rail adventures in japan

April 26, 2010

A Visit to Shibuya Station: Hachiko the Loyal Dog & a Cat Cafe

Tokyo’s Shibuya Station is the fourth busiest commuter rail station in Japan, though it’s claim to fame is in canine form. Across the world many are familiar with the story of the loyal dog, Hachiko, who was a fixture at the station in the 1920’s. Hidesaburo Ueno, a Professor in Agriculture at Tokyo Imperial University used Shibuya Station to commute to work. His young Akita dog, Hachiko, would wait for him at the station every evening after work. In May of 1925 Ueno collapsed while giving a lecture, and died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Despite the fact that his master...

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April 19, 2010

The Coolest (or at least the Cutest) Train Car in the World: Wakayama Electric Railway’s Tama Densha Cat Train

One of my more crazy missions when I was in Japan was to see the feline Station Master Cat, Tama. Everybody pretty much loves Tama. When Wakayama Electric Railway was on the verge of bankruptcy, Station Master positions were eliminated, and the stations left unmanned. The decision to make a stray calico cat the honorary Station Master may have been the best decision the company ever made. Tama gained quite a following of fans. Many folks began taking the train: to see her! A study by Osaka University was conducted, which found that Tama brought at least one billion Japanese...

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April 18, 2010

Cool Decorated Trains in Japan

There were a lot of cool trains that I got to ride in Japan. Some were amazingly fast, others had decorated outsides. I put together a little gallery of some of the cooler trains that I enjoyed riding, or seeing on the platform. Enjoy the photos! Train ID: Thomas the Tank Engine Train: Keihan Railways (I think), Kyoto, Japan World of Peter Rabbit Train: Japan Railways, Osaka, Japan Flowered Train: Nankai Railways, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan Universal Studios Train: Japan Railways, Osaka, Japan Purple Nature Motif Train: Japan Railways, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan Although these may be pretty on the outside, they...

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April 14, 2010

Back From My Japanese Adventures… with some stories…

I sort of realized that I haven’t taken the time to make a post on the blog since I’ve returned from my adventures in Japan. But I am back now, back to the normal schedule of work, and riding Metro North, and encountering crazy people. I bought a lot of cool stuff in Japan… though I’ve unfortunately brought home an “unwanted visitor” from the land of the rising sun in the form of the cold I have right now. I’ll definitely be posting stories, and photos, and videos (yeah, I have around 10gb of data in total to weed through),...

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March 31, 2010

Heading off to Japan…

Hey everyone, just saying goodbye for a little while… I’ll be heading to Japan tomorrow morning for some rail adventures there. I’ll be riding my first shinkansen, or as they are more commonly known around here, bullet train. Supposedly the train that goes from Tokyo to Kyoto which I will be taking reaches speeds of 186 miles per hour… so that should be pretty interesting. Other things on the agenda are going to Wakayama prefecture to see a rather famous cat named Tama, who I have briefly mentioned before. I’m not sure how well this meeting will go. From my...