Arashio-beya

As the maths problems take a break, maybe we can have a brief pub quiz. So...

Q. What's that building on the 10-yen coin?

A. The Phoenix Hall at Byôdô-in, Uji.

Initially built as a villa by a member of the Minamoto clan just before the year 1000, the land was sold not long after to members of a rival clan, the Fujiwaras, who turned it into a Buddhist temple named Byôdô-in in 1052. The most striking feature of the temple is the Amida Hall, which with time gained the name Phoenix Hall due to its overall appearance: the two outer corridors are the wings, and a corridor extending behind is the tail.

At the same time, tea production was picking up in Uji, and by the 14th century, Uji tea had become well renowned. I need to go back there someday, my first visit was just an afternoon flick after completing the climb of Mt Inari in the morning. I thought of going back there in the summer of 2023, but couldn't quite make time for it.

The trains the E10 will replace

Following the announcement of a new Shinkansen type due to enter service on the Tôhoku Shinkansen in 2030, let's have a quick look at the oldest trains on the line, that will be replaced.

The E2 is the oldest high-speed train type that JR East owns, and many examples have already been retired. Built for the slower Jôetsu route to Niigata, they operate the Yamabiko and all-stop Nasuno services.

The E10s will also replace E5 sets. This sounds unreal to me, the E5 is the pinnacle of Shinkansen, still the only train running at 320 km/h in Japan (coupled with the E6, when the couplings work), and still young, having been introduced in 2011! Granted, by 2030, the first E5s will be nearly 20 years old, but they're probably not going to disappear completely in one go.

Photos taken at Utsunomiya station (as far North as I've ever been in Japan).

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.

Kaub

A few kilometres down the Rhine from Bacharach and on the other side, is the small town of Kaub. Its main attraction is the Pfalzgrafenstein, a remarkable, vaguely boat-shaped "castle" in the middle of the river. I use the term "castle" a bit loosely, as it wasn't a feudal lord's residence, rather a customs office on the river, with Gutenfels in the background providing a wider watch. A tollgate, basically. Sidenote, if you find other photos of this place, you'll notice how low the Rhine is right now...

While Burg Gutenfels in the hills has been converted into a hotel, not unlike Burg Stahleck discussed last time, the Pfalzgrafenstein has been preserved, and is open as a museum on some days of the week, with a small ferry allowing visitors to get there. Beside that, a car ferry runs all day between the two banks of the Rhine, so I could easily cross to quickly walk around Kaub.

Like a lot of riverside towns and villages in the area, Kaub is a charming place with many old buildings. It provides a picturesque backdrop to all the traffic going by, boats and trains, and the Rechte Rheinstrecke, the railway line between Wiesbaden and Koblenz on the right-hand side of the Rhine, was seeing more trains than usual, as the section between Mainz and Bingen on the Linke Rheinstrecke was closed. Long-distance trains, like this international EuroCity service bound for Zürich, were (and at time of writing probably still are) diverted via Kaub.

Hakone Ropeway

The gondola lift up the Schauinsland is very good, but my favourite so far is definitely the Hakone Ropeway. After the train into Hakone, another train to Gôra, and a funicular, the last leg up the mountain is covered by this funitel, on which cars are suspended by two cables rather than one.

The Ropeway carries passengers up to Ôwakudani through the forest... at least as far as that ridge.

Mount Hakone is an active volcano and "Ôwakudani", 大涌谷, literally means "great boiling valley", featuring bright yellow sulphur deposits and gas vents. Going from lush green slopes to the mineral hellscape of the crater in an instant is a breathtaking contrast, and one of my all-time favourite moments from my travels.

The Ropeway can obviously only run when the volcano isn't too active. When I first rode it in 2016, staff handed out damp tissues for passengers to cover their nose and mouth and protect themselves against the gases. After traversing the crater, the Ropeway continues down the other side of the mountain to the North end of Lake Ashi, where one would continue a tour by boarding one of the "pirate ships" that cruise on the lake.

Some amusing art in Matsumoto

In my previous post, I mentioned I was taking the train from Nagano to Tokyo, but my destination for the day was actually Matsumoto. There's quite a lot to see there, mainly the castle, but I'll get to that another time. For now, I'd just like to share some lighter, more amusing details.

This awesome statue depicts two samurai frogs riding on toadback - the poor thing seems to be overwhelmed! That would be because the street by this river has adopted the frog as a mascot. According to local history, the river used to have loads of frogs, making it a rather noisy place (I bet, if my memories of Futami, Mie, are anything to go by!). But after a typhoon caused a flood, the frogs left for higher ground and didn't go back to the river, so loads of frog statues were erected instead.

On the bridge near the entrance to this street and near the castle, other creatures could be found: "Y-cats", created by Yamazaki Takashi. I think this was a temporary exhibit.

Oh alright, I'll tease the castle...

World's Loudest Prius

In 2012, apr, one of the big teams on the Japanese GT scene, decided to do... Well, I'll just tell you what they did, you can make your own opinion: they took a Toyota V8 originally designed for American open-wheel racing, which was due to be used for Toyota's return to the Le Mans 24 Hours, plopped it in a mid-rear position on a race chassis, cobbled together a hybrid system with various parts from production cars in the Toyota range, and covered all this with a Prius-shaped bodyshell with an ultra-aggressive aerokit.

To me, the result is both brilliant and ridiculous in equal measure. Brilliant because it worked: as the first full-time hybrid competitor in the Japanese Super GT Series, the mid-engined Toyota Prius apr won 4 races, scoring 16 podiums, and finishing as high as second in the GT300 championship twice in a 7-year career.

Ridiculous because it's the complete antithesis of a road-going Prius, to the point of being the loudest car in the field! When I first witnessed the Prius apr at Motegi in 2016, I could only gasp and laugh; there's no way a Prius should be this loud! And it was a joy to see it again testing at Suzuka in 2018, in what would be this version's final season.

In 2019, the next-generation Prius apr would not be mid-engined, as per the rules that forced manufacturers to put the engine where it is in the road car, and the screamer was replaced by a growler - still ludicrously loud, and I wouldn't want my Prius race car any other way! By the time I visited Super GT a third time at Fuji Speedway in 2023, the Prius was no more, but I jumped on the chance to get a miniature of this remarkable car.

For more on its history, development and results, Roflwaffle has a 35+ minute video on it.

The tri-national S-Bahn of Basel

Due to its location, Basel attracts people from three countries, and the rail network reflects that. On top of lines within Switzerland, one line arrives from France at Basel Central station, and several arrive from Germany at the Badischer Bahnhof on the North side of the Rhine. My trip to Augst via Basel and Wyhlen was a chance to ride on this suburban network of three companies in three countries.

Starting after lunch with the Hochrheinbahn which runs from Basel Bad., along the Northern side of the Rhine in Germany. This is the only line out of Basel that isn't electrified, so Baureihe 641 Diesel railcars run the route. We have this type of railcar in France too, it was designed as a response to a joint French-German tender for regional trains. Designed by De Dietrich and Linke-Hofmann-Busch, which were both bought by Alstom shortly after, it is the first example of what would become the Coradia platform.

On the Swiss side, the S-Bahn sees RABe 521 commuter trains run between Basel Central and Frick. This type of train is made by the Swiss company Stadler and is marketed as... the FLIRT. Stadler does this a lot, they also have the KISS and SMILE platforms, and each is the result of a convoluted acronym in German, though this one translated very nicely into English: Fast Light Intercity and Regional Train.

Finally, the French line of the S-Bahn goes out as far as Mulhouse, and is currently operated by electric AGC (Automotrice Grande Capacité - high-capacity unit) regional trains built by Bombardier (also since bought out by Alstom). 200 km/h express trains from Strasbourg also reach Basel Central, with the push-pull sets we already presented. The line from Mulhouse to Basel Central is electrified with French voltage (25 kV 50 Hz AC), which is different to the rest of the Swiss network (15 kV 16.7 Hz AC), hence the SNCF can run their trains into Basel with few adaptations (mainly comms).

And that's it for my tri-national tri-trip over the April-May break! Back to some older material next, it's time to look at Japan again.

You can do as you wish @todayintokyo, it depends on how much of a hint you want to give. ;)

Personally, I did tag the city for classification purposes, and I found that 3-4 lines of rambling tags can drown out the rest on the dashboard ("see more tags" appears). This doesn't work on the full-page blog site, though that might be customisable with some HTML knowledge.

As the maths problems take a break, maybe we can have a brief pub quiz. So...

Q. What's that building on the 10-yen coin?

A. The Phoenix Hall at Byôdô-in, Uji.

Initially built as a villa by a member of the Minamoto clan just before the year 1000, the land was sold not long after to members of a rival clan, the Fujiwaras, who turned it into a Buddhist temple named Byôdô-in in 1052. The most striking feature of the temple is the Amida Hall, which with time gained the name Phoenix Hall due to its overall appearance: the two outer corridors are the wings, and a corridor extending behind is the tail.

At the same time, tea production was picking up in Uji, and by the 14th century, Uji tea had become well renowned. I need to go back there someday, my first visit was just an afternoon flick after completing the climb of Mt Inari in the morning. I thought of going back there in the summer of 2023, but couldn't quite make time for it.

Neuviller-la-Roche

Quick post today - just a few views of climbing out of the village of Neuviller-la-Roche in late March 2022.