International Railroad Discussion > New Years Eve in Aomori Japan - Akebono Express

The Limited Express Akebono, is an overnight sleeper train between Tokyo's Ueno station & Aomori. This train now only operates during holiday seasons.

Having left Tokyo the previous night at 9.33pm, the train arrived exactly on time -12.18pm.

Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful in uploading the video of its arrival to Trainorders. I've uploaded it to an alternative site - link in my profile.

Photo 1: EF 81 138 leads Limited Express Akebono, into the Aomori terminus at 12.18pm. (sorry about the quality, it's a screen grab form the video)
Photo 2: The crowd of fans waiting to the diesel loco to attach to remove the empty cars (12.26pm)
Photo 3: DE 10 1122 attaches to the cars, to be removed at 12.49pm.

I was amazed at the sheer number of rail fans of all ages out to witness & capture this event, considering how cold it was & the falling snow. The biggest crowd was on the opposite platform with myself. The Japanese love their trains!

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Stephenloco Wrote:
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> The Limited Express Akebono, is an overnight
> sleeper train between Tokyo's Ueno station &
> Aomori. This train now only operates during
> holiday seasons.
>
> Having left Tokyo the previous night at 9.33pm,
> the train arrived exactly on time -12.18pm.
>
> Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful in
> uploading the video of its arrival to Trainorders.
> I've uploaded it to an alternative site - link in
> my profile.
>
> Photo 1: EF 81 138 leads Limited Express Akebono,
> into the Aomori terminus at 12.18pm. (sorry about
> the quality, it's a screen grab form the video)
> Photo 2: The crowd of fans waiting to the diesel
> loco to attach to remove the empty cars (12.26pm)
> Photo 3: DE 10 1122 attaches to the cars, to be
> removed at 12.49pm.
>
> I was amazed at the sheer number of rail fans of
> all ages out to witness & capture this event,
> considering how cold it was & the falling snow.
> The biggest crowd was on the opposite platform
> with myself. The Japanese love their trains!

The good news about the Akebono is that since it doesn't traverse the Seikan Tunnel, it should be unaffected by the Hokkaido Shinkansen construction. The bad news is that "Blue Train" cars are aging, and there's no plan for overhaul or new replacements that I know of.

Nice catch of a "rinji ressha," since as you mentioned, Sleeper Limited Express Akebono only runs seasonally. It's also nice to see an EF81 still in action.