# A summer in Japan, 1978



## MARC Rider (Oct 19, 2020)

Well, if I can't take big trips now, why not reminisce about old trips?

During my second summer in graduate school at Penn State, they weren't offering any courses I really needed, so my (first) wife and I decided we'd take the summer term off. Her brother (I guess that makes him my "ex-brother-in-law," who I'll call "M") was working in Japan and invited us to come visit him and sleep on the kitchen floor of is 2x4 apartment in Tokyo. Through his contacts, we found a charter flight geared for Japanese students in the US who were returning home for summer vacation. It left New York in late June and returned in late August. The service was provided by Japan Air Lines. On the flight out, our charter group was put into a regularly scheduled flight, a DC-10, which was very nice. The return flight was a charter flight for just our group, and older JAL DC-8. Given 2 months in Japan, we got to see a lot of the country.

While waiting for the flight at JFK, we read an article in the New York Times reporting that the dollar had fallen below 200 yen for the first time since who knows when. We had a nice wad of money, all in traveler's checks, but it was all in dollars. The outbound flight left from JFK and stopped in Anchorage to refuel. They gave us a coupon to buy whatever we wanted at the snack counters in the transit lounge while the plane was refueling. My impression of the Anchorage airport was (1) the glass case containing a big stuffed polar bear, and (2) the hot dogs that were selling for $2.75 (that's $11 in today's money). We used our coupons for a bowl of ramen, which seemed like a better bargain, and we wanted to get into the spirit of our trip to Japan.




It was pretty cool flying over the Alaska glaciers. Somebody pointed out Denali to us as well.

The flight over the Pacific was a bit tiresome, and we approached Tokyo looping in from the south, so we saw Mt. Fuji and Tokyo Bay from the plane window, even though we were landing at the relatively newly opened Narita Airport, which was a good ways east of the metropolis.




We finally arrived at Narita (here's the arrival concourse, above.) Naturally, we were jet-lagged, but had the presence of mind to find a bank and buy some yen. This is where we were introduced to the Japanese custom of having change presented to you in a small tray, never by hand. Then we had to figure out how to get into the city, where M was going to meet us. Remember, this is 1978. No cell phones, overseas calls were really expensive. Heck, it was probably an expensive toll call from the airport to Tokyo, if we could figure out how to use the Japanese telephone system. In other words, nobody on either continent knew when we landed, and M had to go to Ueno Station and just wait for us, not knowing when we'd actually arrive.

To understand Narita, imagine if someone had decided to build the Washington DC main international airport somewhere out around Frederick, Maryland. Building it was controversial, and the airport was built before all the ground transport links were ready. The only rail service was the private Keisei Electric Railway, and following M's instruction, we found the station and figured out how to buy the tickets. There were English language instructions and signage, but it was a bit spotty. I think we paid for the deluce express for airline customers, which included luggage racks and reclining seats, but we ended up boarding something that looked like a subway train, and that's what we rode into Tokyo. It seems like it took over an hour, and it was a pretty surreal ride, being that we were jet-lagged as all get-out, the station announcements were in an incomprehensible (to us) language, and it was dark, as we had landed in the early evening. As we rocketed by the various suburban towns (at least the train was an express) we saw displays of clorful neon signage that woud do creit to Times Square or Las Vegas. At last we arrived at the Keisei Ueno Station (not to be confused with the Japan National Railways Ueno Station, which is next door), and M met us.

But we still had to ride the rails some more before we could sleep. First, a ride on the Tokyo subway Ginza Line from Ueno to Shibuya. Then we got on another commuter rail line run by the Tokyu Railway called the Shin Tamagawa Line, which is now called something else, which we rode to M's station, which I don't remember, it was somewhere west of Shibuya. We finally hauled out luggage up the stairs and into the neighborhood. Oh yes, we in definitely in a foreign country. The noisy traffic, the tang of high-sulfur diesel fumes that I remembered from my trip to Israel 6 years previously. We walked off the main drag into a warren of very narrow streets fronted by various low buildings. The streets were all paved and marked immaculately, but boy they were narrow. I would have trouble getting my SUV through them. The cars were scaled for the streets. We even saw a garbage truck, a design that looked exactly like an American garbage truck, but miniaturized to the size of a small delivery van. Eventually we got to M's apartment block. He wasn't kidding when he said the place was small. It was basically a studio, but it had a full bath and a decent kitchen, which is where we slept, because the sliding door gave both M and us some privacy. Well, that was enough for us for one very long day. We rolled out our sleeping bags and got some well-deserved rest. The next morning, we were off to explore Tokyo, including some train rides.

-more to come.


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## caravanman (Oct 20, 2020)

Sometimes now we forget just what an adventure foreign travel was back in the pre-digital age. Looking forward to the next instalment !


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## railiner (Oct 20, 2020)

Enjoy reading your trip reports, thanks for posting. I wonder how you can recall all those details? You must spend a lot of time taking copious notes in a journal, or something....


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## jiml (Oct 20, 2020)

MARC Rider said:


> To understand Narita, imagine if someone had decided to build the Washington DC main international airport somewhere out around Frederick, Maryland.


 That is a very apt description!



railiner said:


> Enjoy reading your trip reports, thanks for posting. I wonder how you can recall all those details? You must spend a lot of time taking copious notes in a journal, or something....


I wondered the same thing. I have trouble remembering what I did last week, let alone in 1978. Looking forward to the remainder.


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## railiner (Oct 20, 2020)

My first trip to Tokyo, in around 2000, was similar arriving at Narita. I also chose the Keisei line (returned on JNR East).
One little detail I recall was my train, a limited stop express, was named, “The Morning Liner”.


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## MARC Rider (Oct 20, 2020)

railiner said:


> I wonder how you can recall all those details? You must spend a lot of time taking copious notes in a journal, or something....


HaHa.  Who do you think I am, Paul Theroux? I sometimes surpise myself at what I can remember. If only I could remember to take out the trash on the correct day...


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## MARC Rider (Oct 21, 2020)

I don't remember what I had for my first breakfast in Japan. In general, traditional Japanese breakfasts are weird, with rice ball, fish sausages, and omlettes wrapped around sushi rice. I think maybe M had some boxes of cereal or something. Instead of a whole-house hot water system, he had instant-hot heaters mounted over the kitchen sink and for the bath. These were operating only when being used; you had to light up the heater in order to get your hot water.

We got out and started exploring Tokyo. Our main base of operations was Sibuya, one of the many "downtowns" that were strung along a loop rail line called the Yamanato Line. The central part of the Tokyo conurbation included the fancier districts and the Imperial palace, all of the business districts (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ueno, Ginza, etc.) were on the loop. A large number of JNR and private commuter rail lines radiated off of the Yamanote Line. The interior of the commuter cars pretty much resembled the subway cars with longitudinal seats and lots of room for standees. In fact the only real difference between commuter rail and subways were that the subways ran off a third rail, whereas the commuter rail used catenary.



Here's a Yamanote Line train arriving atthe station. (Don't remember which one.)

The climate in Tokyo is roughly equivalent to that of Washington, DC or Raleigh, NC. In other words, except when we went up into the mountains it was hot and sticky. There was also some really impressive smog that made the stuff I encountered in Beijing a few years ago look like child's play.



It should be noted that they drive on the left side of the road in Japan, similar to Britain, India, and some other Commonwealth countries. The first time we rode a bus, it made a right turn that really turned my head around, as we were surrounded on all sides by traffic coming at strange directions.

We stopped by a supermarket in the complex attached to Shibuya station to get some more stuff for the apartment. Today, of course, what with H-Mart and other chains, Asian food is readily available in the States, but back then, this local supermarket was a tourist attraction in itself for us, what with all the unusual things on the shelves. We were especially impessed with the wide variety of off-the-wall (to us "gaijin") flavors of instant ramen. Meat was ridiculously expensive, except for mutton, for some reason, so we bought some, very thinly sliced, and made a stir fry with it.

However, most of the time we ate out. We, of course, knew no Japanese, but we were able to order food in most cases due to the Japanese custom of having display windows with plastic models of the food being served. We'd just accompany the waiter to the display at the entrance and point to what we wanted. After a while, we got confident enough to speak some orders, "ramen," "ebi" (shrimp), "soba," etc. 




Here's a plastic food model. I believe they were originally introduced in the 19th century when Western food started to be introduced, and the models helped diners figure out what this stuff called, say, "spaghetti" was.

M turned us on to a book called "Eating cheap in Japan," which was very helpful to us. Tokyo back then (as it probably still is) was one of the most expensive cities in the world, with all kinds of urban legends like $35 cups of coffee and such. We did quite fine with noodle shops (a big bowl of ramen or udon with a big shrimp or a slice of some sort of meat went for about $1) or the restaurants on the top floors of department stores where you could get a kind of a bento box meal for a bit more. We never actually went to a sushi bar, as sushi was a pretty expensive treat; the only time we had it was when we visited a friend of M, and they served a platter of it in our honor. We also had a sukiyaki dinner at someone's home, which is apparently the way most Japanese eat it.

After seeing the sights in Tokyo, we finally decided to start traveling around to ourlying areas. First some day trips. We went to the historical city of Kamakura and saw the large buddha statue, then we we went to Hirsatsuka, about halfway between Tokyo and Mt. Fuji to see the Tanabata festival, which was supposed to be one of the largest of its kind in Japan.



The statue of the Amida Buddha in Kamakura, dating from the 13th century.



The Ofuno-Kannon Buddhist temple, built in 1960, and easily visible from the train.




The Tanabata festival in Hiratsuka.




Don't remember exactly what this was, but the cheesiness is great. I seem to recall that the dinos were slightly animatronic and made stereotypical dinosaur noises. Remember, this is the nation that gave the world Godzilla! We were to find that the Japanese were specialists in producing tourist traps, I don't think anything in the US can compare with some of the stuff we saw.



Of course, we wanted to sample the exotic (to us) local chow. But the locals wanted to sample exotic American chow, like the Colonel's fried chicken. The server, on the other hand,appeared to prefer using chopsticks to eat the local take-out cuisine.

These trips were our introduction to riding the JNR intercity trains. These trains (not including the Shinkansen, which ran on separate tracks) came in three grades, with three separate fares, sort of similar to MARC/SEPTA/NJT -- Northeast Regional -- Acela Express on the NEC. The cheapest were the locals, which, aside from stopping at every station, had interior furnishings reminiscent of a subway or commuter train. The next grade up was the Express, which were also EMU's that had normal, but not reclining, seats in a more standard configuration. I believe they were two sets of seats facing each other, similar to British second class. They had a first class section called a "green car," which we never rode, so I don't know what they were like. The top of the line was the "Special Express," with had bullet-nose fronts and seating similar to the old Amtrak heritage coaches, though maybe not as roomy because (1) Japanese tend to be smaller than Americans, and (2) the mainline rail in Japan (except for the Shinkansen) is narrow gauge, thus there's not as much room in each coach.

All of the train stations in Japan had fare gates going in and going out, similar to what I observed in Britain on a trip a few years later. Of course, this being back in the dark ages of technology, these gates were manned by .... men!  Thus, no conductors were needed on the locals, I guess you could buy the cheapest ticket and ride around all day as long as you got off at a station within the fare zone of the ticket. They had conductors on the other trains, I think maybe to make sure nobody was giving themselves a free upgrade. None of these trains were reserved.

We found out about the different classes of trains the hard way. When we went to Hiratsuka, we bought a local ticket (as only local trains stopped there), but somehow accidentally got on a Tokaido Main Line express. When the conductor came by, he was a bit put out by the wrong ticket we had, but we just kept saysing "Hiratsuka!" Then he finally figured out what had happened, and pointed out the window at a station we were passing very quickly in the express track. "Hiratsuka!" he said. He said some other stuff in Japanese that we didn't understand, but which probably was something like, "get off at Odawara, the next stop, go to other other platform, get on a _*local *_going back to Tokyo and get off at Hiratsuka. " When we got to Odawara, he escorted us off the train and used enough sign language so we could figure that out. It helped that I had a reasonably detailed map, so I was abe to figure out where we were. (Remember, no smartphones, no GPS, no Google Maps. You were on your own back then.) As you can see from the pictures, we did get to Hiratsuka, and, of course, we made it back to Tokyo with no problem.

-More to come


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## MARC Rider (Nov 4, 2020)

After a few weeks in Tokyo, it was time to see the rest of Japan. But first, we had to dal with the constantly dropping (relative to the yen) US dollar. At the time, we had never heard of foreign currency traveler's checks, and so we were stuck with a couple thousand dollars for our expenses that were rapidly depreciating away. Fortunately for us, M worked at a bank, and so he was able to get us a very good exchange rate. We exchanged about $1,000, and had the weird sensation of having ~190,000 yen in cash burning a hole in our joint pockets. Of course, we didn't put it all in one place, or even on one person, but fortunately, at the time, pickpocketing and mugging weren't common crimes in Japan, and for all I know, they still aren't common.

Our plan was to take a weekend trip with M to see the Hakone Hot Springs resort, located about 90 km (60 mi) southwest of Tokyo. After the weekend, M would return to Tokyo, and we would take the overnight train to Kyoto, traveling on the old Tokaido Main Line. Because most Japanese people don't speak English very well (not knocking them for that, very few Americans speak Japanese well), purchasing a reserved train ticket in those days before automated multi-lingual TVMs was not a trivial matter. The usual way for "gaijin" (foreign barbarians) like us to do so was to go to the local Tourist Information Center, where the staff _did_ speak English very well, and get some help. We told them what we wanted to do, the staffer would take out a telephone book sized railway timetable and figure out what trains we could take and what accommodations were available. Once we decided what we wanted, te staffer would then pull out a pad and write it all out in Japanese. We would then take this piece of paper to the ticket office at the train station, hand it to the agent, and (hopefully) get our tickets. Of course, everyhting was paper tickets in those days. This we did, and we were in possessions of our tickets and ready for our trip.

To get to Hakone, you have to first get to Odawara, about an hour from Tokyo on either the JNR Tokaido Line or on the private Odakyu Railway Romancecar. I don't remember now which train we took. At Odawara, we transferred to the Hakone-Tozan Railway, a curvy mountain railway that had grades about as steep as one can get without having to resort to a cog railway.



Here's a view of the EMU equipment being used in the summer of 1978. From their website, it seems that they've upgraded the rolling stock since then.

We slowly worked our way up into the mountains, including a couple of switchback sidings, where we changed direction and finally came to the terminus at Gora. There we transferred to the Hakone-Tozan Cable Car (funicular) for a ride up the hill to Sounzan.




Here we are at the top, ready for the next stage of our tour, the Hakone Ropeway:




They've definitely upgraded the equipment used on these gondolas since 1978. 
There's a station in the middle at Owakudami, where you can get out and view Yellowstone-style hot springs and fumaroles at the "great boiling valley." You can also get a nice headache from breating the sulfurous fumes. The wikipedia article states"



> People with asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, heart pacemakers, and pregnant women are advised not enter the valley because of high volcanic activity



From there, we continued on the ropeway to the other terminus at Togendai on Lake Ashi.




We then took a sightseeing cruise on Lake Ashi to the port of Moto Hakone, where we found a bus to take us yo our lodgings. Fortunately, M spoke fluent Japanese and was able to figure out how all this worked. Japanese buses were definitely an experience. When you got on, you take a ticket with a number on it. There was a display in the front of the bus that had the numbers with corresponding fares. This was constantly changing throughout the ride. When you were ready to get off, you could see what the fare was next to your ticket number, and that's what you paid the driver upon exiting. I should mention that none of this was digital or computerized, though I guess the display probably is now.

We had boked a room in something called a minshuku, which is normally a kind of budget home-stay B&B. However, our minshuku in Hakone was an old Jaoanese Inn (ryokan), which was maybe a little past it's prime, which is why they were part of the minshuku reservation system, but it was still in pretty nice shape. We were thus able to get the traditional ryokan experience at a fraction of the price -- apparently ryokan are expensive, and they were beyond our budget at the time.

After leaving our shoes at the door, we were led into a small bare room with a sliding door and with a tatami mat floor and a low table. The young woman who took us to the room then got down on her knees, bowed so that her head was almost touching the floor, and spoke in what sounded like a very submissive tone. M said she was just asking us when we wanted to have dinner served. Traditionally, the Japanese do not like to eat in public dining rooms. While we found that was changing during our visit, here, and at another hotel, we got served meals in our room. In this case, the fixings (and a small propane stove/heater) arrived, and we ate dinner, which I don't remember what it was, but it must have been OK.

This little minshuku was a real bargain, it seemed, because it had it's own hot spring bath, which, of course, we tried out. With Japanese baths, the procedure is to wash up thoroughly before entering the bath. It was pretty nice soaking up our hard-worked tourist bones in the hot, smelly mineral water. As I recall, all of the public baths we used in Japan were gender-separated, but I've heard there are some that have the traditional coed nude bathing experience.

At bedtime, we found out that the walls really were made of paper. There was a party next door to us that consisted (apparently) of a couple of men and a couple of women. The men would say something in deep voices, and then the women would respond by giggling and speaking very quickly. It was muffled enough so that M couldn't figure out what they were saying, but it sure kept us from getting to sleep. Fortunately, traditional Japanese rooms don't have beds, you just lay out a quilt or foam mat on the tatmi floor and sleep under quilt. So at least we weren't kept up all night by creaking bedsprings, if that's what those guys had come there for.  

The next day, when we were checking out, M looked over the bill and found an extra charge. This was for use of the "special hot springs bath." When he remonstrated with the desk clerk that if he had known, he might not have taken a bath. The clerk said that even if you don't take a bath, you get charged for it. It looks like the "resort service fee" has been around for a long time.  M explained to us that he was being a little gauche by arguing over the bill. Apparently most Japanese woud not bother to argue over the relatively small charge for fear of losing face. Being foreign barbarians, nobody thought less of us, because we had no face to lose. 

We left the hotel and found the bus that would take us back to Odawara and our adventure on the Japanese version of the Night Owl, overnight to Kyoto.

-more to come


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## jiml (Nov 5, 2020)

Enjoying the report. IIRC the railway you mentioned to Hakone is one featured in the original Microsoft Train Simulator with a rather ancient MU.


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## VentureForth (Nov 6, 2020)

Ahhh... Memories! I remember well the pre automation days of ticket punchers, huge timetables (which I loved to collect), manual ticket purchases, etc.

I believe install crime like pickpocketing is still relatively rare. Not unheard of, though. As a kid growing up there in the 70-80s, I still had great apprehension with large wads of cash. I would keep some in my shoe! 

As for the overnight "Blue" trains, they are all but completely gone. Maybe one or two left. Only a couple of high end tourist overnights at all anymore. Sad to see that gone.

Nice report. Thanks for sharing!


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## MARC Rider (Jan 17, 2021)

We left Hakone and returned to Odawara, where we had hours to kill before our overnight train to Kyoto. So why not go to the beach and take a dip in the Pacific Ocean? Being from the east coast of the US, this was the first time I had ever seen the Pacific, let alone taken a dip. All I remember was that the water was cold, and there were no changing facilities or showers, so there we were afterwards, having to dress over our sea-salt encrusted bodies. But, no problem, there was a neighborhood bath house just a few blocks away. M told us the the neighborhood bath houses were rapidly dying off, as more apartments were being built with bathrooms that included baths, which he thought was sort of a shame as apparently the neighborhood baths allowed for a great deal of socializing.

The place we went to was apparently typical. There was a lady attendant who checked people in to both the men's and women's sides. No co-ed nude bathing here! After you strip down, you head for the showers, which are low, as people like to sit on a stool while showering. This is where you actually clean yourself. Before they had showers, people would pour buckets of warm water over themselves to wash up and rinse. After that, you soak in the hot (40 deg. C) pool as long as you can stand it. The whole place was very clean, with a vaguely tropical-style décor. Boy, did we feel good and refreshed after we got out.

After a quick dinner at a noodle stall, M got on the train back to Tokyo, and we had to hang around the station for our midnight departure on the Ginga, the Japanese equivalent of the New-York-Boston Night Owl. According to the wiki article, the Ginga lasted until 2008.

We saw a lot of trains go by, but what I remember most now is that the Shinkansens would come through about every 15 minutes. Finally, near midnight, they finally announced the train, and it rolled in.

We had booked a second-class sleeper, which was kind of like a cross between on open-section Pullman and a European couchette. The berths were already made up, and were tiered 3 berths high. I crawled into one, my wife crawled into the other. I think there was less than a meter of headroom, but, to my surprise, I didn't feel claustrophobic, and there was plenty of room to stretch out. This thick curtain provided plenty of privacy. While we had bedding., all I took off was my shoes, and slept in my clothes. This was actually my first experience in a sleeping car berth, as my other overnight rail journeys had been in coach. The rocking of the cars was pleasant, and I was soon sleeping fairly well.

When I woke, it was already light out, but still early. I sat by a window in the corridor and watched Lake Biwa pass by. Soon we were in Kyoto. We had planned the trip to arrive on the day of the big parade that was part of the Gion Festival. We were going to spend a day in Kyoto, then travel to nearby Osaka, spend a couple of days, and then return to Kyoto for a more in-depth look.




One of the floats from the Gion Festival in Kyoto.

After the parade, we walked around a bit, and then went back to the station and took the train the Osaka, where we stayed in a western-style businessman's hotel. The unique feature of this lodging was that in addition to the usual Gideon's Bible you might find in a America Hotel, they also provided a book of the sayings of Buddha (in English.) Osaka was a modern city. We toured the castle, which is a historic site, although the castle itself is a reconstruction. We also took a day to travel to Nara, the original Medieval capital of Japan, where we say the semi-tame deer walking around in the park and the giant Buddha statue in what is called the world's largest wooden building. For some reason, we rode a bus to Nara, even though it seems like there's plenty of train service connecting Osaka Kyoto and Nara. 

We returned to Kyoto, which has many more historic buildings, given that it was spared from American bombing during World War 2. M, being a graduate of Amherst College, was able to arrange for us to stay at a guest house at a local university which has a relationship with Amherst. We then spent about a week seeing the sights.







Ginkakuji Temple and garden, built in the 1400s.

In addition to all the historic temples and palaces, we got to do some rail geekery, too:



At the time, they still had some streetcars in Kyoto. We didn't ride them, as they weren't going where we were headed.




This is the Keifuku Electric Railroad Arashiyama Line, which takes to to a pleasant riverside community on the outskirts of the city.





We had a good time in Kyoto. The next stop on our trip was Ise-Shima National park, which contained a lot of scenic views and the Ise Grand Shrine, which is the center of the Shinto religion. We rode down on the private (Non-JNR) Kintetsu Railway. Some of the attactions along the way included the "wedded rocks" and the Mikimoto Pearl Island in Ago Bay. We then signed on to an Authentic Japanese bust tour, complete with guides with flags (talk about the "kindergarten walk!") that took us over a scenic skyline drive and then to the Ise Shrine. From there we got back on the Kintetsu train and rode to Nagoya, where we stayed with a friend of M's.

-More to come


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## VentureForth (Feb 10, 2021)

These make me so happy. I'm a very white guy who was born in Tokyo in 1972 and lived there for nearly 20 years. When I get a chance, I want to make some commentary on your super nostalgic photos.

To me, these are akin to many here who remember riding the GG-1's!

With regards to the very second photo, that arrival area of Narita had the largest Solaris board I had ever seen. In High School, my friends and I actually (with a permit) filmed a mobster scene for a senior project. Well before 9/11, we had a blast. I remember people saying "Are those guys trying to kidnap him (me)? Oh - there are the cameras!"

I think my second trip from Tokyo to Dallas was sometime in 1976. I was only 4. I just remember there were a lot of Bicentennial activities going on state-side and we made a trip to DC and my first visit to the Capitol. I think we also had a stop in Anchorage to refuel. For some reason I think it was a DC-10, too. I've been on so many different planes back and forth. Mostly 747's until the 90's, then it was the 777.

By the way, on the pic of the dinosaurs, the text on the front side say "Triceratops" and "Tyrannosaurus" respectively. For whatever that's worth. lol. I can't read the left side of that sign.


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## MARC Rider (Mar 9, 2021)

After a couple of days in Nagoya, we were off again, back to Tokyo. First, we were stopping at Hamamatsu, where M had arranged a tour of the Yamaha Piano Factory for us. A, my ex, was a pianist, and though she played baby Steinway, she was interested in the competition, too. Anyway, most of the pianos in the practice rooms at school were Yamahas. I don't remember too much about the tour, except that it was pretty impressive standing on a gallery overlooking the assembly line and seeing hundreds and hundreds of pianos moving along, getting put together. After that is was back to the station and our ride on the the Shinkansen.




The original Series 0 Shinkansen "bullet train." It was a big deal that they could hit 200 km/hr (125 mph.)

Upon returning to Tokyo, we knocked about the city, spent a week at a camp with kids in the Japan Alps "teaching" English, and such. Our final excursion was with M to Nikko and then to Niigata on the Sea of Japan. I believe we rode up to Nikko on the Tobu Railway, but I took no train pictures. 

Nikko is one of the major tourist attractions on Japan. It contains the mausoleum of the first Tokagawa Shogun, and built in 1617. 








Here are the "Three Wise Monkeys," "Hear no Evil; Speak no Evil, and "See No Evil."

After a day at the shrine, we got on a bus and took a wild ride over a mountain pass with hairpin turns to Lake Chuzenji, where we spent the night in a resort town. 


Not satisfied with the first hotel, we rode on to another place that was nicer. Then we continued by bus to a station on the main JNR line between Tokyo and Niigata.



These were the typical EMU equipment used by JNR at the time for their regular express service. I forget whether we rode them or on a limited express into Niigata.

-more to come


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## MARC Rider (Mar 9, 2021)

We were visiting a friend of M's who lived in Niigata. We were thus also guests of his father, who was a prosperous doctor there. Japanese hospitality is legendary, and I'm not sure whether we barbarians repaid the favors properly. Oh well, as barbarians, we had no face to lose.  

On our evening arrival, we were put up in a very nice apartment in town, and were given our own yukata (a kind of cotton kimono use to wear to the baths). The next day, we were transferred to a fancy seaside hotel, which included a traditional meal served in the room. When we visited M's friend and his father, they served us sushi, which was the only time I ate sushi during the whole trip. (It's expensive and a little beyond our grad-school budgets.) We got a car and driver, and tours were arranged for us of some traditional crafts and then, because they found out I was studying geology, a tour of an iron mine. I don't think I've ever gotten the VIP treatment like that since.



Here's the Sea of Japan. The weather wasn't really good for having a nice beachfront hotel.



A view of Niigata.


Here's a unique way to deal with the shortage of parking spaces.



Finally, it was time to go back to Tokyo. We rode home on the Limited Express, "Toki." This is the 181 Series equipment used at the time. This service has since been replaced by a Shinkansen service, also called "Toki." We bought bento boxes at the station before we left, and that's what we had for dinner on the ride. I think they had someone come through the train with a food cart, also selling bento boxes. As I recall, the bentos were some kind of regional specialty packed in a ceramic bowl like container. I don't remember the actual food, it was usually rice balls, and vegetables, and maybe some stuffed tofu, stuff that would keep without refrigeration.

Most of the ride back to Tokyo was in the dark, so we missed the scenery of the Joetsu line, including the tunnels with spiral sections, and the stations inside the tunnel. 

one more excursion we had before we flew home -- A climb up Mt. Fuji. Stay tuned for the next installment!


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## John Bredin (Mar 10, 2021)

MARC Rider said:


> View attachment 21023


Looks like the height of exuberant "Space Age" 1950s car design applied to a train!


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## MARC Rider (Mar 17, 2021)

Guess it's about time to wrap up this trip. We only had two more railway experiences, for which I don't have photos. One was a weekend trip to Chichibu, a mountainous resort area west of Tokyo, accessed by a short (~2 hours) ride on the Chichibu Railway. The other was a ride on the Tokyo monorail that connects the Yamanote Circle Line with Haneda Airport.

The other big outing we did was a climb up Mt. Fuji. Well, I climbed up. A decided it was a bit too much for her and hung around the base lodge and waited for me. Technically I wasn't the base of the mountain. That's at about 4,000 ft. above sea level. Then you get on a bus and drive to the "base lodge" located halfway up the mountain at 8,000 ft. Then you (and half the population of Japan) start walking up the mountain from there to the summit at 12,000 ft. and change. 




One of the quaint customs of climbing Mt. Fuji is that you buy a cheap walking stick, and then, at each of the "stations" on the trail up, you pay someone about 100 yen to brand your stick with the station name.


As this implies, this is not exactly a wilderness jaunt.



At each of the stations you can buy food or drinks or even make a telephone call. They even have sleeping quarters so you can overnight at the station closest to the summit and then climb to the top to see the dawn.




The climb wasn't that bad, except for the altitude-induced headache. You can see the the path is full of switchbacks, so it's never really too steep, except maybe near the end.




Naturally, it was cloudy at the top, and I couldn't see anything, but I had a lot of good views on the way up and down.




There's a separate path down that's a lot faster than the path up. Not as many switchbacks, and it went through loose volcanic gravel, so you slid down a bit with each step.




By the end of August, it was time to head east back to the West. This time we booked the correct Keisei train and rode in comfort to Narita. They didn't have space on the scheduled flights for our charter group, so we got our own plane. This was an older DC-8, which had seating that was noticeably more cramped than that of the L-1011 that we flew in on. We left around mid-day, and it was dark when we arrived in Anchorage. They made us all get of the plane while it was being refueled and ran us through passport control, but not Customs. It wasn't all that late in the evening, but the international terminal was almost totally deserted. Then we took off, and headed east towards the sunrise. It was one of the shortest nights I've ever experienced. We landed at JFK at about 11 AM local time. Then we went through passport control all over again, and then Customs, and finally we were back in the States. A's parents picked us up at the airport, and took us back to their home in Jersey where spend the next couple of days recovering from the jet lag. Then, back into our car, and a 4 hour drive home to State College, ready to face the fall semester.

After that trip, I don't think I rode on an intercity train again until 1984. It was mostly just circumstances -- no trains in State College, and then when we moved to Baltimore, it was cheaper to just drive up to New Jersey, and the one time we took public transportation, People Express with their $19 fares BWI-EWR were cheaper than Amtrak. Then my situation changed, and I was traveling by myself more, and they finished the NEC work, so the trains were both faster and fairly cheap, and I was using it for more and more trips. The NEC is fine, but I don't think anybody has trains like Japan.


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## caravanman (Mar 18, 2021)

Very interesting and informative trip report, a most enjoyable read. 

I may have missed it somewhere, but can you say which year your visit to Japan took place?


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## trainman74 (Mar 18, 2021)

caravanman said:


> I may have missed it somewhere, but can you say which year your visit to Japan took place?



It's in the subject line of the thread (1978).


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## railiner (Mar 18, 2021)

John Bredin said:


> Looks like the height of exuberant "Space Age" 1950s car design applied to a train!


GM built automotive themed locomotives in the 30's thru the '50's...



up streamliners - Google Search





https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Aerotrain_1950%27s_stylin%27.jpg


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