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 were nothing in comparison to one particular train that I saw in Japan. I am fairly certain that particular train is the coolest, or at least the cutest, in the world. I’ll have a photo gallery and video tour of that train later on this week. Here’s a little sneak peek:
great looking trains! they should do that for the Grand Central Trains
People always tell me I would love Japan, and this is just more proof. I love things that are beautiful for no reason. They didn’t have to paint that or take the time to make those trains beautiful, but they did. And the people of Japan respect things enough to keep them nice and clean. What a concept, huh? Maybe Metro North should hold a contest for external train art to entice more people into taking the train. I would love to see what artists come up with.
Yeah, everything is pretty clean there, at least public spaces. People don’t really litter on the trains though. But elsewhere you do see it. There never seem to be enough trash bins, probably because of the crow problem (at least where I visited). I swear their crows are like double the size of the ones here. My friend told me that all the netting over the trash bins are to keep the crows out. In the absence of trash bins though, people need to put their junk in some sort of receptacle. You would hate this though: bicycle baskets. There are so many people riding bicycles, that they are always parked by stations and such. And if another person can’t find the trash, into that basket it goes.
re: trash in the bike baskets- they do that in NYC! My friend even started a blog about it and I’ve photographed a few very impressive collections of trash in bike baskets. My bike is rarely parked on the street, so this isn’t much of a problem for me personally. But one time, I bought raspberries from a fruit cart, parked my bike to go into a store and forgot they were in my basket. When I returned, I realized I had left them there but they were gone. And instead I was left with a piece of salt water taffy. I’m not sure if someone thought that was a fair trade or if the giver and the taker were two different sources.