I went to visit my friend Michael Zock down at 東工大. As I left Shibuya on the 東横 train line I saw over a dozen people taking pictures of the trains and most of all, the electric board showing train departures. I thought, “How cute, some Asian tourists visiting Japan are taking pictures of the trains and electric board. I guess they must think there is something novel about it. After all, I have taken lots of pictures of various bullet trains in Japan.” Hmm, how strange that some of them were using cellphone cameras to take the pictures, not something you would expect foreigners to use in Japan for their pictures. Why would Japanese be taking these pictures though?
When I came back later in the afternoon, there were now several dozen people on the platform at Shibuya taking pictures of the electronic departure information board. This time I bothered to stop and read the scrolling text below: “As of the last train departure tonight, service from Shibuya to Sakuragi-cho [Where I lived for a year when I attend the Inter-University Center in Yokohama in 1997-8] will terminate and on January 31st the line will only run as far as Yokohama station. Thank you for all your support.” I think this has something to do with a line being extended as far as Minato Mirai, where IUC is located, along with malls, hotels, and other tourist attractions. Sakuragi-cho is an old and famous station, and this was the line I used for a year to get access to Tokyo from Yokohama. I could almost appreciate why dozens of Japanese were taking lots of pictures of the last few departures of this line going all the way to Sakuragi-cho….almost. That didn’t stop me from taking a picture of all the people taking the pictures though and shaking my head in disbelief.