International Railroad Discussion > "Dried Plum" Train (Wakayama Electric Railway, Japan)

First, a quick Japanese lesson:

Dried plum is pronounced "Umeboshi" and for those with browsers that can display Japanese, it's written 梅干し.

If you want a senseless pun, "Umeboshi" can also mean Plum Star (like Death Star?), written 梅星.

One of Wakayama's specialties is dried plums, and the fun-loving Wakayama Electric Railway has decided to design a train with a dried plum theme. Yup, the same railway that has the Strawberry Train, the Toy Train, and the Tama Train. Tama is of course the famous Super Station Master cat.

Here's a link in Japanese (with video) from Asahi Newspaper:

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASHB054MPHB0PXLB00Q.html

In the 43 second clip, you'll get a quick overview of the design concept of the Plum Train, with an appearance of none other than Eiji Mitooka, the industrial designer who's portfolio includes many trains in Kyushu, including the super-luxurious Seven Stars. You get to see the CEO of Wakayama Electric Railway, Mitsunobu Kojima with Ni-Tama, or Tama II, the current Super Station Master. Seems Mr. Kojima wanted a Seven Stars on his railroad so badly that he hired the designer of the Seven Stars himself, then used a pun to name the train "Plum Stars?" :-)

The Plum Train's planned to start of service should be spring of 2016, but nothing more specific at the moment.

Here's another tidbit from Wakayama Electric Railway, and for those who are visiting Japan (especially around Osaka and Wakayama) between now and November 13, you can check out the "Photo Train."

The Wakayama Electric Railway is celebrating the works of Takahito Nakagawa (中川隆人), an avid railfan-photographer (Tori-Tetsu, or 撮り鉄) who passed away this April at the age of 71. He's been photographing trains since his high school years, and have made many photo contributions to Wakayama Electric Railway since its inception in 2006 when the company was formed to operate Nankai Railway's Kishigawa Line - I believe some of the photos on the railway's website are his.

Wakayama Electric Railway is actually a subsidiary of Okayama Electric Tramway, which operates streetcars in the city of Okayama which also happens to be the birthplace of industrial designer Eiji Mitooka. Maybe it's not a coincidence that he's involved in the design of the Plum Train?

The Photo Train displays 86 of Mr. Nakagawa's works inside the train, in advertising style. Here's an image of the Photo Train organizers and the interior of the train from Yomiuri Newspaper:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/wakayama/graph/article.html?id=20151018-OYTNI50053

Wish Amtrak would do something similar, like display the works of Richard Steinheimer inside trains #5 and #6, especially while going over Donner...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/15 11:04 by cchan006.

I have to admit that the one food item I wasn't especially fond of during my recent trip to Japan was uemboshi. I ate all manner of other raw and cooked oddities (including chicken 'sashimi'), but not those!

jonjonjonjon Wrote:
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> I have to admit that the one food item I wasn't
> especially fond of during my recent trip to Japan
> was uemboshi. I ate all manner of other raw and
> cooked oddities (including chicken 'sashimi'), but
> not those!

Umeboshi is an acquired taste thing, just like natto (納豆), sticky (some say stinky too) fermented soybeans.  But umeboshi goes so well with soupy noodles (ramen) and curry dishes.

d.

jonjonjonjon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have to admit that the one food item I wasn't
> especially fond of during my recent trip to Japan
> was uemboshi. I ate all manner of other raw and
> cooked oddities (including chicken 'sashimi'), but
> not those!

I did a quick Internet search in Japanese for "umeboshi face (梅干し 顔)" and found an appropriate cartoon face that describes the umeboshi experience nicely.

I found real faces that were just as descriptive, if not more so.

The most common place to see umeboshi in my experience is inside ekiben (駅弁), translated "station bento" or bento boxes sold for rail passengers near or at train stations. It's usually mounted on top of the rice.

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