Category: Trains

One of the first things in Japan that caught my attention were trains and also the amount of train geeks around here. A general passion for trains exists in Japan. Train geeks collect books about trains, they travel just to have the opportunity to “try a new train” or to visit a particular train station, they collect pictures of trains and they even know the inner workings of trains and how a certain engine works. At the beginning I was surprised by all these obsessions but little by little I am finally getting it: using every day a train line that transports more people a day than ALL New York lines, using ALWAYS train stations as meeting points, using train stations as a starting point to decide where to buy/rent a house, seeing how all the activity-life-restaurant-businesses gather almost always around train stations… These are facts that have made me realize that it is not only an obsession of some people; trains are a fundamental part of Japanese society and everyday life.

In big bookstores there’s always a section with books and magazines about trains, these are some pictures that I took in Kinokuniya, my favorite bookstore:

Plenty of magazinees about trains and railroads.

The book with the Galaxy Express 999 cover is a boring train schedule catalog.

All this books are about trains!

This book had tons of maps with every minimum detail on how railroads are placed in some stations in the north of Tokyo.

Related posts:

• Photographing the Shinkansen
• Shinkansen crossing Tokyo
• Arriving with Yamanote to Shibuya & Hachiko
• Yamanote line
• Pushers extreme version

Yesterday I shared with you my passion for the Yamanote Line. In this post I show you a video where I use a Yamanote train, I get off at Shibuya, I show you how long a Yamanote train is, and I end up next to the Hachiko Dog.

I say something in Spanish, just ignore it… what I say it is not interesting anyway 🙂

The Yamanote is one of the most fascinating train lines in the world. After living many years in Tokyo, it never stops to surprise me. During these years I’ve been collecting some interesting facts about the Yamanote and here I share them with you:

• The Yamanote is a loop urban line in the center of Tokyo with 29 stations. The Imperial Palace is in the center of the loop.
• It is the busiest line in the world.
• It is used by an average of 3.6 million passengers a day. Some busy days more than 5 million people use Yamanote trains to move around Tokyo.
• Some days, the Yamanote line (With only 29 stations) transports more people than all trains and lines in the New York metro system (that has nearly 500 stations and 26 lines).
• Yamanote started in 1885. It is one of the oldest urban trains in the world..
• During the rush hour, in a Yamanote line stations one train stops every two minutes.
• There are videogames only about Yamanote
• It takes around 60 mintues to do the whole loop.
• Yamanote trains have 11 wagons. Some of the wagons have 6 doors and some have 8 doors. Some trains have 88 doors!.
• On top of each door there are two LCD screens. That means that there are 176 screens per train!
• The maximum speed a Yamanote train can travel is 90km/h.

Train arriving to Shinjuku this morning.

The train from the previous picture arrived.

Yamanote line map.

Danny also uses Yamanote when wearing his armor.

Yamanote DS 🙂

I video where I ride the Yamanote.