"Stick An Aircraft Engine In It" Part 2b - The TGV

First time in the Channel Tunnel!

Hard to believe, given that I have family on both sides of the Channel, that this month was the first time I used the Tunnel! For a long time, I've lived on the Western side of France and travelled in a car, so going to Calais to catch the shortest ferry links or LeShuttle never made sense compared to a relaxing six-hour crossing from a port in Normandy. Now I live in Eastern France and don't use a car, so the train is a no-brainer, and finally, I took the Eurostar from Lille to London.

On paper, the trip is amazing: just 90 minutes, roughly 30 on the French high-speed line, 30 in the tunnel, and 30 on High Speed 1 in England. Buuuuut... you need to get to the departure station around 60 minutes early for security and border checks, there's not a lot to do in the densely populated waiting area, and once on the train, I found it quite hard to relax in the hard, narrow seats under rather harsh lighting. While the ride was quick and operations felt reliable, the comfort of some regional trains has won me over more swiftly. That said, I've also been underwhelmed by the German ICE 3 (BR 407), which is the same Siemens Velaro D model as the Eurostar e320.

The Channel Tunnel turned 30 this year, with the French high-speed line connected to it upon opening and TGV-derived stock at the ready (now called the Eurostar e300, left), while the UK finished their high-speed line to London in 2007 (plaque at St. Pancras, right). Since then, it's been possible to go from London to Paris or Brussels in under two and a half hours (not counting security before boarding).

And there I was, starting to think I'd be riding the Seikan Tunnel before the Channel Tunnel!

More faces on Dôtonbori

There are the classics on Dôtonbori: Kuidaore Tarô, there's a well-known animatronic crab, and of course the Glico man. I reckon this ramen-loving dragon is my personal favourite.

... though, giving it some thought, I quite like the hand holding a sushi and Spiderman reaching for a pearl too.

But oh boy, are you ready for some real randomness?

This is the front of the Dôtonbori Hotel. According to Atlas Obscura, the hotel had these pillars made to symbolise them welcoming people from all over the world - the faces represent East Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe -, at a time when domestic tourism was dwindling (early 1990s).

Freiburg's Schwabentor

The Germany city of Freiburg im Breisgau, on the transition between the Rhine valley plains and the hills of the Black Forest, was part of the Duchy of Swabia until it dissolved in the 13th century due to the ducal line going extinct. It was around this time that its "Swabian Gate" was built at the Eastern edge of the town, facing the Swabian heartland.

Like Schaffhausen's Schwabentor, it has undergone upgrades and downgrades, taken damage and been restored over time. The current illustrations on the tower include St George slaying the dragon (1903) on the outside, and a merchant with a cart (first painted in 1572) on the inside, just visible in the picture below.

Freiburg's Altstadt has many gorgeous, colourful houses decorated with trompe-l'oeil facades. An effort has also been made to preserve the little rivers in the streets, known as Bächle. Local superstition says that anyone who accidentally steps in a Bächle will marry a local - unusual to see a place that values clumsiness!

C'est avec grand plaisir que je présenterai le mardi 16 avril à la Maison Universitaire France-Japon de Strasbourg une conférence sur la géométrie pendant la période d'Edo, avec en support le sangaku de Kashihara. Entre grande Histoire et petits calculs. Lien vers les détails 4月16日(火)、ストラスブール市の日仏大学会館に江戸時代の算額についてコンファレンスをします。楽しみにしています！ Looking forward to giving a conference on Edo-period geometry on 16 April at Strasbourg's French-Japanese Institute. Expect a few posts about Kashihara around then. Has it really been 6 years?...

Here we are: Miminashi-yama

When I visited Kashihara, looking to explore some deep Japanese history in the former province of Yamato, I expected to move around a bit, but there was actually enough in Kashihara itself to make for a busy day.

First up was this curious green round space in the middle of a residential area on the town map I'd picked up. It just seemed conspicuous to me, I decided to check it out.

This is Miminashi-yama, one of the Yamato Sanzan, or Three Main Mountains of Yamato. Though it stood out on the map and it does stand out in the plain around it, it's not huge, and it's a short climb to the top where a shrine awaited.

In that shrine, a sangaku geometry tablet is displayed. By chance, based on a whim, I had found one! Nearly six years on, I've finally solved it - it's not very difficult mathematically, it's just taken me this long to get on with it, having said that, even today I'm still figuring out extra things on it! - and will be presenting it at a conference tomorrow. I wouldn't have thought it at the time... I guess curiosity didn't kill the cat that day!

60 Years of the Tokaido Shinkansen!

On 1 October 1964, a railway line like no other opened. Connecting Tôkyô and Ôsaka, paralleling an existing main line, the Tôkaidô New Trunk Line had minimal curves, lots of bridges, zero level crossings. Striking white and blue electric multiple units, with noses shaped like bullets some would say, started zooming between the two cities as at the unheard-of speed of 210 km/h.

This was the start of the Shinkansen, inaugurating the age of high-speed rail.

The trains, with noses actually inspired by the aircraft of the time, originally didn't have a name, they were just "Shinkansen trains", as they couldn't mingle with other types anyway due to the difference in gauge between the Shinkansen (standard gauge, 1435 mm between rails) and the rest of the network (3'6" gauge, or 1067 mm between rails). The class would officially become the "0 Series" when new trains appeared in the 1980s, first the very similar 200 Series for the second new line, the Tôhoku Shinkansen, then the jet-age 100 Series. Yes, the 200 came first, as it was decided that trains heading North-East from Tôkyô would be given even first numbers, and trains heading West would have odd first numbers (0 is even, but never mind).

Hence the next new type to appear on the Tôkaidô Shinkansen was the 300 Series (second from left), designed by the privatised JR Tôkai to overcome some shortcomings of the line. Indeed, the curves on the Tôkaidô were still too pronounced to allow speeds to be increased, while all other new lines had been built ready for 300 km/h operations. But a revolution in train design allowed speeds to be raised from 220 km/h in the 80s to 285 km/h today, with lightweight construction (on the 300), active suspension (introduced on the 700 Series, left) and slight tilting (standard on the current N700 types).

Examples of five generations of train used on the Tôkaidô Shinkansen are preserved at JR Tôkai's museum, the SCMaglev & Railway Park, in Nagoya, with the N700 prototype lead car outdoors. It's striking to see how far high-speed train technology has come in Japan in 60 years. The network itself covers the country almost end-to-end, with a nearly continuous line from Kyûshû to Hokkaidô along the Pacific coast (no through trains at Tôkyô), and four branch lines inland and to the North coast, one of which recently got extended.

東海道新幹線、お誕生日おめでおう！

Friendly faces on Dôtonbori

Dôtonbori is the street to go restaurant crawling in Ôsaka (if you have the stomach). As there's a lot of venues, there's a lot of competition, so a lot of wacky stuff to draw the passer-by's attention.

If anyone knows why this restaurant is called Shôwa Hormone, please let me know. Shôwa, I can guess, is nostalgia for the post-war Shôwa era; but Hormone needs a good story behind it!

Is this guy mad at people double-dipping their fried skewers?

By the way, that's two fronts featuring another monument of Ôsaka, Tsutenkaku tower, just in case you forgot where you were.

Finally, we have this guy, a true local hero: Kuidaore Tarô. This animatronic was introduced in 1950 as a mascot for the Cuidaore restaurant, which has since closed, but Tarô and his drumming were such a stable of Dôtonbori, that people clamoured to have him back.

I dunno. I think he looks like Brains from Thunderbirds under the influence of the Mysterons. A figure of his time though.

"Kuidaore" by the way, is from the proverb:

京都の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ Kyôto no ki-daore, Ôsaka no kui-daore Spend all your money on clothes in Kyôto, and on food in Ôsaka

Today, "kuidaore" is colloquially translated as "eat until you drop" - so go restaurant crawling if you can!

Space Port Kii (from a distance)

Japanese company Space One has been in the news recently for their second attempt at launching their rocket, Kairos - for Kii-based Advanced & Instant ROcket System; as far as acronyms go, I'd give it a 5/10, it's rather long-winded but has some good ideas at the right moments. The rocket, designed to be a cheaper option for lighter satellites, unfortunately didn't make it into orbit, losing control after 95 seconds.

The launch site is located on the North-East edge of Kushimoto, Honshû's southernmost city, its entrance building visible from the railway line. The action area is further into the woods, by the coast. I didn't visit the site obviously, but the entrance and some support posters in Kushimoto town were hints of the project's presence. They have a neat little mascot too, a space puppy!

Feeling rather non-committal today, so here are some flowers from the Expo '70 Commemoration Park near Osaka. This is probably going to start a mini-series because the place is huge, so more information will come later.

A couple of quick-fire photos from the boat on a recent ride on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin. Picture sharpness isn't always fantastic when it's a rather fast reaction situation, but I still like this duck!

A Belgian Série 13 loco with freight, crossing a viaduct in North-Eastern France. The 13s are very flexible but do not support 15 kV, so the loco will be changed at the German or Swiss border if its cargo continues on.