Mar 14 2009
From josh:
Any help on the details to go to the usa from europe or middle east.
And from james:
What is the carbon footprint of shipping a 40ft container by freighter compared to shipping by truck. More specifically I am looking for the impact from HK to the West Coast of Canada by ship compared to Toronto to Vancouver by truck. My simpleton gut feeling it will be the same or the container shipping will be more efficient.
Mar 14 2009
The night train Hayabusa is (was) the only remaining night train out of a fleet of several that connected Tokyo with the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
It travelled along the old Tokaido rail road, the Sanyo main line, and a bunch of other lines connecting up Tokyo, Shizoka, Hamamatsu, Nagoya, all the way to Fukuoka and Kumamoto every night for over 50 years.
The Hayabusa is steeped in Japanese railway history, established just 2 years after its forerunner Asakaze that ran a similar Tokyo-Fukuoka route, in 1958. Yesterday it had its last run, attracting crowds of thousands at Tokyo station, and similar welcoming at every station along the route. Applauded out of the station, with steam whistles, folk bands and mournful railway fans.
With the advent of fast cheap air travel and bargain bottom priced bus seats, the Hayabusa was steadily losing its competitive edge for years. After several scheduling mergers failed to make up the outgoings, the announcement came last autumn that the route would be discontinued, effective yesterday.
Reports that made national television news recorded generations of Japanese retelling stories of their honeymoons, childhood travels and teenage backpacking journeys.
This youtube video has a slow minute of timetable pictures before some great shots of the hayabusa, and a minute’s video of the last run at the end.
Yomiuri coverage (Japanese)
Railway fan’s Page (Japanese)
Japan Night Train Guide (japanguide.com)