Enoden vol.1

Went to Tokyo area to promote my business for a couple of days. Found some time to spare inbetween appointments so that I tried to get on an Enoden train.

Tsuruoka Hachimangu at Kamakura. A big buddah sits deep inside of the place. A train geek does not get in, just walk forward to Kamakura station to catch an Enoden train.



Trains are in service every 12 minutes all day long from early morning roughly 5:30. Convenient as a local transportation. The train I got on had 4 passenger cars, 2 were painted in flower like design and other 2 were painted in dual color of green and cream yellow.


The train was running for Fujisawa. Click the pic above to see a clip. Fences, houses really get close to the train track!!


Click the pic above to see a clip. Most interesting part - the track in a road. Everything is for Enoden first, people, motorbikes, cars all escape to the sideways when Enoden trains go. (Koshigoe -- Enoshima ). Unfortunately this clip is bothered by sunshine but pay attention roughly about 38-42 second, someone walks across the track in a hurry. He looks like a fish shop master who brings a tub full of water and fish. It shows local people's daily life there which is very interesting.


Got to Fujisawa station. Just a trip of 34 minutes. I walked to JR Fujisawa station to go back to Kamakura by Yokosuka line. I looked for the train schedule for Yokosuka line before purchasing a train ticket.

BUT

I noticed it was not Fujisawa but Oofuna where Yokosuka line gets apart from Tokaido line. Probably I mixed Fujisawa and Oofuna. I thought probably it was quicker for me to get back to Kamakura by Enoden if the train connection at Oofuna station was bad.

A 46 years old man of 173cms 75kgs kept running on and on and on...... to Enoden Fujisawa station :-)

To be continued.

Hayaokidori website

Peach trees in bloom

Japanese people pay a lot attention at cherry blossoms at this time of the year but peach trees are also be in bloom.

Picture took at Shakado Parking Area at Chuo Exp.way. The background mountains with some snow at the top are probably Japan North Alps near our place.

Hayaokidori website

Donguri (acorns) bank

Went to the Escal plaze the base building of Hakuba Goryu ski slope the other day and found a shop of Donguri Kyowakoku (Republic of *** ).
You can deposit acorns and get a bank note for it. In the bank note, it is described like you have 100 ( acorns instead of currencies ) in the account. You'll get an acorn tree pot per 100 account in the note once a year. You can transplant it in a mountain by getting a permission for it from the mountain owner or you can choose another option to ask them to grow it somewhere in Kochi prefecture instead of growing the acorn pots by yourself.
Anyway we had many accident with bears last autumn in Japan. Acorn trees seemed to have much less acorns than usual, so bears were not able to get enough foods before their winter sleep so that they showed up a lot often around us to get somthing to eat. Unfortunately a lot were shooted.
I think this Donguri bank could find a new way how human beings and bears survive each other not having unnecessary accidents.
At the same time, I thought some more possibilities to grow another plant that fills like

#1. Plants that have nuts which bears eat
#2. Plants that have an opposite cycle from acorn trees about good harvests and bad harvests
#3. Plants that can grow where bears live.

Especially about #2, probably some specialists could answer it correct. I thought of something important today.

Hayaokidori website

Butterbur flower stalks

Time for them to show up from the ground.

Took some when I walked around, we call them "Fukino tou " in Japanese. Local people here call them "Chanmero".


Fried them - Tempura. As butterbur flower stalks taste a bit bitter, I think some people like them but some don't. In my opinion, it's good to have some, but if it's too much, it's too much lol.....



While butterbur flower stalks were fried, some apple pies were cooked in the oven. Those apple pies are the last ones for this season. We won't have any until the apple harvest time in this coming autumn - half year ahead.
It's a bit hard work to keep the glass of the oven clean all the time. You have to clean it while it stays hot. Once it gets cold, hard to clean it out.

Hayaokidori website

Bonnet which ran through the Jo-etsu border.

Picture taken in 1976 at Ueno station.

Two intakes at the sideway of the bonnet, whistles with shutter at the skirt remind me of it being Kuha181-109.

Hayaokidori website

Gochisosama!!

Gochisosama is a word when Japanese say they finish eating meals. Hard to translate it into English, perhaps "Thanks for the meal" if I dare do.

Thrown out walnuts shell. Holes found at the surfaces, so I think they are not for stock, animals ( probably squirrels ) just threw them out here. But wonder why they need to throw them at a same place? Maybe they are not completely eaten, some walnuts might be left inside for later meals?? Sometimes it's interesting to think about their behavior.

Hayaokidori website

E257 series "Azusa" running thorugh Sanosaka pass

The other day when I drove my car, a E257 series limited express train "Azusa" got close to my car. My car and the train went ahead together for a while, sometimes my car went ahead, sometimes the train did. Finally I got a chance to take a pic of the train at Sanosaka. Looks as if the slope were very steep, but probably this one is 2.5 %. In old days, steam locomotives had hard time to go through here pulling freight cars and passenger cars together. Later some other train cars e.g. old style JNR passenger cars in skyblue color, DC 28/58/52 series etc to reach Oomachi and Matsumoto which are located in southern part of this area. Oomachi, Matsumoto are located at the left direction of this pic, Hakuba, Itoigawa are done at the right direction.

Hayaokidori website