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].
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.
Through my three year old son I've discovered the concept of Fumikiri channels on YouTube in which railway crossing signs not only protect railway crossings, but have families, go to restaurants, etc. It's a subgenre of train videos we never realised we needed.
For Japanese train enthusiasts I recommend this Youtube channel with over 1000 cabin-view train ride videos from Japan: 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)
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In video #1, the railway company organizes an official event, with closed registration, memorabilia distribution and all, to celebrate the replacement of a departure time display in the Kawasaki station.
In video #2, an event is organized for the last trip of a specific train. The train itself is full of trainspotters and the platform is overflowing. People cry and scream.
Yes, there _is_ a scene over here but it's nowhere near the size and intensity of the Japanese scene.
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).
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.
> 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.
Speaking as a French person living in Japan, I can believe that France was #2 or #3 in the early 2000s, but it’s been degrading for so long that it’s probably way behind Korea/China/etc nowadays. Incessant delays, frequent breakdowns, extremely high prices, small stations closing down, impossible to get tickets for holidays and weekends unless you book weeks/months in advance… the lack of civility you often encounter from fellow passengers is the rotten cherry on top.
I hear from German friends that Germany’s train system has encountered a similar fate.
If only it were just the trains - but our government has gutted similarly education, healthcare, … it really is disheartening.
OK, I admit my experience on french trains is pretty dated. But I was thinking more of the TGVs, etc, and the ICE in DE. It's not just the metros. If it were, Singapore or a Chinese city would probably top the list.
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.
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.
The Swiss rail network is small but very dense, very punctual, and extremely well designed (the timetable is optimized countrywide across most public transit operators to allow for smooth transfers - it's very rare to require a transfer with more than 15min wait). And it shows in passenger-kilometers stats: about 20% as much as Germany, even though Switzerland is 10% the area and 10% the population of Germany (roughly).
Japan has many things going for it but also some notable issues. The various private operators can be confusing ("oh, your train doesn't leave from platform 4 in this building, it leaves from platform 4 in the Odakyu building"). There is virtually no transit available at night, even within the large metros. Once you leave the main lines the service frequency can be very spotty and the transfers very badly designed. No bike transport even on smaller regional trains (not counting "disassembled in a bike bag" as bike transport).
This also somewhat prevent having unified ticketing systems like you have in Switzerland.
The ticket you can buy in the train station is also valid for the local buses. Or even better (from a practicality point of view), you can use an app that track your start and end point and automatically bill you accordingly (you rare have to stamp your ticket when using public transport; you just come and go and there's sometime controls by agents).
I'm sure that there's some exception in Japan, like JR West, Central and East are technically different companies but the tourist JR pass allows you to go wherever, but it's hard to beat the convenience of the Swiss transports.
True, although you have to periodically remember to top up you account (my last trip to Japan was short in duration so it wasn't worth it to get one; my memory is probably biased)
My experience, having traveled a lot, is that even those countries/municipalities with good public transit are still pretty confusing for visitors who aren't familiar with the system/haven't downloaded the right apps etc./are jet-lagged/don't speak the language. Some usability testing would really be welcome.
I left $6000 of camera equipment and cash on a backpack on the Metro in Tokyo, and it was reteured to lost and found at the next stop, who promptly called me (internationally) to let me know they had it. Not a single thing missing.
That's not even a high end or expensive train... Japan's rail system is for sure #1.
Here in Brussels there are 3 train stations in which every train passing through has to stop. Thieves will purposely hop on and off these trains just to steal bags especially ones likely to carry tourists or people going to & fro the airport.
Japan is just lovely.
In one of Tokyo's high end districts you'll see 5 grand bicycles parked with locks that more resemble a shoe string than an actual lock.
Can't imagine the horror that must be the rest of the world through a Japanese person's eyes.
Was more referring to the process and professionalism of the rail employees and procedures that I was notified right away vs the fact nothing was stolen - but I noted it since they opened up the bag to find my ID inside and reach out.
I think with the "general abo" which is an expensive[1] yearly subscription to a nearly complete train + city and rural bus network, the Swiss network might be fighting for that first place.
Both have strong points, I would say people in Japan probably behave better than Swiss people.
Obviously, users still often complain.
[1] not that expensive if compared to owning a car
Was just there this past year and even as a visitor you can get a 1 month pass for 50% off all fares. I think it was 150 CHF for the pass. Paid for itself in one day with a trip from Zurich to Lauterbrunnen & back.
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
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4po1SlK0c0
[3] https://zukan.gakken.jp/live/train_new/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB...
[5] https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail...