11 Haziran 2010 Cuma

Yamanote love



Nesnelerle arkadaş olan insanlar vardır. Arabasıyla konuşan, çok sevdiği çantasından ayrılırken hüzünlü anlar yaşayan, iyi performans gösteren bi tost makinesine teşekkür eden...Ayrılmak zor gelir...Burada Tokyo'da bu benim için Yamanote tren hattı oldu. Hergün kullandığım bu hattı tanıyıp, yaşadıkça daha tanıdık geldi, özlenir oldu.


Tokyo Notice Board'un kesip kırpıp bozduğu yazımın orjinalini paylaşmak istedim:

Mountains hand might be that much punctual?

You might be a kinda blind-hearted person if you do not fall in love with the Japanese rail system. Since I am living on the way of Yamanote-sen in Tokyo, I am using the line everyday and somehow I’ve linked with this helix rail line. Wikipedia describes as the word of Yamanote consists of the yama 'mountain', no genitive suffix, and te 'hand', therefore mean of Yamanote turns to "mountain's hand".

Yamanote is one of Tokyos well-known rail lines, but its actually a bit more than this... Well, let me explain some great facts about this main line train loop which you might find interesting:

Firstly, Yamanote connects most of Tokyos major downtown stations, including 29 stations,running through 35 kilometers connecting mostly with other railway/subway lines (except for two stations: Shin-Ōkubo and Mejiro) . The Imperial Palace is known as the center of the loop.

Secondly, it has its own characteristic. I guess this is the only railway that has so many cool souveniour. For example, you can find miniature Yamanote clocks which reproduce train tracks and times or a train watch which you can wear. It shows the date and looks like a subway clock. Another unique item is the Yamanote Line Bath towel. You can see these on the way to Takeshida Street, Harajuku. These bath towels feature the designs of signboards on Yamanote line train stations. Lately, in one of my favorite toy shops in Ueno, I saw a jigsaw puzzle of each station’s signboard. Finally, seeing a Yamanote Green Tea Express” doesn’t surprise me at all. This unique product of bottled green tea exactly reflects the same design of Yamanote train, with all its details and the cute pistachio green and silver colors with a reasonable price of 368 Yen. All this stuff may seem funny but if you are one of those people, who is crazy for anything related to the Yamanote Line, you might want to purchase one of them.

Another unique feature of Yamanote is that, it has its own special melodies. You can even enjoy the “doors closing” melodies through your ride on the Yamanote Line. Actually, each main station has its own melody, so it is enjoyable and easy to know where you are on the loop.

And thirdlysince the line is the symbol of the rush-city life in Tokyo, it is the unique railway that where some events a Yamanote Halloween Party”could be held. Of course this is a debatable topic: you can clearly imagine how such a the party would be on that much hectic train with lots of party-lover gaijin people.

Finally, I recommend you to get a big circle tour in the Yamanote. It takes almost 65 minutes but it’s worth every minute. You can smell the great Tokyo city life and enjoy the TV screens above the doors or just watch the people in the train.

It makes me happy everyday, in the early morning, as if I see one of my old-friends and I couldn’t have imagined missing “a train line” when I went back my home country but it did. Ohh come on, it’s clearly more than a simple train line, it is love of Yamanote!!!

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