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Kobe Shin-Kobe Station 4 Nov 2007
Shin-Kobe station means "New" Kobe station, I think -- they apparently had no way to get the shinkansen (what is often called their "bullet train: in the US) into the heart of Kobe, so they built a special station for them north of the main downtown area.
The photo shows a train (not ours) that discharged and loaded passengers while we were waiting for the express train taking us to Tokyo (I presume this particular train was a "local" that made more stops than ours, or perhaps it did not go all the way to Tokyo). These trains spend perhaps only 2-3 minutes at each stop, so you have to be "ready" when "your" train comes (or, if on the train, when it comes to "your" destination).
The rectangular structure in the bottom center of this photo is part of the automatic gate structure that is built into the platform. The reserved seat tickets are for a specific seat in a specific car on the train (say, Car #6). There are signs on the platform stating where the entrances to Car #6 will be when the train arrives -- and you wait there. Every train that I took stopped so that the car's entrances were within perhaps 3 inches of that marked spot. (We first saw this in the train leaving the Narita Airport near Tokyo, which was not a shinkansen -- but it was a fairly new train line.) I don't remember subways and the local in-town trains in Tokyo lining up quite so precisely.)
Gary is on the right-hand side of this photo, looking down at his camera.
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