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Foreign visitors and residents who haven’t yet gotten far off the beaten path in Japan might not recognize all of the final destinations of trains that depart Tokyo Station. Some of the various lines that intersect at the rail hub lead to places like Takao, Choshi, and Kurihama, none of which are exactly world-famous (even if the last one does have an awesome Godzilla slide).
The other day, though, one of the platform displays at Tokyo Station announced a train destination plenty of non-Japanese passengers are familiar with: New York.
Thursday afternoon isn’t the busiest time at Tokyo Station. Still, several people passing through the station on November 6 noticed an unusual listing on the board of the Sobu Line platform.
In the photo, we can clearly see that the final destination of the 1:36 p.m. train is New York, written ニューヨーク in Japanese katakana script. This wasn’t another case of a humorous mix-up in sign programming, either.
So what gives? Well, there’s a hint in the form of the red kanji characters on the far left of the train’s information.
Usually, this spot is used to denote whether the train is a local or express, but the New York-bound train is marked 団体. Read as "dantai," it means “group,” and not just anyone could hop on the 13:36 departure. The 13:36 intercontinental train was reserved just for the participants in a tour linking Tokyo and New York’s Grand Central Station.
Earlier this year, Grand Central and Tokyo Station entered into a formal relationship as sister stations. As part of the latter’s ongoing 100th birthday celebration (which also included a touching anime short), a group of train and travel-loving individuals signed up for a trip that began with a party and night’s accommodation at the luxurious Tokyo Station Hotel in a room overlooking the Imperial Palace. After a tour of the Stationmaster’s Office, the travelers were whisked off to Narita Airport by their private train. From there, they transferred to a JAL airliner (for which going to the U.S. is pretty routine), before landing in New York for activities including a tour of Tokyo’s sister station, a ride in a vintage 1940s rail car, and a meal at the exclusive Club 101.
At least, that’s the official line from the tour operators.
Source: Grape
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Commuters surprisingly receptive to JR’s innovative new system -- 12 beautiful Japanese train stations by the sea -- More Countries Join the New List of 100 Busiest Train Stations, Japan Still Claims 82 of Them
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20 Comments
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nath
What a great piece of reporting from RocketNews24. Priceless!!!!
KnowBetter
Cool story and sounds like a cool tour to be on. Would have been funny to watch the rare salaryman look up and do a double take on that sign followed by a really long eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh???
borax
Neat! As a New York-born train geek, I got a real kick out of seeing that sign.
SenseNotSoCommon
Pulitzer material
nandakandamanda
Perhaps it should have read ニューヨーク・グランド セントラル駅
davestrousers
Amazing! If it wasn't for the photo I simply would not have believed it.
nath
So did New York central station also have a sign showing next station was Tokyo??
harvey pekar
That would be so awesome to be able to take a bullet train from Tokyo to NYC.
BertieWooster
This is called "dredging the bottom of the barrel."
As SenseNotSoCommon sarcastically suggests, "Pulitzer material!"
Serrano
Oh, if only I didn't have to get on a plane to get to new York from Tokyo...
Reza Rahman
Tokyo to Narita is a nightmare. Hopefully this group will highlight the problems of travelling to/from Narita.
yongosen
It's Grand Central TERMINAL, not "station". Grand Central Station is a post office, Grand Central Terminal is the train station. Guess the author didn't bother checking.
KnowBetter
'Reza Rahman' and getting from New York City out to JFK by train is better or 'safer'. Nightmare is a state of mind depending on your view of life. I'll take the slightly longer yet SUPER SAFE ride out to Narita over getting the once over taking 'rail' out to JFK. FYI, LGA is similar in distance/access from New York 'City' as 'Tokyo' is to HND but I like my odds better in Japan. Just sayin'.
Magnus Roe
Seriously? What exactly is your issue? There are at least two dedicated train lines, the fastest one being the cheapest and involving just riding the yamanote to nippori, the other (slower) is a train that goes from saitama's largest city all the way through tokyo's main terminals and directly to the airport platform. Additionally, there are busses going to and fro all over.
Mocheake
When my family arrived in New York a few decades ago, there was a train in Manhattan which read ''To Jamaica.'' Being from Jamaica, West Indies, they were puzzled because they knew you had to fly or take a boat to and from the island. When the conductor told them there was a Jamaica in Queens, they were severely disappointed.
nandakandamanda
yongosen, (re terminal/station) in the interests of clarity, this is from Wiki: "Although the terminal has been properly called “Grand Central Terminal” since 1913, it has 'always been more colloquially and affectionately known as Grand Central Station', the name of the previous rail station on the same site, and of the U.S. Post Office station next door, which is not part of the terminal.[6] It is also sometimes used to refer to the Grand Central – 42nd Street subway station, which serves the terminal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Terminal
Pandabelle
I saw that on Twitter this weekend - really cool. I love this sort of thing.
slumdog
This sentence is just as entertaining as the sign in the station.
AramaTaihenNoYouDidnt
Wishful thinking for travelers in Tokyo metropolis....final stop: The Big Apple...All Aboard !!!!!
Fadamor
??? I did the "Tokyo to Narita" train ride not two weeks ago. I would not call it a nightmare. It was a normal train ride with stops along the way.
To quote the sergeant from Stripes, "Lighten up, Francis." The author is like most of the people who live around the station: