I grew up in a small "railroad" town located in the Cascade range of mountains in Northern California.  At the time, it had a population of about 2,500 and was notable for being the site of an important Southern Pacific railroad yard, where extra steam locomotives were added to assist trains on the grade to the north.  This was during the mid 40's and 50's when railroads played the major transportation role in the United States, and when steam engines were dominant.  My father, at the time, was a fireman on the Southern Pacific (a position in those days analogous to being a pilot/copilot today in commercial aviation). 

The Sound of Steam engines struggling up the canyon under heavy load could be heard throughout the town over and over again each day.  And when my father worked in the rail yards, I was often dispatched to take lunch to him.  I was always rewarded with a ride on a steam engine; an opportunity to blow its whistle; a tour of the Round House; or a ride on the turntable; etc.  It is no wonder, then, that I grew up with a fascination about trains ... a fascination reignited when I arrived in Japan.

We traveled via a rail pass and I quickly found that the Country's rail system is simply amazing!  First, all the trains run on time... better not be late by even 10 seconds 'cause the train will be gone.  Secondly, the equipment is in great shape ... clean with no graffiti, and all of the tracks are "continuous rail" type so the ride is very smooth ... none of the click/clack noise of U.S. trains and none of the swaying back and forth ... even at one hundred miles per hour! 

The train stations, themselves, are fascinating places.  They, too, are clean despite the thousands of people who pass through them each day.  The larger stations are like an underground city with stores and restaurants of all sorts.  The stores in the Osaka station rivaled those you would find in Beverly Hills.  In addition, the stations were always busy ... even on a Saturday or Sunday morning ... not unlike our freeways in Los Angeles. 

Above ground, the Osaka station which we used on a daily basis looked like this:

In black and white:

Inside the station were these ladies ready to help with information:

And just beyond them, this window looking down on some of the platforms:

In Kyoto, the train station was a fascinating architectural marvel.  Here a shot of the enormous interior of the above-ground portion of the station.  It is one of my favorite images from the trip:

And this image was taken while looking upward to the ceiling:

The Kyoto station was equally impressive on the outside, but strangely I didn't get a shot of the entire building ... only partials.  Here's one part:

And when I turned around I saw this radio/tv structure used for broadcasting:

When we returned later that night, I took this shot of the now lighted tower looking through the Kyoto station:

 I was very impressed with the Kyoto train station.  In my weird thought processes, I thought it was reason enough to visit Kyoto!  In the next post, we'll do some "watching" from the platforms while waiting for the arrival of our trains.  Until then, have a good week!

Adam