Skyscrapers across the tracks from the Shinagawa Prince Hotel (品川プリンスホテル) with a shinkansen pulling into Shinagawa Station

When Ryan came back from his school field trip to Cambodia, his bus from the airport dropped everyone off at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. I went a bit early to welcome him back, even though the skies weren’t very interesting, to see what the views would be like from the top of the Shinagawa Prince Hotel’s 39 floors.

A bullet train is about to enter the Shinagawa Station in today’s photo. You can also see the buildings for the headquarters of Canon MJ (customer service I think) and Mitsubishi Construction. Tokyo Bay is in the distance (although easily reachable on foot from here).

Posted on October 17th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: buildings, Tokyo, trains. Comments: 1

Most scenic train line in the world?

Today we have another peek out the moving-train window while I was doing “Norway in a Nutshell” last month.

Posted on August 20th, 2011 under Other. Tags: norway, norway in a nutshell, trains. Comments Off on Another scene from the Bergen Railway Line

I took photos of my kids’ Suica passes because I knew they would lose them and was hoping the picture would get me a replacement. Amazingly enough, they never lost them, although they did leave them at home and had to purchase train tickets once they got to the station on several occasions.

This pass allowed them to go from Takadanobaba to Tamachi and back as many times as they wanted. They could also get off or on at any station between those two stations on the west side of the Yamanote Line (including Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Meguro, Shinagawa, etc.)

This pass was Ryan’s. If you can read Japanese, you can see his name and age personalized on the bottom in the middle. The cost was about $400 for six months, which was the regular price for an adult. For kids 12 and under and those going to “qualified schools” (TIS wasn’t one of them) the price is much less.

You can also use a Suica card in many stores and vending machines if you put some extra yen on it.

Posted on April 19th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: ryan, Tokyo, trains. Comments Off on Suica Smart Card

I love the little train stations out in the middle of nowhere in Japan. This one, like many out in the country, doesn’t even have an employee. The Yanagawa Station is quite a contrast to the stations I most frequently used (Takadanobaba, Shinjuku, etc.)

I arrived at this station at the end of my Mt. Kuratake hike. About 5 minutes before taking this photo a man approached me, and we had a nice conversation before he caught this train going in the direction opposite from Tokyo. He was from Kofu. Why do all the people from Kofu seem so nice?

Posted on February 6th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: trains. Comments: 2

The Japan Railways Nikko Station is a pretty sight in the snow. Although I’ve been to Nikko several times, I’ve never actually used this station. Why? Because the Tobu Line to Nikko is so much less expensive from Tokyo.

This station was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, or at least that is what the tourist guides say. The station began operations in 1890, which is before Wright had done much and long before he was famous. Maybe the current structure isn’t the original or maybe there wasn’t a structure until later?

Posted on December 22nd, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buildings, nikko, snow, trains. Comments: 1