art

ever been on a train this nice?

believe it or not, the photo above is of a train interior in japan.

with the results looking nicer than most nurseries, the japanese have taken the idea of ‘child-friendly public transport’ to the next level with these 2 beauties, both designed by eiji mitooka. he was the artistic force behind ‘omoden’ (toy train) and ‘ichigo ec’ (strawberry train), a couple of regional trains which travel on a daily basis on the 14.3km kishigawa line in japan. the japanase are intent on making train travel a more comfortable experience for everyone, women and children especially, and the results are incredible.

both trains contain hundreds of toys, tv screens showing cartoons, immaculately clean wooden flooring and cots for younger children. call me cynical but i can’t imagine anything like this emerging in the uk unless it was an attraction at a theme park.

here’s more of the stunning ‘toy train’…

here’s a video of the toy train…

and here’s the ’strawberry train’ which runs on the same line…

incidentally, the last station on the kishigawa line (kishi station) has a stationmaster named ‘tama’. he’s a cat. here he is…

only in japan.

sources: 1, 2

discussion

69 comments for “ever been on a train this nice?”

  1. as you said… only in Japan… :)

    posted by CONFIQ | 9th of December, 2007, 1:03 pm
  2. Certainly curious…wonder how many people are ‘allowed in’ at any given time… tightly packed congestion, body to body, would certainly undercut any seeming ‘benefits’ of this visual/tactile experience … me thinks.

    posted by lily | 9th of December, 2007, 2:56 pm
  3. Japan is a very creative place, I like it

    posted by frojd | 9th of December, 2007, 4:48 pm
  4. I won’t mind spending all day long inside this train.

    posted by Mike Bohol | 9th of December, 2007, 6:39 pm
  5. No; I’ve never ridden on such a nice looking train but I’d love to some day. Great photo at the end. Looks a bit like my calico except that she’d never put up with wearing a hat.

    posted by pussreboots | 9th of December, 2007, 7:00 pm
  6. Nice trainy :)

    posted by Blogerko | 9th of December, 2007, 7:39 pm
  7. Interesting that japan’s public transportation is so concerned with kids. This sort of train can’t exist in the US. Here we are so worried about what’s MINE, and how far away can I keep YOU. No sharing or common space, that’s communist!

    posted by Sandy | 9th of December, 2007, 8:38 pm
  8. @lily - i doubt there’d be any congestion; one of the photos shows that the Kishigawa line runs in the un-crowded countryside, far from the nightmare that is Tokyo at rush hour.

    posted by go | 9th of December, 2007, 11:27 pm
  9. This is from the off the end of the scale. That line is in wakayama prefecture which is in the middle of the banana on the sticky out bit. It has a population of about 1 million spread out over 4700km^2.

    The reality of trains in Japan is more like the Yamanote line, where they have no seating until 10am. Or perhaps the Inokashira line, where the front car explodes when it gets to Shibuya. (Having commuted on this line, it makes sardines look like they have it easy in their tins.)

    posted by Happy bunny | 10th of December, 2007, 1:33 am
  10. I can’t wait until the very soon day a drunk salaryman will ride this train and puke all over it. My countdown is running.

    posted by KiL | 10th of December, 2007, 2:09 am
  11. Train looks great. Nice find.

    posted by The Smartest Man in the World | 10th of December, 2007, 2:38 am
  12. That cat at the end is the conductor! lol seriously though - in japan they have seperate sections of the train for men and women because at night men grope women. It’s weird but they have a really really high rate of molestation against women..and a lot of the women don’t really say anything when it happens. But they’re trying to encourage it..and they have nicer coaches for women, which men are not allowed to enter.

    posted by FELINICUS-CAT ENGINEERZ | 10th of December, 2007, 11:34 am
  13. Couldnt do that in America.. Our little darlings would have that whole train tagged with “Crips n Bloods” spray paint..

    posted by Jeff | 10th of December, 2007, 12:46 pm
  14. Beautiful! Makes me want to ride that train regardless of where it is heading :)

    posted by RasmusB | 10th of December, 2007, 1:15 pm
  15. Looks like the Lexington Avenue subway :-). And, no smoking too.
    But how long would it last in NYC before someone stole the toys, cabinets, window shades, flooring ..?

    posted by Noob | 10th of December, 2007, 1:55 pm
  16. @ #12 FELINICUS-CAT ENGINEERZ

    I live in Tokyo and you’re mostly wrong about the seperate male/female train sections, at least in my experience of using the city lines and express lines out to the countryside.

    On Monday-Friday, the first car of the train is reserved for women only, from 7:30-9:30 AM only. A couple lines I have seen also reserve the first car for women from 11:30 PM on (the trains run only just past midnight so this is around an hour).

    Nevertheless when I’m riding trains in the morning I hardly ever ride the first car, and there are plenty of women in the remaining 9 train cars (mixed genders). Yes there is a groping problem, but honestly that’s because women let it. I have only been groped once, and I said very loudly “Please Stop Touching Me” and the man was so embarrassed he immediately stopped. The real problem is that Japanese women are generally hesitant to call attention to themselves. But the problem has been more and more publicized recently and the number of incidents is falling.

    posted by naomi | 10th of December, 2007, 2:41 pm
  17. I’ve never rode a train for my entire life..^^..but I definitely would love to try riding this one..^^

    posted by Joy | 10th of December, 2007, 2:45 pm
  18. Wow!
    Looks exactly like the MTA trains in NYC! Especially the beloved G Train.
    All it’s missing is the piss, crap, depressing crowd, and garbage

    posted by flat-black | 10th of December, 2007, 3:33 pm
  19. CORRECTION:

    The kishigawa line (kishi station) has a stationMISTRESS named ‘tama’. SHE’S a cat. here SHE is . . .

    Calico cats are always FEMALE!!!

    GREAT story!

    posted by Risa | 10th of December, 2007, 4:15 pm
  20. yet another reason to visit japan.

    posted by Simon | 10th of December, 2007, 5:26 pm
  21. Only japan…WORD
    But the kitty was cute on the last picture ^^

    posted by Dreads | 10th of December, 2007, 6:36 pm
  22. awesome! it’s like a dream, hehehe. I’1l believe in santa again

    posted by ulic | 10th of December, 2007, 9:17 pm
  23. @SANDY #7;
    Also, look how well behaved the kids are.
    Here is the U.S. they’re raised by angry parents and misbehave.
    Maybe the Japanese aren’t so angry.
    Of course, they don’t seem to have a bullshit government to divide the country like the excrement in the offal office.

    posted by A.V. | 10th of December, 2007, 10:56 pm
  24. hi…. hebat, bersih ,,, beda sekali dengan kereta di indonesia yang kotor, sumpek… bad..

    posted by nico | 11th of December, 2007, 2:42 am
  25. >in japan they have seperate sections of the train for men and women because at night men grope women.

    No lol Don’t confuse Tokyo with NY. The female only trains run in the morning so that they can go to work safely. Why NY subways don’t do this anyway?

    posted by pixy | 11th of December, 2007, 2:51 am
  26. I am not trying to be pedantic but I had heard calico cats were 99% of the time female, but that the very rare male calico did appear from time to time…

    posted by G Mercer | 11th of December, 2007, 3:19 am
  27. It was a nice ride. believe me.
    I plan going there in Japan again this new year.

    posted by Joel | 11th of December, 2007, 10:35 am
  28. Something about filling a train car with toys and then putting them behind glass, where kids can’t get to them, seems a little cruel. Eventually, these kids are going to realize that the they can’t play with the toys and that they are, after all, stuck on a train.

    posted by Drew | 11th of December, 2007, 5:37 pm
  29. Drew,
    when I was a preschooler, my kindergarten had problem with lack of toys. they were too expensive. However, the less we could play with them, the more fun we had when we got them, and the more we had to use our imagination to play as good as whith them. It wasn’t a problem. The same thing with the Toys Museum I once went. In spite of not being able to play with them, I had so much fun I remember it even now.
    Thus, I find this train fabulous.

    posted by only_me | 12th of December, 2007, 1:30 am
  30. Yeah, pretty cool. I’d be happy with a train that ran on time, didn’t feel like a cattle truck and was a few degrees cooler than a sauna!

    posted by Jason | 12th of December, 2007, 10:46 am
  31. the cat is not a he; tis a she. Calico is sex-linked.

    posted by thornapple | 14th of December, 2007, 2:10 am
  32. congrats on the move, the new site looks great, good job!

    posted by paula | 16th of December, 2007, 6:01 am
  33. thanks paula.

    posted by admin | 16th of December, 2007, 6:03 am
  34. This is the coolest site ive ever been too.

    posted by john | 19th of December, 2007, 8:14 am
  35. Having lived for 2 years in Wakayama, and ridden on the old Ichigo (strawberry) train, I’m so jealous that they’ve upgraded it to something so awesome. I think this is the train line that goes out to the Wakayama driver’s license center, which is one of the most awful places I’ve ever been trapped in, but getting to ride on these trains would make me ridiculously excited to go wait in line at the DMV. :P

    But yeah, this is equivalent to there being an awesome train line out of, say, Albany, NY. It’s not that people don’t live/work there, it’s just that it’s not getting the kind of traffic that would make this utterly impractical.

    posted by Jenn | 21st of December, 2007, 5:52 am
  36. I would live in this train and stay on its whole line’s ride everyday..if im homeless.

    posted by kheoh yee wei | 27th of December, 2007, 6:49 pm
  37. very nice!:D

    posted by erik | 28th of December, 2007, 9:40 am
  38. Aww, that’s nice. Now that they’ve made a train more comfortable for children, it would be nice to see one more comfortable for adults who don’t like noisy, screaming children! I can only dream.. I also hate packed trains so let’s find a way to elimitate that.

    I’ve ridden a kid-themed train out in the japanese countryside before (not nearly as nice as this of course), but it reeked of pee so strongly.. Sadly, I bet this one will go the same way eventually.

    posted by Me | 7th of January, 2008, 5:36 pm
  39. you just have to love the japanese.. or at least appreciate their way of thinking and the will to try :D

    posted by aleks | 21st of January, 2008, 8:08 am
  40. Nice train. In England your lucky to get a seat. I find the comments about
    japanese men groping women very disturbing.Maybe they work to hard for too long and don’t get to mix with women on an equal footing. Very weird! Im going to investigate this further.Japanese women must report them. This is somthing they should not tollerate.Hope they stay off the kids train! Don’t get me started!

    posted by Craig Harrison | 29th of January, 2008, 12:08 pm
  41. Gotta LOVE Japan :)

    posted by dvd video | 12th of March, 2008, 11:05 am
  42. I’m just wondering how they get the children to get off when it’s their stop? Very nice though.

    posted by naadiya | 1st of April, 2008, 12:28 pm
  43. Wow … I just wonder to commute with that train.

    Fortunately, I am staying in Japan now.

    posted by agung | 20th of April, 2008, 3:15 am
  44. wow, cool pics! especially the last one. it’s sooo cuteeeee..

    posted by edwinic | 21st of April, 2008, 5:30 am
  45. bagus pisan ya
    kapan enyong dolan meng jepang mening?

    posted by simbah | 21st of April, 2008, 9:01 pm


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