Monday, March 16, 2009

The final run

Two updates in one night.... to be honest I am avoiding having to put the children to bed by hiding in the bedroom pretending to do some work!
On Saturday the overnight "Fuji" train which ran between Tokyo and Oita made its final run before being put to sleep. For the last few weeks there have been increasing numbers of train spotters on the tracks near here trying to get the perfect shot. It looked like they were out in record numbers on Saturday - the only problem was that it was an absolutely freezing day (snow in some areas) and.... that the train was running almost 2 hours late due to an accident somewhere up the line. Considering trains here in Japan usually run to a 12:13 kind of schedule this delay caused a lot of worry. But being hardy train spotters they all seemed to stick around and the train seemed to whistle at every person that it passed. The reason it was stopped was due to lack of patronage - now everyone is complaining saying that for the last 10 years they had planned to ride that train..... I personally prefer the quick shinkansen!

2 comments:

  1. Wow. An I thought the armies of camera wielding ojisan were bad at the local swan wintering grounds!!

    I think I saw your train on the news...

    And tell the truth now- you got these pictures after waiting 2 hours in the freezing cld, didn't you? ;P

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  2. Oh no!! They didn't ask me. One less train to spot and time my day at the cottage by. Bugger!! Oh well, somewhere in my gazillions of japan pics I have that train already.

    By the way masaki - nice desk!!
    Grandad

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