[DM] Rival geek schools let off steam at Akiba's new trainspotter paradise

Started by Sir Pompously, March 05, 2008, 09:18:33 PM

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Sir Pompously

I went to Akihabara, too bad this was not there when I was there.

QuoteRival geek schools let off steam at Akiba's new trainspotter paradise

Sunday Mainichi (3/9)

Akihabara, the Tokyo district known as a haven for otaku of all stripes, has now got a new bandwagon. Or, to be more precise, a train, according to Sunday Mainichi (3/9).

Little TGV is a newly opened restaurant in Akihabara that catering to trainspotters' every delight.

Customers enter the establishment by paying 500 yen for an old-style train ticket, which a waitress -- wearing a uniform modeled on those actually worn by railroad company employees -- uses a hole punch to permit entry, just as station attendants once did at ticket gates across Japan.

Items on the cheaply priced menus also have a distinct train theme, like Loop Line Fried Onion Rings and Yamanote Line cocktails, named after the arterial routes that run through Osaka and Tokyo.

Little TGV is also filled with railroad paraphernalia, with station and track signs hanging on the walls, one area decorated by the gauge from an actual locomotive, massive screens showing footage of renowned train trips from around the world and background music replaced by recordings of rail trips and the clatter of engines traveling along tracks.

But what's making people sit up and take notice of the restaurant is its location in the heart of the otaku capital of the world. And though superficially they share much in common, Japan's otaku geeks and trainspotters, who call themselves "tetsu" -- an abbreviation for tetsudo mania (literally, "train freaks") -- have traditionally considered each other to be world's apart.

Harutomo Sataka, the man behind the concept of Little TGV has been pleasantly surprised by the initial response to the establishment some may say is in "enemy territory."

"I never dreamed people would be so into this place," he tells Sunday Mainichi. "I totally understand why people who like trains feel a little uneasy about coming into Akihabara. But we don't want the restaurant to be a place just for trainspotters. We also want to create a talking point for otaku and ordinary salarymen, too. That's why we deliberately set up a place so openly dedicated to trainspotters right in the middle of Akihabara."

Yuko Kimura, a self-confessed "tetsu" and the pin-up girl for trainspotters across Japan, is a huge supporter of the Little TGV concept, working there as a "special conductor" (the restaurant's name for waitresses) once a month.

She tells Sunday Mainichi: "I'd really like to see this area become a gathering place for railroad freaks to get together and use as a base." (By Ryann Connell)

Related links
Little TGV
http://littletgv.com/

Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/news/20080303p2g00m0dm002000c.html

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