Dinning Issue Of Trains - Japan Experience

[bluepuma]

All those great memories of Trains and food... not mine but....

Was poor at age 7 in 1953 when we rode a Train from Tennessee to Los Angeles, must have been in coach, too poor to do the diner, I sure don't remember eating in one, ATSF or SP or whatever.

I do remember travelling by Greyhound, stopping for food along the way, trying to get food, eat, not miss bus at food stops, I'm sure the train rider's didn't like it any better than I did.

My Japan experience was fun, but we didn't eat on the train, except snacks. The station had Sake soaked squid that had been string/shreaded and dried like a fishy beef jerky, and rice cracker snacks, and little 180 ml Sake glasses, a business associate showed me what to buy, I stocked up on 3 little Sake glasses, and squid for my long trips on the Hitachi built Bullet train, (one with the DC 3 or DC7 nose), or on a 2 hour trip to the VCR factory north of Tokyo in Mito city. The train station was open all hours, had alcohol, food/snacks so was a good source for a foreigner from Los Angeles in Japan riding the trains in Nov'79, April '81 or '83 on my Hitachi VCR or Computer Training stints and staying in Japanese Business hotels, eating Japanese food from local places where no one spoke English, and I had to either find a picture of the food I wanted or find the model food outside or in the Window display, copy the Japanese characters to list the name of the dish, then show them to order it. I usually got what I needed. Those trips were railroad trips of a sort, I took trains and buses alone most of the time, got lost at the big Euwano (SP?) station in Tokyo, wondering how I'd get back to Mito when no one was there to meet me one Saturday from Hitachi Sales Corp. Tokyo headquarters Service section.

Had to see the Japanese characters to ride the bus, catch the right one, and listen for "Sawa Kojo Mei" and "Tokai Kojo Mei" to know when to get off at the VCR factory past the Hitachi Elevator Factory Front. My '83 trip put me in Yokohama city, near the station, lots of food places in the below ground, markets, shops, where I tried to find food I could eat, turned out the eel strips broiled over something like charcoal was one thing with rice I found, rich taste.

Some of my train related eating experiences were interesting, leaving our High End Audio factory down south (provided my bullet train rides 3 times), we ate dinner before leaving by train. The day run gave me a close view of Mt. Fuji, but the speedometer in the bar/snack car never showed speeds more than 190km/hr but we moved at a pretty good clip, didn't visually seem to be much fast than 100mph, my point of reference being driving my motorcycle or car a few times that fast. Never did see any trains in the US go fast until a few years ago with Amtrak though a small Illinois town between Princeton and Mendota, wife and I sitting along the track as a Burlington bound train came through on a Sunday night... "Holy Sx!t" was her censored comment, she understood the thrill of fast train travel and speed the first time.

My '83 trip had me catching the right train to a few minutes ride to the station where our Yokohama factory town, walking a mile or so up the hill to the TV factory training center, studying a MS-DOS computer with DOS 1.0 all day, walking down the hill and catching the evening train back to Yokohama, evenings were free time except for study. Find something to eat, shop without buying in one of the stores, seeing what all they had.

Yes, found the Tomix N scale, books, and models, and sometimes visit one of the 3 McDonalds for a fish sandwich or fill in snack, or get some espresso in a game table coffee shop, play the locomotive/train layout game, try to get the gate to the next level open by running around, picking up loads, avoiding the cow and lightning storms.

Japan has great fresh bread, french style, soft cheese like Laughing Cow could be found, much cheaper for $20 or less than dinner in the hotel which was like $70 at the time when the yen was 243 to the $1 not like 114Y to the $ recently. Have to find a market before 8PM, then everything closes, people leave and go home, closing all the businesses around the station.

My last train trip in the US did not have great dining, just snacks on the West Virginia line up the hill near Elkin, WV. The cabin on the side of the Cheat River was great.

When I married in 2001, my Father-in-law a former Conrail Trainmaster hosted our little wedding party at a place in Peoria with Dinning cars, and good food. THAT was my best train related dining experience! New wife and a good dinner. :)