The Tri-national S-Bahn Of Basel

To keep or not to keep? The case of the Kyoto Imperial Palace

Completing the set of former Imperial palaces that I've visited, the question regarding Kyoto was a different one, when, after the Meiji Revolution, the throne of Japan was moved to Tokyo, ending Kyoto's 1000-year tenure as Imperial capital. The answer came swiftly: keep it. After all, it had only been rebuilt in 1855, fires having destroyed the palace multiple times in the Edo period alone.

The Shishinden throne hall, with its courtyard and traditional tachibana orange and sakura cherry trees either side of its grand staircase, was used for the coronations of Emperors Taishô and Shôwa (Hirohito) in 1915 and 1928, but since the accession of Emperor Akihito in 1989, coronations have been held at the active Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Today, the palace is preserved and can be visited for free, albeit on a fixed tour route. Only the exterior of the buildings can be accessed, still allowing good views of the Shishinden and the gardens to the East of the palace.

Triberger Wasserfälle

In the heart of the Schwarzwald region of Southwestern Germany, we find the town of Triberg and its waterfalls. Following a fire in the early 19th century, the town was rebuilt with a high street that aligned with the falls. Here's how that works out today, from the opposite hill.

With the arrival of the railway, Triberg became a leisure hotspot. The falls were visited shortly after that opening of the railway by the ruler of the recently unified Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm I, for which a memorandum was carved into a rock. The writing is just legible:

"Zur Erinnerung an den Besuch der deutschen Kaiserfamilie am 30 September 1877"

In time, Triberg has become a renowned tourist destination for the falls of course, but also for all things related to Schwarzwald culture, such as typical costumes and music, cuckoo clocks and local food - Black Forest gateau of course, but also ham, which has a festival in the town next weekend. The entrance fee to the falls includes tickets to three of the town's museums and indoor attractions.

At a total of 163 m over 7 drops, the Triberg Waterfalls are among the tallest in Germany. Triberg advertises them as the tallest, and a review check reveals some heated argument about the claim. I'm letting Wikipedia settle the debate: the claim is not correct, and it's not even close - the Röthbachfall in Bavaria is 470 m tall. However, Triberg undoubtedly offers the tallest easily accessible waterfalls in Germany, and they are still very much worth the visit. They are in the same size range as Nachi Falls in Japan.

The falls have also been used by Triberg in the late 19th century to become pioneers of hydroelectricity. Power stations were built at the top and the bottom of the falls, and enabled Triberg to become the first town in Germany with electric street lamps.

For an extra euro at the gates to the waterfalls, you can buy a bag of peanuts to try to attract the squirrels. As such, squirrels might come close to you whether you have some or not. This one still moved a bit too quickly to get a good photo.

All in all, the falls make a very solid start to a day trip in Triberg in the mid- to late-morning, and there's plenty and a variety of things to see and fill the afternoon after that.

Le moulin rouge du Moulin Rouge a perdu ses pales!

Was going to take a break from posting today, but we had a bit of breaking news out of Paris: the famous cabaret Moulin Rouge's red windmill has lost its sails! They fell off at around 2 in the morning apparently, cause unknown. No injuries.

Article France Bleu Paris

Strasbourg's Christkindelsmärik

One of Europe's oldest Christmas market, and likely the most famous in France, is Strasbourg's. Its existence is attested as far back as 1570, appearing in the years following Protestant Reformation. Today it is a sprawling event, covering all the main squares of the central island of Strasbourg, and it's very busy, especially in the evenings and on weekends.

The traditional Alsatian name of the market is Christkindelsmärik, "the market of baby Jesus", while the city's more recent branding (since the 1990s) proclaims the town as "Capital of Christmas".

Pictures from 2018 - I haven't been to this year's market yet, but I plan to once my workload deflates - I get my annual stock of jams from the local producer's market!

I failed to mention this in the original post, but Meiji-jingû is also a high point of sumo culture. Newly promoted yokozuna, the highest rank in the sport, perform their first ring entry dance there, before their first tournament at that level. This would be their first appearance with the "horizontal rope" (that's what yokozuna means), in the shimenawa style, around their waist.

That's just happened, with the 74th yokozuna making his debut.

NHK WORLD

Hoshoryu performs first ring-entering ceremony as yokozuna | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

About 3,500 people gathered at Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo on Friday to see sumo yokozuna grand champion Hoshoryu perform his first ring-ent

The New Year shrine visit: Meiji-jingû

A common New Year ritual in Japan is to go to a shrine, possibly a large one, a visit known as 初詣, hatsumôde. NHK reported that Meiji-jingû in particular was very busy. Of course, I would avoid that, so here we are with a more tranquil time, closer to the Autumn festival.

Meiji-jingû was, as its name suggests, founded to enshrine the spirit of Emperor Meiji after his death. The first Emperor of the post-Edo period presided over sweeping societal reforms, such as the abolishment of classes like the samurai, as Japan re-opened to the rest of the world and sought to catch up. The Imperial attachment is symbolised by the Chrysanthemum crests on the torii.

One of the things that can be wished for at Meiji-jingû is a happy marriage and family life, particularly at this dedicated spot with two camphor trees planted in 1920, linked with sacred rope - these are called "married trees", 夫婦楠 Meoto Kusu.

Schwarzwaldbahn Erlebnispfad

or the Black Forest Railway Adventure Trail!

The railway through Triberg climbs the hill opposite the waterfalls we covered yesterday, to get out of the Gutach valley and proceed to Villingen. But inclines are notoriously difficult for trains, as metal-on-metal contact yields little friction, so, like many other modes of transport, whether roads or even footpaths, the railway weaves its way up... but on a larger scale, as trains aren't as maneuverable!

The result is this loopy section between Hornberg and Sommerau, 11 km apart in a straight line, but the railway is 26 km long! It climbs 447 m at an average gradient of 1.7% (which, again, for a train, is hard work), and with over 30 tunnels to get through the irregular terrain. Today, an "Adventure Trail" complements the route opposite Triberg, providing hikers with amazing viewpoints and some chances to get close to the tracks.

Of course, this climb for hikers is far, far steeper! The route I took started with a strenuous 15% over 700 m. One would be very happy to find this bench after that climb - Liegewagen meaning "sleeper car"!

The trail has stations with information boards about various aspects of the railway, and, at the viewpoints, the timetable! Perhaps a bit of a downer is that there isn't a huge amount of traffic: just two DB Regio trains per hour (presumably the ones you came in on), one InterCity train at weekends, no high-speed ICEs, no freight. But the views more than make up for the low variety, and, at a decent pace, it is possible to be at a viewpoint for each passage and not miss one.

Most regional trains on this section of the Schwarzwaldbahn are push-pull sets with Dosto carriages - that's short for Doppelstockwagen, or double-deck. The end carriage seen above is a (deep breath)... DBpbzfa 766, each letter being short for some technical info allowing rail workers to know at a glance what they're dealing with: D is for double-deck, B second-class seating, p has air conditioned coach rooms (as opposed to compartments), b has wheelchair accessibility, z has a centralised electrical installation, f has a driving cab, and finally a means that the driver can operate the doors alone. 766 is the series number. These Dosto sets are usually driven by Baureihe 146 locomotives.

All in all, the Erlebnispfad can take up most of an afternoon (I completed the circuit in around 3 hours), it was a very satisfying walk and experience to be able to make the most of each vantage point. There are some other attractions along the route that I haven't mentioned - probably a short post tomorrow. For people who like hiking and trains, this trail at Triberg is worth doing!

A little local train in Hikone: Ômi Tetsudô is a private company that's been around in the area for over 125 years, hence the panel on this particular train, in retro colours.

Japan has many small lines run by small companies which were never nationalised. However, Ômi Tetsudô is owned by the larger private rail company Seibu, based in the North-Western sector of Tokyo, whose main route is Ikebukuro to Chichibu. Ômi mainly runs second-hand Seibu stock.

The conference went well, as far as I can tell, so here are a couple of low-sun views of Kashihara's preserved Edo-period area, Imai-chô, as an outro. The first building seems to be operating as an art gallery (maybe?), while the other is a neat little temple. Both are on the same street, 大工町筋, which Google Translate says could be Daiku-chô suji or Daiku-machi suji... or it could be something else, I don't remember reading the name myself on site.

Different place next.

Sangaku Saturday #9

As in every odd-numbered episode, we're going to set a problem - the next stage towards solving the "three circles and a triangle" sangaku. We are looking for one more equation between the radii p, q and r, it will be obtained with a similar method to the previous step... but the formulas will be a bit longer, so roll your sleeves up and don't be scared!

Here are the lengths we know:

SO = 1 , SN = b , SA = p , BO = q , CQ = r and

Here is also a list of known pairs of perpendicular lines:

(SO) and (ON) , (SO) and (PC) , (ON) and (CQ) , (SN) and (CR).

[P, Q and R are defined as the orthogonal projections of C onto the sides of SON.]

The equation we are looking for will come from getting two expressions for the square of the length CN.

You can work out how to do this by yourself if you feel like it, or check below the cut for the steps and to check your result. As always, details and a bit of history next week!

1: After working out the length QN, get a first expression of CN² by using Pythagoras's theorem in the right triangle CQN.

2: Proceed similarly in the cascade of right triangles CPS, CRS and CRN, to get a second expression of CN².

Conclude that

200 km/h push-pull trains

While Germany has recent double-deck train carriages, the Dostos shown previously being built in the 2000s, and updated versions still being produced, France made its last carriages in the 1980s, including Corail cars for inter-city services. But their use was curtailed by the development of the high-speed network.

Some sets were given push-pull ability, with a driving cab at one end that can control the locomotive at the other - the lead car above being a renovated B5uxh: second-class seating, 5 compartments, air-conditioned, driving cab, disabled access. These have found a new lease of life in regional transport, especially in the East, as the straight and flat Alsace line from Strasbourg to Basel allows these 200 km/h-capable carriages to stretch their legs. The "TER 200" puts Strasbourg only 80 minutes from Switzerland (wink-wink-nudge-nudge for a future trip).

The usual motors for these sets are BB 26000 "Sybic" locomotives built in the 1990s, powerful enough to get them to their top speed. While not at top speed in this setting, probably running at 100 km/h on the slower line to the Lorraine region, they still feel like very big trains when they go by.

Other push-pull trains exist in Alsace, with smaller locos and carriages rejoining the fleet for the planned Réseau Express Métropolitain Européen. However, most passengers trains everywhere in France now are covered by multiple units, especially since bi-mode units like the Régiolis shown below, have appeared. These are capable of running on electric power or with a Diesel engine, making them as flexible as can be.