Train Porn

You may not know, you may not care, but Japan is a train-lover's wet dream. And that, people, is the closest this post will come to actual porn, so if you are looking for train sex videos, go back to Google and click on the next link.

As anyone who has spent time here can attest, the Japanese rail infrastructure is god-like both in ubiquity and the amazing ability to run on time (albeit not at all after midnight...). Even the air conditioning works.

According to stats here, Japanese people ride more trains to more places than any other people in the world. (Sure, more Indians and Chinese ride trains. More Indians and Chinese do everything, I would think.)

The prevalence of trains in Japan has fostered an entire subculture of Train Mania, aka Train Geeks (densha otaku). There are train museums everywhere, (including the amazing The Railway Museum sorry no English site yet), as well as loads of books, DVDs, websites, toys, etc. Of course much of this is targeted at the usual little boys and girls into Thomas the Tank Engine (there's even a Thomasland) but unfortunately some of them never quite grow out of it. You can see them milling around train stations/yards taking pictures, mimicking conductors, stepping over little kids in toy stores, and patronizing private clubs decked out like train cars that allow you to, um, play with female 'passengers'.

All said, though, Japan has some REALLY COOL TRAINS.

My son, only 4, already has his favorites:

The Romance Car designed by Noriaki Okabe Architecture Network, (just around the corner from us, meaning every weekend we stare at model trains in the window).

RAPIT, which he's only seen in books:

And of course, the Bullet Trains (Shinkansen), of which there are many:

Hayate and Max Yamabiko:

And there's the Super Hitachi (that goes to his grandma's house):

He also has a knack for identifying french fries that look like specific trains. I'll post photos next time if I can get my cell phone out before he eats the Romance Car again.

Oh yeah, my personal fave is MTV Japan's TRAINSURFER: