Railway Idols

[Captain Japan]

This article is painful to read...
Weekend Beat/ Your boyfriend a drag? Dump him for a sleek Shinkansen
Asahi

Yuko Kimura's "date" with her "boyfriend" unfolds at Tokyo Station or Ueno Station. They spend, at most, 10 minutes together. Then it's time to say goodbye.

"My boyfriend is the 400-series Yamagata Shinkansen 'Tsubasa,'" the 24-year-old model explains.

Is she serious? Very much so. She arrived in Tokyo for the first time a year and a half ago, and there it was, just a few platforms away at Tokyo Station. For her, it was love at first sight.

"I mean, the Tsubasa is so cool!" she beams. "Trains nowadays are made of aluminum or stainless steel, but the Tsubasa is iron all over. And I just love the name." Tsubasa means wing.

But all is not bliss. There is a rival for Tsubasa's affection. It is the Akita Shinkansen "Komachi." Fortunately, the Tsubasa is designed to be linked only to the Tohoku Shinkansen "Yamibiko." "As a woman, if it could be coupled with the Komachi I'd be jealous," she says....more nonsense here...

The makeinu inclusion puts it over the top...

Tetsuko have a knack for personifying their favorite train cars. They fall in love with them--with Shinkansen in particular. One who did is Junko Sakai, the writer behind the popular catch-phrase "underdog," signifying single women in their 30s or older.

"I fell in love with a Shinkansen's face," she writes in "Joshi to Tetsudo" (Women and the railway) published last year. "There's something masculine about a Shinkansen's face," she admits. "That's why I guess I could fall in love with one. As of now, the one that appeals to me most is the 700 series, with its duck-billed platypus face."

[Catoneinutica]

Giant dildos - what's a gal not to love?

-catone
-methinks Mrs. Junko (she's married now, isn't she?) is just doing a bit of media-whoring

[Neo-Rio]

Anthropomorphic trains, with personalities and temperaments? Not very silly at all. Especially when you write stories about them, it's actually fairly popular and profitable. Just ask this guy:

[Samurai_Jerk]

So these girls are into the train, eh? Greji, why don't you and I round up a couple of volunteers and show 'em what a real train is like.

[Greji]

So these girls are into the train, eh? Greji, why don't you and I round up a couple of volunteers and show 'em what a real train is like.

Sounds okay to me, but I would like to lead off, the caboose is always is a too little sloshy for a smooth ride!

[Blah Pete]

So these girls are into the train, eh? Greji, why don't you and I round up a couple of volunteers and show 'em what a real train is like.

I hear there is a club at Waseda U. that specializes in this.

[Greji]

I hear there is a club at Waseda U. that specializes in this.

Couple of them that are now doing time are probably on the other end of the track! Kinda "your turn in the barrel" syndrome I would think!

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Yomiuri: Railways welcome female train fans aboard
Although railway enthusiasm is seen as a minority--and almost exclusively male--hobby in Japan, an increasing number of women have recently taken an interest in traveling by rail, collecting railway memorabilia and reading timetables. They are nicknamed "tetsuko," formed from the name for their male counterparts, tetchan, and the Japanese word for railway, "tetsudo." Increasing numbers of women are enjoying traveling alone in a relaxed manner while the cartoon series "Tetsuko no Tabi" (Tetsuko's Travel) about a female cartoonist traveling with a male railway buff writer has never been more popular. The railway industry and its related businesses have welcomed the emergence of tetsuko. Kunio Suzuki, who three years ago opened Ginza Panorama, a bar where model trains run along the counter and are sold, was surprised by the change in clientele. Their customers had been almost exclusively male, but more and more couples and women began to frequent the bar from last year. Now, there are some days when women outnumber men..."Trains have a charm in that they all have their own personalities," said a 34-year-old woman..."The one that attracts me most at the moment is the Wakayama Electric Railway's Ichigo EC, which has strawberries painted on it"...more...

The theme song for the anime version of "Testuko no Tabi" is by Super Bell"z who broke onto the music scene in 1999 with their debut single "Moter [I][sic] Man" based on Yamanote line train announcements. To get an idea of what they do, here's a video of them performing "Motor Man Keikyu VVVF".[/I]

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