Hi there! I wrote about cars last time, so I want to write about trains in Japan today. Boys or boys alike love cars and trains so much, and the love for vehicles will last forever. My father used to work for a national railway company and my late grandfather whom I’ve never met also worked for the national railway company. And maybe my brother inherited the DNA of train lovers. My brother was so excited whenever he saw trains when little. There are so many crazy railway fans in Japan and we have a deep and thriving culture of it. There are so many categories of train fans and I think in the dense forest, there are some signals which attract crazy train lovers. The mesmerizing world is so appealing to the fans, but I didn’t understand the reason why my brother loves trains so much.

さて。車の話を前回書いたので、今度はニッポンの電車について書いてみようと思います。男の子は本当に車や電車が好きで、大人になった元男の子達も乗り物への愛は終生変わらないということが多いですね。私の父は元鉄道マンの所謂プロ鉄で、私は会ったことはない祖父もプロ鉄だったそうで、その血筋なのか兄は幼少の頃から電車を見るといつも興奮していました。ニッポンの鉄道マニアの分類及びその在り方は途方もなく深く濃く、欝蒼としたその森の中ではマニアだけに強く強く働きかける信号があって魅惑の世界が広がっているのでしょうが、端から見れば「一体そんなことのどこに萌え要素があるんだ？」と兄を見てよく思っていました。

I love this view! My Good Old Munakata. Rice fields and mountains on the back and the train goes by.

これは私が大好きな古き良き宗像（むなかた）を行く電車の風景。田んぼがあって、山があって。その間を呑気に電車が進んで行く。

According to my brother, there are 3 main parties of train lovers. One is the group of people who love traveling all across Japan using railways. One is the people who are so fond of taking pictures of trains. Railway lovers spend millions of yen to buy really expensive cameras for taking pictures. There are even professional photographers who specialize in train photos. When they have exhibitions, so many people go visit there. And one is the group of crazy guys who love reading timetables and just imagining having a trip in their mind. Yes, they spend so many hours reading timetables! There are many books especially mystery novels which use tricks of timetables in Japan. An author wrote many works of mysteries using themes of beauties, murders, timetable tricks, hot spring, and a cool detective again and again and again.

兄によるとニッポンの愛すべき鉄ちゃんには大きく分けると３つの流派があるそうで、電車の旅が好きな「乗り鉄」、写真を撮るのが好きな「撮り鉄」、時刻表を見ながら頭の中だけで旅行気分を味わう「時刻表マニア」に分けることが出来るそうです。たしか松本清張の「点と線」も時刻表のトリックを利用した話だったし、中学生の頃に沢山読んだ西村京太郎のミステリーも全ての話の内容は、美女、謎、殺人、時刻表のトリック、渋い十津川警部、温泉、で成り立っていました。

Long time ago, my brother used to love borrowing books of railways which deal with small stations in deserted areas from a library. And he was so inspired by the shabby stations and made up 50 or so imaginary station names and wrote really beautiful train maps spending many hours. Maybe crazy train fans can understand his passion?

兄が昔、図書館から何冊もローカル線のマイナー駅ばかりを扱った本を借りて来て、何か想像力を掻き立てられるのか自分でも架空の駅名を50個ほど作って、何時間もかけてエライ美しい路線図なんかを時々書いていました。世の鉄ちゃん達はこの気持ちが理解出来て、萌えどころの核に共感したりするのでしょうか。

In a book of Haruki Murakami “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage”, the main character Tsukuru is a big train lover. He is working for a railway company and whenever he gets some free time, he sits on a bench of a station and spends time seeing trains coming in and going out. He loves the regularity. In my opinion, a guy like him may not be creative but I can trust that type of perso

村上春樹の「色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年」の主人公つくるは心優しいプロ鉄の鉄ちゃんで、暇があると駅のベンチに座って電車が入っては出て行くその規則性をじっと見つめている、という描写がありましたが、そういう風に安定している人ってクリエイティブではないのかもしれないけれど、人として信頼できる気がします。

And That’s all for today. Going to write about trains, SHINKANSEN, bullte trains on the next blog post! Check it out! See you soon!

それでは今日はここまで。次回も電車について、海外でも大人気な新幹線について掘り下げます。お楽しみに！ごきげんよう！