There are a lot of train lines in Tokyo, the most popular being the Yamanote Line, which circles central Tokyo. The main companies are, Seibu, JR (Japan Rail), and KEIO. According to Wikipedia, there are 528 station in Tokyo alone, not counting Chiba and Yokohama (which are conglomerates of Tokyo.) If you include these cities/conglomerates, I'd say there are close to 1,000 stations. Wow. Tokyo is only about 800 km. (500 miles.) Pretty small.
Most lines are color coordinated. Chuo is bright orange while the local Sobu is yellow. The Yamanote is green. A lot of lines have jingles their own jingles that play when the train stops at a station. The JR does this, but I'm not sure if KEIO or other companies do. I think I've got the Chuo jingle engrained into my brain for time and all eternity now. It's the line I take everyday to work and whenever I go into central Tokyo.
There are usually a lot of express trains that skip the smaller stations. These are usually very crowded. The more popular lines like Chuo actually have TVs in them that display advertisements, and ones that display the train route, train info, weather, etc. Train interiors are splattered with hundreds of posters on the walls and hanging from the ceilings.
The train stops are displayed in the japanese writing styles: kanji, hiragana, katakana, along with English. The announcer, which is a recording, says the stops in Japanese and then in English. It's interesting that sometimes the English version pronounces the names of places significantly different than the Japanese version.
The driver will make announcements too. I find it amusing that most of the time they sound like they're speaking through their noses. They are almost always men. I've only heard on driver here that was a woman so far.
Recently, a new anime/manga (I'm not sure which) came out that is called ミラクル トレインMiracle Train. The manga's main characters are based of stations on the Yamanote Line. This includes Roppongi, Shinjuku, Shiodome, and others. (But not Harajuku or Ikebukuro. What a shame.)
I have no idea what it's about, but judging by the fact that all the characters look like hot anime guys (more like anime guys trying to look hot and failing miserably), I'm going to guess it's lame and shallow - and just trying to get girls money.
The idea of personifying places or things has been done before. One manga called Hetalia Access Powers is the countries of the world during WWII as people. It's super popular, and I heard it's pretty interesting. (I've yet to read it though.) I guess because Hetalia was such a hit that Miracle Train is trying to buy into that sorta genre. >_0
Most lines are color coordinated. Chuo is bright orange while the local Sobu is yellow. The Yamanote is green. A lot of lines have jingles their own jingles that play when the train stops at a station. The JR does this, but I'm not sure if KEIO or other companies do. I think I've got the Chuo jingle engrained into my brain for time and all eternity now. It's the line I take everyday to work and whenever I go into central Tokyo.
There are usually a lot of express trains that skip the smaller stations. These are usually very crowded. The more popular lines like Chuo actually have TVs in them that display advertisements, and ones that display the train route, train info, weather, etc. Train interiors are splattered with hundreds of posters on the walls and hanging from the ceilings.
The train stops are displayed in the japanese writing styles: kanji, hiragana, katakana, along with English. The announcer, which is a recording, says the stops in Japanese and then in English. It's interesting that sometimes the English version pronounces the names of places significantly different than the Japanese version.
The driver will make announcements too. I find it amusing that most of the time they sound like they're speaking through their noses. They are almost always men. I've only heard on driver here that was a woman so far.
Recently, a new anime/manga (I'm not sure which) came out that is called ミラクル トレインMiracle Train. The manga's main characters are based of stations on the Yamanote Line. This includes Roppongi, Shinjuku, Shiodome, and others. (But not Harajuku or Ikebukuro. What a shame.)
I have no idea what it's about, but judging by the fact that all the characters look like hot anime guys (more like anime guys trying to look hot and failing miserably), I'm going to guess it's lame and shallow - and just trying to get girls money.
The idea of personifying places or things has been done before. One manga called Hetalia Access Powers is the countries of the world during WWII as people. It's super popular, and I heard it's pretty interesting. (I've yet to read it though.) I guess because Hetalia was such a hit that Miracle Train is trying to buy into that sorta genre. >_0
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