Despite being a Wizard of Oz reference, that title really takes me back to my Thomas the Tank Engine days. My three younger brothers all, at one point or another in their childhoods, were massive Thomas the Tank Engine fanboys, and I'll freely admit that the fervor ended up rubbing off on me, too. We owned a big collection of all of the Rev. W. Audrey's (I didn't even have to look up how to spell the name; that's how much I've internalized it) original stories about the trains and their adventures on the Island of Sodor, and at least a dozen of the video tapes of the old episodes voiced by Ringo Starr and/or Alec Baldwin, back when the trains and people were still portrayed by wooden train sets and figures. Me and my dad still mention sometimes that we wish we could "go on holiday" to Sodor. For some reason, the idea of trains with faces has never scared me, even though I feel like maybe it should.
(And, surprisingly enough, Thomas is huge over here among little kids. The series makes for a common Happy Meal toy, you can find Thomas toys at any toy shop, and bigger train stations often have at least a few posters portraying the cheery blue engine.)
All that reminiscing aside... The reason I bring it up is because I grew up loving trains, at first as a secondhand fan thanks to my brothers, and eventually just because trains are really freaking cool (a major obsession with The Polar Express starting around the time I was 7 and never really ending probably didn't hurt any either). However, in America, the only times I really ever got to ride trains were on the rare occasions we went to train museums (or the less-rare occasions we went to zoos). And none of those ever had a real destination--it was just for the experience of riding in a train, or to go around the zoo looking at the animals and end up back where you first started.
While I went on the St. Louis Zoo train fairly often as a little girl, if you only count the train rides I've taken since moving to Iowa at age 8, I've easily gone on far more train rides since coming to Japan than I have in my whole life previous. By the time I leave, I'll probably be able to say that, even counting my times on the zoo train. A side effect of this mix of train adoration and actually being able to ride them on a regular basis is that I basically can't stop smiling whenever I'm on a train. I look out the window at the world speeding by, at the ever-present mountains (which I absolutely adore) in the distance, and just feel this huge joy in my heart. The swaying and leaning of the cars on the track, the clacking of the rails beneath, and the hum of acceleration all do the same for me.
My absolute favorite moment, whether I'm inside a given train or not, is when it first starts going and leaving the station. There's this distinct note that plays when a train here starts moving; I feel like it must have something to do with the electricity that powers the train, but you only hear it when a train starts moving. By the time it leaves the station, you can't hear it anymore from inside the train, and not really anymore from outside, either. I don't know why it is, but I just absolutely love that particular sound so much. To me, it sounds like adventure, like having a place in mind to go to and going there.
Alright, I think I've fangirled about trains enough. I should probably get to the actual point of this post.
I think I mentioned in my Osaka trip post that when me and my friends traveled to Osaka, we had to change from a Keihan train line to a JR line. This is a fairly common thing in Japan. You see, JR (Japan Railways) is the giant in transportation here. They have stations and lines throughout the country, and operate every single freight train I've seen to date. However, there are areas where smaller transportation companies still have a large share of the daily travel done in the area. Keihan (a train and bus company) is an example of this in the area where I live. While the station nearest my homestay is a JR station (Nagao), the station nearest Kansai Gaidai is a Keihan station (Hirakatashi). The bus I use to get around on a daily basis, too, is owned and operated by Keihan. But by the time you get to Kyoto or Osaka, pretty much everything is JR again.
(An aside, "Osaka" is actually pronounced quite differently from how we say it in America. In Japanese, it's actually spelled as Oosaka, essentially, and the two Os are basically one and a half syllables. They're not fully said separately (like oh-oh) but they're not just perfectly strung together (like ohh) either. It's hard to explain in writing, but it's sorta of like saying two separate Os, but slurring them together. It's not the same as saying them separately or perfect together, but sort of in-between. Ohohsaka is basically the best way I can think of articulate the proper pronunciation in writing.)
One of the interesting things about different lines being owned by different companies is that to transfer lines, you often have to go to a different station than the one you originally get off your first train at. I hear in Tokyo, this sometimes amounts to having to actually leave one building and walk across the street to another. So far, in my experience, it usually just means having to walk from one part of a building to another (though, oftentimes, there'll be a decent-sized courtyard connecting the two areas). There'll still be signs all over the place with info for both lines on them, but they're still technically two different stations (though often with the exact same names).
While it can be a little frustrating at times having to deal with multiple companies (JR tickets usually cost a bit more than Keihan tickets, though not to a point that it's a real issue), I find it fascinating how well the companies usually seem to work together. Like I said, oftentimes the two stations are practically the same building, and you'll see directional signs listing both companies on the same sign. You can find screens with the timetables for JR trains in the Keihan area, and vice versa, so you can check when you need to be on your transfer train as you get off your first train. It's really so convenient.
Though, honestly, the train system in Japan is endlessly convenient in general. If you have an IC card (a preloaded funds card) all you have to do to pay for your tickets is scan your card at the gate on the way in and again on the way out, and it automatically deducts your fare. (As my host mom put it, you bin when you get on and bin again when you get off--bin being the sound the scanner makes when you scan your card--though she was referring to buses at the time, since IC cards work there too. You can even use some IC cards with vending machines or at stores; I bought a book at a bookshop using mine the other day.) When it comes to local trains (and sometimes even to bullet trains), your ticket (if you buy a physical ticket) isn't restricted by time. You can buy a ticket, eat lunch, and go on the fourth or fifth train going where you want to go, and there's not an issue. Oftentimes, the exact same sort of train (say, Local service to Such-and-Such or Rapid service to So-and-So) will come through every ten minutes, so if your bus is delayed by traffic, it's really not a big deal.
I'm taking my second bullet train trip ever to Hiroshima this Saturday, and then taking the bullet train back to Osaka just in time to travel to Tokyo to visit a friend of Morningside the next day (so, I have four bullet train trips planned in the next couple of weeks). Since I'm planning to have less luggage to deal with this time, I'm seriously looking forward to it. I'm hoping to be able to sit in a window seat this time, so I can actually get a few videos of the world rushing by outside for my littlest brother, who still has yet to completely finish his train mania phase.
Overall, the trains are just yet another facet of daily life in Japan that I find absolutely enthralling and enchanting, despite their total normality to all of the natives. One thing's for sure--when I go home, I am going to seriously, desperately miss being able to go anywhere in the country, anytime, with just a bin of my IC card and a spirit of adventure, with the beautiful note of the train pulling out of the station to sing me along my way.
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