Saturday 7 January 2017

Trains

January 7, 2017

I'm back, after a bit of a break.  New Year in Japan is A VERY BIG DEAL, although we celebrated in a very low key fashion here in my corner of the world.  I haven't received any postcrossing cards in a while which explains why I haven't posted much recently.

The topic of today's Blog Linky Party is Trains and Trams.  Many people in Japan are fascinated by trains, and here in Japan they are rather wonderful.  Despite being a big fan of movies like Murder on the Orient Express or Narrow Margin that take place in or on trains, I'm not terribly interested in trains except as a method of travelling.

I have two Gotochi cards for you today.  One of them was featured earlier when we looked at cards with Lighthouses on them, but I don't think I have shown off the other one.  There is at least one more  regular Gotochi card with a train on it, but I don't have it.

As I stated before, this card represents the Choshi Electric Railway Line, which is only 6.4 km long. A rather interesting fact about the company that runs this Railway Line is that to supplement their income, they started to sell senbei (a Japanese rice cracker) Interestingly, the senbei are so popular now that the company makes double the amount selling the crackers that they do on the railway line!

Wikipedia gives a good overview of the company and the history of the rail line, so do have a look at it if you are interested in learning more about this train line in Chiba.
   


The card below features the Enoden or the Enoshima Electric Railway.  This train line is another private train line that runs between Kamakura Station and Fujisawa Station.  I'm not completely sure, but I may have ridden on this train when I visited Kamakura one year, a very long time ago.  The train track is single, but some stations have double tracks which allows trains to run in both directions.  


The Japan Post Office has also created Gotochi cards for train lovers.  I have found examples of the cards for my readers and am listing them below.

These are special sets of Gotochi Cards.  I do not collect them personally, so have little information about them. 




JR East Bullet Train -Interestingly, this series features bullet trains that can be seen in Tohoku, the part of Japan that I live in.  However, my city is not on a Shinkansen Line, so I hardly ever ride these trains.  


The POSTA COLLECT "News" page.  To find these cards that I have linked to, I had to scroll down quite far.  There may be more train cards of interest if you follow the links on the page.



Thank you for visiting my Trains Link up.  I hope you have enjoyed this look at Gotochi Cards and trains.  Please visit the other bloggers to see their take on Trains and Trams.  

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10 comments:

Heleen said...

I must say I am fascinated by trains, too, and love to travel by train (although I don't do that so often).
The Gotochi cards are nice.
Thank you also for the links, especially the first of the bullet trains I love to see. (at primary school my son has kept his lecture about trains and showed pictures of this Japanese high speed train, too :-) )

Helen said...

I'm glad that you liked them! I enjoy travelling by train, but don't have the option that often as it is often easier to go by car or bus, depending on when I am going!

There are quite a few styles of bullet trains here. When a railway company changes to a new style, it usually makes the national news!

Thanks for visiting :-)

Scriptor Senex said...

My son-in-law is fascinated by trains and would no doubt love to travel on some Japanese ones.

Helen said...

There are some amazing trains here John, I'm sure he would enjoy it. Now that the majority are non-smoking too, I like it too. Safe, clean and usually on time...I love travelling by train, but the places I like to go aren't always reachable by trains for a reasonable cost :-(

Joy said...

An enjoyable browse through train cards. They have one of the bullet trains in our National Railway Museum which from memory I think dates from the 1970s, it's a popular exhibit.

Helen said...

Thank you Joy. I wonder how different the bullet trains of the 1970's are from the ones of today! Thanks for visiting!

Mail Adventures said...

Me too, I'm fascinated by trains. By the romantic part of travelling by train (which I do often). My husband is too, and he knows a lot about the technical issues... So I love your post!

I think we have always associated Japan with trains, probably because of the mythical bullet train.

Helen said...

There are so many cool and wonderful things about Japan, and Trains are just a small fraction...but a very fun fraction!

I know almost nothing about the technical side of trains, so your husband would be a good balance to me. These days, I probably only take the train 2 or 3 times a year at the most. When I first came to Japan, I took the train a lot. My husband drives, so I just don't have the need for a train!

Thanks for visiting Eva!

Maria said...

Hi Helen, thanks for the information about the operator company for some trains in Japan. I was so naive in thinking they're all run by the government transportation agency! Thanks for the links for the other Gotochi train cards too!

Helen said...

You're welcome! The trains are more interesting than I had originally thought. Thanks for visiting.