Jumping back to the year 2000 - when I got my first digital camera. All of this batch of photographs were taken in late April 2000. Comments are (mainly) under the pictures.
In contrast with my videos from 1990 and 1991, with the manual ticket gates, the train system had been fully automated by 2000, although the machines in this photo only read magnetic tickets (and cards) that had to be fed through the machine. The IC type of card that just needs to be placed near a sensor hadn't been implemented yet.
A lot of platforms were not fully roofed. Looking at pictures from many decades ago, I notice that the usual design before was to have a mostly open platform, with just the central section having a roof. In 2000, there were just some small sections without roofs, but now (in 2014) almost all of the stations I knew with an open section have been roofed. (The train in the background is a Red Arrow reserved seat express on the Seibu Line.)
I used to work near Shinjuku-Gyoen and found it a fantastic refuge from the vicious office politics continually raging in the office I was working in at the time. It's really quite amazing how you can regain your humanity via a calm setting with plants, water, air, and no office politics within the park.
I don't know very much about Japan's involvement with soccer, but I think it was around this time (the year 2000) that it was beginning to be popular.
At the time, I was running around doing a number of contract jobs, so I'm not sure what these stations are - but the specific stations aren't the point - the thing these pictures remind me of is the general feeling when you are out and about on the train system - going from one place to another, and then on to another place, etc. (That said, the upper station is probably on the Musashino Line.)
I'm drawing a blank on what station (and line) this is.... If someone recognizes it, or thinks they recognize it, leave a comment and if it jogs my memory and I remember where I took this, I'll edit the caption.
(Above and below) In Shinjuku - waiting for a Yamanote Line train, and then on the train (see internal picture two down).
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山手線車内 / Inside the Yamanote Line.
神田駅辺り / Kanda Station Area - 9:52 a.m.
Kanda Station - They are currently extensively remodeling/rebuilding Kanda Station, so the old parts of the station, like the old structure of the platform roof and elements of the stairs that you can see in these two pictures, are disappearing as construction progresses.
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Inside a Chuo Line train. This type of train (on the Chuo Line) has been completely replaced with a newer type. At the time, it never occurred to me (for some reason) that the Chuo Line trains I'd grown used to were going to disappear. I miss them, as they were designed with ventilation in mind, and you could open roof vents and all of the windows. The new type doesn't have any roof vents at all and only a few of the windows open (half-way). Not surprisingly the air quality on the new Chuo Line trains is vastly worse than it was on the old types. Someday... someday, people will realize/remember that human beings actually need oxygen, and that ventilation is important.
(Above and below) Changing from the Chuo Line to the Marunouchi Line at Yotsuya Station. (The Marunouchi Line is a subway, but the trains briefly run on the surface at a couple of places - one of those being at Yotsuya Station.)
四谷駅・丸ノ内線 This was when the Marunouchi Line didn't have platform walls (strangely called "platform screens" by some people - to screen out suicides is the idea I guess...) and there were conductors. Once the platform walls were installed (ostensibly for safety reasons) the conductors vanished and there's just the driver now.
I don't remember exactly where I took this, although it had to be somewhere not far from either Yotsuya-Sanchome Station or Shinjuku-Gyoenmae Station. Open space like this is never open for long in Tokyo! I wish I remembered exactly where this is so I could go back and see what they've since built here. With this much empty space in a central Tokyo location, no doubt there is a tower of one sort or another there now. (Incidentally, this was taken on April 27th, 2000 at 10:25 a.m.)
四谷四丁目 / Yotsuya-Yonchome
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(Above and below) Stations on my way to Kashiwa. The upper one looks like Yotsuya and the lower one... might be Kanda, but I'm not sure. I don't remember the route I took. (Sorry for the lack of precision, but it's been 14 years since I took these...)
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(Above and below) Kashiwa Station (柏駅) on the Joban Line (常磐線). The trains in the picture above were the same type as those used on the Chuo Line that I mentioned further up the page. They're utilitarian more than beautiful, but the utility was excellent and so they had a functional beauty once you got used to them (function over form). Most appreciated were the roof vents and openable windows (all of them). Ventilation and oxygen are wonderful things....
(Below) The elevated plaza beside Kashiwa Station - with the Sogo Department Store in the background.
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Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
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