We didn't want to miss our trains, so we usually arrived a little early on the platform we would be leaving from.  One time, we encountered a minor miracle ... there were no persons in sight on the platform!  And, in addition, a bullet train (they call them "Shinkansens") was pulling in on the opposite track!!!  You can see the result below:

I believe this is the newest of the bullet train models.  The image below shows the same train after it had passed my position:

The Shinkansen pulling into the station below is an older version.  The woman in the red outfit will board the train to give it a very quick cleaning before the passengers board:

And here's another with a different paint scheme:

Look closely at the logo below.  I thought it was quite cool how they managed to include the shape of the train into the logo:

Here's a close-up of one of the cabs ... can you tell I was taken by these trains?  :)

Car 12 on Train 491 will be departing at 7:35 AM.  No Smoking, of course!  How do you like my Japanese reading skills?

Ha!  In the big stations there were usually signs on the platform that would switch between Kanji and English!  There was at least one sign per car, and the train pulled exactly into position so that the door to the car was aligned with the sign:

In the next two images, you can see people lined up by the signs that marked where the entrance to the car would be. The first shot was taken in the morning at one of the two Osaka stations.  The business men were mostly wearing suits and the women were stylishly dressed (many, however, would argue about my creds as a style judge for woman's apparel :-) ).

And, here's a going-home crowd in one of the older stations:  

These next two images are my favorites of this series.  They are pictures of the platform taken from a train.  The first was taken as we were speeding through the station.  I love the colors, the soft lighting, and the back lit passengers waiting for their train:

My favorite of the favorites is the last image taken of a light-rail station in Kyoto from the open doors of the light-rail train we were riding.  It reminds me of a famous American painting done in 1942 by Edwin Hooper titled "Nighthawks."  The subject matters are completely different but the colors and shadows in this image remind me of  that painting.  If you don't know "Nighthawks" google it.  It is a favorite of mine.

So there you have some images taken from the train platforms as waited to board our trains.  I hope it wasn't too boring.  The next post will showcase images taken while riding on them.

As always, Thanks for looking.

Adam