voucher for a 450km taxi ride. In a country the size of Germany clamoring to have an environmentally oriented politic, train should be a convenient alternative to both car and airplane but unfortunately the train network is a joke.
- traceroute66 3y ago
  > a fourth one replaced by a voucher for a 450km taxi ride When can I move to Germany ? In the UK if your train gets cancelled its either: 1. "Tough shit. Suck it up buttercup" 2. The infamous Rail Replacement Bus Service Most of the time option two doesn't even get offered. So yeah, you would not find me complaining if the train company offered me a taxi voucher if my train was cancelled !
  - cmplxconjugate 3y ago
    In 2018 I spent ~£6300 on train tickets for personal holiday travel all over the UK. Of that, almost 50% of it was refunded due to meeting requirements for partial refunds due to delayed/cancelled services. After that experience, I purchased a car and motorbike and I will never be convinced to give up my independence in exchange for that abysmal service. It was completely morale breaking. What's worse is I then worked in Japan during 2019 and experienced some of the best service I could possibly think would be reasonable. It's hard to defend in any form the absolute depressing state of the UK rail service.

supersrdjan 3y ago

For Japanese train enthusiasts I recommend this Youtube channel with over 1000 cabin-view train ride videos from Japan: https://www.youtube.com/@HKASAMA https://www.youtube.com/@HKASAMA I made a little python script/alfred workflow that plays an arbitrary 7 minute segment from an arbitrary clip from that channel. So I have a keyboard shortcut to drop me into a random train ride whenever I want to chill out (without risk of getting sucked into the social media wormhole)

aunetx 3y ago
Would you mind sharing your script? I'm quite interested to be honest, I've stopped YouTube completely some weeks ago but this kind of interaction is what was good about it retrospectively :)
- spidersouris 3y ago
  Interested too.
  - Erazal 3y ago
    same here, I was thinking of doing just that as a screen-saver! My initial idea before reading your comment (probably hard too implement) - take around the "most replayed segment" if there is one. Would love to have the script to play around!
johncoltrane 3y ago
A couple of others: https://www.youtube.com/@ayokoi https://www.youtube.com/@ayokoi https://www.youtube.com/@AUNZRAILFAN https://www.youtube.com/@AUNZRAILFAN

bjourne 3y ago

What's with the foliage being so close to the tracks in the photos? Isn't that a safety hazard? Optical illusion?

tgtweak 3y ago

Also the name of the magazine found on Air Canada flights...

Duanemclemore 3y ago

This is a stunning publication. It clearly wants to be consumed in print. This reminds me of my grandfather. It's just over ten years since he died. A poor farmer's son from Central Kentucky, he saw the world from there to Korea when he was drafted. He never got more than a high school education, but had a life-long love of books and knowledge, especially geography. He would read a map like other people read books and had a complete set of state gazetteers for the US. He loved all forms of transit, which was largest single other category of books in his modest but very personal and interesting library. Growing up poor and never making a lot of money himself he was tight with it as you can imagine. My grandmother died before he retired, and when he did he moved in with my parents. After a health scare post-retirement my mother convinced him that since he couldn't take what little he had with him he might as well do some things he enjoyed while he could. So twice he took the train from the rust belt Midwest to Seattle and from there took Inner Passage cruises. He wasn't one to take pictures, and didn't talk a lot. But the enjoyment he got from these trips was obvious - he'd come back looking literally like a new man. Anyway, any time I visited Grandpa in his room (where he was just content to sit unbothered and read) I couldn't help but pick up one of the myriad interesting books or magazines he had lying around. This certainly would have made the stack, he probably would have even excitedly showed it to me. I haven't thought about that old cowboy in a while. Thank you for inspiring some meaningful memories.