Travel Diary on January 4, 2018

Today's purpose is just to go back to Japan.
We headed for Vladivostok station to take airport express.

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Interior of the airport express

The train departed.

From the train, we could see many locomotives like this

And this

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Station nameplate of an intermediate station

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A vehicle was running on Amur Bay

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Say goodbye to Siberian Railway

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Soon arriving at Vladivostok International Airport

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This dotted electric signage displayed only current time

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Vladivostok International Airport station

This is the train we boarded

We walked to arrival hall of the airport

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Matryoshka dolls in Matryoshka doll

We passed through passport control and baggage inspection.

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Each souvenir shop has each doll like this

Though Vladivostok-bound aircraft had few passengers, Tokyo-bound aircraft was full of passengers.
Seen from the aircraft, coast along Sea of Japan was covered with snow.
But, Narita International Airport had no snow as usual.

From the airport, we took bus for Tokyo station, and ate sushi for dinner.

Travel Diary on January 3, 2018

From the hotel, we walked to funicular station to board cable car.

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On our way to Verkhnyaya station

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Statue of

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Russky Island Bridge

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Verkhnyaya station

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The funicular is operated from 7:00 to 20:00

Now boarding

The total length of the cable car was so short that I was busy to pay fare on the car and to take pictures.

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Funicular tracks

Another train

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Nizhnyaya station

After boarding the cable car, we took bus for Sportivnaya, an intermediate station on Vladivostok tram.
Anyway, to get warm, we got in a shopping center in front of the station.

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The shopping center

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Interior

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Restaurants floor

Though my wife tried to find souvenir, she said "Almost all of the goods displayed in this store are out of date."
Then, we chose Vietnamese restaurant as the place for lunch(breakfast?). All of the food served to us tasted good and similar to the one served in Vietnam.

We boarded Vladivostok tram bound for Sakhalinskaya.

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Interior of the tram

We got off the tram at Klubnaya station.
And, we entered nearby supermarket.

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Supermarket

That's where we bought souvenirs.
And then, we walked to a tram depot.

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Depot

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At the entrance of the depot, gate was placed

ЛМ-93 series train is about to leave

КТМ-5М3 series train is proceeding to the depot

The other КТМ-5М3 series train was waiting at the depot

I don't know the type of this train left at the depot

We walked to Shkolnaya station.

КТМ-5М3 series train going up the steep

ЛМ-93 series train near Shkolnaya.Sta

71-608К series train at Shkolnaya.Sta

71-608К series train colored with yellow

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Platform of each station has no information board indicating tram station

Instead of tram, we took bus for Tsentr, the central square of Vladivostok.

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Admirala Fokina Street

Fortunatelly, I was able to encounter this train, while walking

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Backyard of an antique shop

On our way to an aquarium, we found frozen sea

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Frozen Amur Bay

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From other angle

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Aquarium

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Turtles were packed in the narrow water tank

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Creepy dolls were put inside game machine at the aquarium

We walked to Vladivostok station.

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Underground shopping street near Tsentr

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Vladivostok station

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Higher floor is for suburban trains, while lower one is for long distance trains

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Electric signage on the higher platform

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9288km from Moscow

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Scene from the station

351Й train from Sovetskaya Gavan pulled by Russian Railways ТЭМ2 series locomotive was approaching

Russian Railways ТЭМ2У series locomotive was running in the station

Steam locomotive for display

Russian Railways ЭП1 series train went back and forth around the station

It's time to eat dinner. Then, we went to Porto Franco, a Russian food restaurant

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Entrance

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Dinner

At the end of the day, we went to Gum department store.

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Gum Department Store

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Department store is divided into some buildings

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Cake shop

After this, we returned to the hotel.

Travel Diary on January 2, 2018

We got up later than scheduled.
Our delayed schedule made us hurry up and forced to take Keisei Skyliner, the rapidest train connecting downtown of Tokyo and Narita International Airport.
From Nippori, we boarded it.
The train was running slowly until Shin-Shibamata, but began to accelerate after the station and might have reached 160km/h after Inba-Nihonidai.
We arrived at Narita Airport, and issued tickets for Vladivostok. Since today is the 2nd day in January, we could see few people around the ticketing counter.

After lunch, we proceeded to boarding gate of the aircraft. Japanese and Russian ground staff of S7 airlines were chatting enjoyably around the boarding gate. It's rare to see that. Probably, Japan's airline careers don't allow employees to chat, even while they have nothing to do.

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Boarding gate

After boarding aircraft, sandwiches and juice were served before landing.

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Few passengers onboard

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Sunset could be seen from the aircraft

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Landing

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Airport's information was provided with Russian, English, and Chinese

From Vladivostok international Airport, we had to use taxi, because the last train had already departed and local bus runs every 1 hour.
(The taxi driver said that the last bus had already departed, but we found the timetable saying a bus departing at 20:00 is available. I don't know which information was true.)

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According to this board, a bus departing at 20:00 is available

We reached today's hotel and hanged out around downtown of Vladivostok.

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Maybe, snow festival

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Many electric decorations

We walked to Vladivostok station

Russian Railways 3ЭС5К series

Russian Railways ЭД6 series

Near Vladivostok station, a man asked me "Japan?", and I replied "Yes".

Somehow, he gave us gum which was made in Japan.
I couldn't understand his intention.

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Just after taking this picture, he asked me

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THe timetable is based on Moscow time

Since it was nearly -13℃, we headed for the hotel to prevent frostbite.

Happy new year!

I'd like to upload train pictures on the last day of the year 2017.
All of the pictures here were taken in Kansai.

JR West 225 series (5100s) in Nagai.Sta

JR West 287 series(Kuroshio) in Tsurugaoka.Sta

Nankai 31000 series in Shin-Imamiya.Sta

Semboku 3000 series in Shin-Imamiya.Sta

By the way, on the day before December 31, I found Kiya 141 series train in Himeji.

This is the last post in the year of 2017

Ranging from news to my travel diary, I've posted my diary everyday this year.
As far as I can, I'd like to post everyday even in 2018.
Have a good year!

Why does it ignore an important airport?

Xiamen Metro opened on December 30, 2017
http://www.urbanrail.net/as/cn/xiamen/xiamen.htm

Though Xiamen has more than 5 million people, including suburban cities, it has no metro system before inauguration of this metro.
I wonder why there is not a subway station which is accessible to Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, though it runs by the airport.

Why is it horrible to leave emerge of populism?

10 questions that could keep you up at night in 2018
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/27/opinions/10-questions-2018-opinion-ghitis/index.html

Especially, the fact that raw populism became so popular around the world in recent years is the biggest change.
Though democracy was designed on the assumption that what many people decide would be rational and be the nearest to answer, but raw populism has made it far from the theory.
I worry that excess populism will divert democratic nations to wrong ways and could finally cause revival of dictatorship.