Making Trains Fun, Sexy, And Romantic in Japan



For as long as I have lived in Japan, TV commercials have promoted public transit. One of my favourite campaigns was the JR Tokai X'mas Express, running from 1988-1992. Music by 山下達郎 Tatsuro Yamashita - Christmas Eve (1983).

Reuters notes that Japanese women take to train spotting:

"There's a growing number of girls who like trains. The Internet has made it easier for people to meet others with similar hobbies," said Chihiro Uchida, the 25-year-old "station-master" who runs the train bar. The women clients that Uchida refers to are called "Tetsuko" or train girls. The name became popular after "Tetsuko's Trip," a comic book that was later turned into a TV series.




Tetsuko's Trip official website

This is a fantastic poster for - bus schedules. In many regions of Japan, you need thick schedule books for both the train and the bus, to go to remote locations. So much fun to plan your trip, and if you are lucky, who will you meet on the long, slow journey...?

(Poster photos from hesomura.hp.infoseek.co.jp)



After you turn 50, Japan Rail thinks you deserve special treatment. They offer great discounts to locations that you may once have visited, a long time ago, or perhaps only dreamt of! JR Otona no Yasumi are carefully promoted as high-culture, sophisticated trips to temples and traditional restaurants in towns in Japan's amazing countryside.

Comments

Pandabonium said…
Trains have long been romanticized in song, but for a time eclipsed by jet plane travel (though very few songs mention the latter). Perhaps due to the fact that trains are close up and personal. You can touch them at the station, watch closely as they go by, and feel their power, where as planes are almost always at a distance.

The words of the song "Laura" come to my mind (perhaps because I have a daughter named for it) - "then you see Laura on a train that is passing through, those eyes, how familiar they seem"....

A little more recent would be Seiko Matsuda's "Please don't go" which starts out with the sound of a steam train pulling out of the station as people say goodbye...

Nice to see some music focused on public transport again, if only for promotional purposes.

For a fun comedy/mystery movie built around a train ride, check out "Silver Streak" (1976) with Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Pryor, Patrick McGoohan... good fun!
9:41 pm, January 13, 2009
Tom O said…
Here is, without doubt, THE best website about train travel:

www.seat61.com

Thinking about going from Istanbul to Syria and it costing nothing? Check it out!
http://www.seat61.com/Syria.htm#Istanbul%20-%20Aleppo

Is also fantastic for making that TransSiberian trip to Japan happen.
4:56 am, January 14, 2009
Pandabonium said…
Cool website, Tom. Thnx.
7:03 am, January 14, 2009
Pandabonium said…
I still love this post (in 2012). Thanks, Martin.
5:15 pm, December 23, 2012
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