JR West - Blog Posts
Japan's biggest shimenawa: Izumo Taisha Kagura-den
We've seen larger and larger sacred ropes in our previous posts, and here's the largest of all: the shimenawa adorning the Kagura-den at Izumo Taisha. It is 13.5 m long and weighs 5 tons!
Shimenawa ropes are made with hemp or rice straw. This shot shows just how densely packed Izumo Taisha's shimenawa is - it's almost like a tree trunk, truly an impressive and imposing feature.
Here and in previous examples, we can see folded paper shide streamers, another symbol of sacred items in Shinto, on the first picture. Knots also appear, particularly on the ropes on the Meoto Iwa at Futami, as paper would not fare well by the sea... These ropes and streamers indicate a demarcation line between our world and the realm of kami spirits.
The Kagura-den is a hall just outside the main compound of Izumo Taisha, to the West. It was built to house kagura rituals, traditional dances which retell the stories of the early gods. As Izumo, formerly in Iwami province, is one of the most ancient shrines in Japan, Iwami Kagura is one of the major forms of the dance.
As a bonus, here's a train decorated with characters of Iwami Kagura.
On the JR Nara line
Uji city and the the building on the 10-yen coin can be accessed by train from Kyôto by going roughly a third of the way to Nara. Other famous sites near the line are Fushimi Inari Taisha (Inari stop), and the studios of Kyoto Animation, famous for the music and sports anime K-On and Free! (Kohata stop).
The most recent type on the route is the 221 Series, and it's already getting on a bit, introduced in 1989. It won one of the Japan Railfan Club's two main new train design awards, the Laurel Prize, the following year. The 221 is used on the fastest Miyakokji Rapid services, which do the Kyôto to Nara run in under 45 minutes.
Green 103 Series sets can also be seen. This is the oldest type still in active JR service (if not, it's close), as it was introduced in 1963. In 2016, when I first visited Japan, I was living near Paris, and some Métro and suburban lines were running trains of a similar age, if not older, and these were atrocious in hot weather - no air conditioning, and ventilation only provided by opening windows! The RATP MP 59 used on Métro line 11 was stinky to boot; it was withdrawn just before the Games, no wonder! Point is, the 103 doesn't have air con either, but is at least trying...
Tilting Diesels!
In June, we said さようなら to Japan's first tilting electric multiple unit (see that post also for why you'd want tilt in the first place), launched in 1973. For some reason, adding tilt to Diesel multiple units needed a bit more time - my guess is engine vibrations play a part. Nonetheless, in 1989, JR Shikoku did it, launching the 2000 series tilting DMU. The company has continued with the technology, and the latest generation, the 2700 series shown above, is 5 years old this month.
The 2000 series is still in service, but I haven't yet seen any. However I have seen and ridden two derivatives of the 2000: the JR West KiHa 187 above, which reminds me of trains in England with its yellow front, and the streamlined Chizu Kyûkô HOT7000 below.
These trains run intercity services along the picturesque San'in coast - the Super Matsukaze and Super Oki in Yamaguchi, Shimane and Tottori prefectures -, and between the San'in and San'yô coasts - the Super Hakuto and Super Inaba in Hyôgo, Okayama and Tottori prefectures, which is how the HOT7000 got its name.
With these trains, Tottori to Himeji is done in under two hours, a similar time frame to what electric tilting trains can do between Okayama and Yonago. The mountains are also quite scenic, and the HOT7000 has a feature that I don't think I've seen anywhere else: a live cab cam.
Another country worked to develop tilting DMUs: Germany. This culminated with the high-speed ICE T, which I'm yet to encounter, but in the late 1990s, at a similar time to the Japanese examples above, Adtranz built the RegioSwinger, officially Baureihe 612. These yellow and white examples work in the South-West corner of Germany, along the Rhine between the Bodensee and Basel, with a couple of incursions into Switzerland.
Riding a tilting train is peculiar. 8° of tilt doesn't sound like much, but it adds up with the camber of the tracks to produce a visually impressive experience. The tilt is really noticeable, and it does what it's supposed to do, compensating the G-forces so you don't feel the pull to the side through corners. The downside of DMUs is that they tend to be quite noisy - the engines sound like they're giving 110% all the time! On the whole, I really like them.
Before Hello Kitty, it was Evangelion
The Joyful Shinkansen made its debut between Ôsaka and Hakata in 2015, and marked two anniversaries: 40 years of the complete opening of the San'yô Shinkansen, and 20 years of the mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. And it's safe to say the mash-up of a 500 Series rocketship and a giant robot was bound to work!
For two and a half years, this train ran one daily return on a Kodama service, until it became the Hello Kitty Shinkansen. When I visited Japan in 2016, I made a point to see it en-route to Hiroshima. Timetable-wise, Fukuyama was the right spot.
As a Kodama train, the 500 TYPE EVA wasn't the fastest, and would often wait for Hikari and Nozomi trains to pass before continuing. This was the case here, and here's an N700 overtaking.
Erm, that didn't look blisteringly fast, did it? Well, taking into account the size and distance it may not, but a very rough calculation (length of a 16-car N700 set: 400 m, in 6 seconds) yields a speed of 240 km/h. The speed limit on the San'yô high speed line is 300 km/h.
Back to the Evangelion train! As is the case in the Hello Kitty train, two cars received particular attention. Car 2 was a decorated seating car, and car 1, with windows covered, had a mock-up cockpit and simulator game!
With the overtake done, the 500 TYPE EVA set off. Riding it didn't fit into my schedule on that voyage, but it was great to see it. Best livery on a 500 in my opinion!
Hello Kitty Shinkansen. Yes it's real, and it's a lot of fun.
A year ago, I planned a trip between Hiroshima and Kokura on what I feel is the wackiest train concept imaginable. Take the 500 Series Shinkansen, an absolute rocketship (and IMO the best train ever) and wrap it in pink. That didn't sound too appealing to me when I first heard of the project, but I've got to say, the livery is a banger, and turned a lot of heads at every station we stopped at!
The train remains on a regularly-scheduled service, a return trip between Hakata, Fukuoka on Kyûshû, and Shin-Ôsaka as an all-stop Kodama, so it's a normal train... save for two cars. Car 1 is basically a shop, while car 2 is the Kawaii! Room, a seating car in full Kitty mode!
The front of car 2 also has a space to pose with Kitty-chan. As a collab, the Hello Kitty Shinkansen takes the opportunity to showcase the prefectures JR West serves, with Kitties on the map promoting each area's special feature, such as "the great lake" in Shimane (Shinji-ko), "we love this pear!" for Tottori (though Kitty seems to be holding an apple?), takoyaki for Ôsaka, and Hyôgo is "proud of Bread" (any thoughts on that @todayintokyo?). These 8 local characters are repeated on each of the 8 cars outside.
While I'm not a fan or particularly knowledgeable about Hello Kitty, I thoroughly enjoyed riding this train. It's over the top with Easter eggs everywhere, down to the jingles! (not my recording)
All that's left to say is...
381 series: the last of the JNR-era electric express trains
We mentioned the upcoming withdrawal of the Doctor Yellow Shinkansen track inspection trains, but there is another retirement I've wanted to talk about as it's just happened, and it's a train I had the chance to ride last summer.
Launched in 1973, the 381 series was the Japanese National Railways (JNR) first tilting electric express train, designed to speed up the Shinano limited express services on the winding mountainous route between Nagoya and Nagano. The tilting compensates for G-forces inside the carriages, allowing the train to take curves up to 25 km/h faster without creating passenger discomfort. As such, it is already a significant piece of railway history, with JR Tokai preserving one lead car at its SC Maglev Railway Park museum in Nagoya.
Over the next 50 years, the 381s would be moved around whenever they were superseded on specific routes, but soldier on nonetheless. Their last services would be JR West's Yakumo limited express between Okayama and Izumo, another route with lots of hills and curves. Now, it is replaced by brand new 273 series sets, based on JR West's current express train design, still with tilt.
The 381 series lived through the entire L-tokkyû period, in which many limited express services were marketed with an L symbol signifying higher levels of convenience. This logo was phased out in the 2000s and 2010s largely due to all JR limited expresses running to L-tokkyû standards, and as far as I can tell, the 381s are likely the last trains to wear the L badge, as well as the classic JNR express chevron seen above, on a regular basis.
さようなら381系
The train to Kushimoto: a JR West 283-series Kuroshio express. The sets are getting on a bit, they were introduced in 1996 and the livery could do with a refresh, but the "dolphin nose" is distinctive, and I, for one, really like it. They're also quite rare, only 4 sets exist.
The Kisei Main Line is essentially the coastal route from Nagoya to Wakayama. The full trip around the Kii peninsula takes 8 hours by express train, with a change required at Shingû or Katsuura, but it's definitely scenic as it gets very close to the sea (photo between Kii-Tahara and Koza).
