Favourite Photos: Hello Kitty Shinkansen (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition))

Japan: The Basics contains many photographs (all taken by me) to help with the discussions in the book. I have previously done individual posts on each of the photos that were in the first edition that are not in the second edition (a list of all the photographs in the first edition can be found here). I am now doing posts on all of the photos that appear in the second edition of Japan: The Basics using the tag Photo in Japan: The Basics 2 (all of the photographs can be found here). I’ve already done posts on all the photos that appear in both editions of the book. This is the next post in the next series – those where there was an equivalent picture in the first edition, but which has been updated for the second edition.

Replacing the picture shown in Favourite Photos: Hello Kitty, I have some different images of Hello Kitty. This one is Figure 3.1a in the second edition of Japan: The Basics. This photograph also fits within my series of Favourite Photos.

The photo shows a 500-series shinkansen in the Hello Kitty livery. For more about the 500-series shinkansen, see the post My Favourite Shinkansen: The 500 Series Shinkansen. I took this photograph during a journey on the Hello Kitty Shinkansen itself. As it operates as a kodama service, stopping at all stations, there are some stations where it is in the station for several minutes, allowing faster services to pass. This gave me the chance to run across to the opposite platform to get a better picture of the train than you can get standing next to it. This is one of two external shots of the Hello Kitty Shinkansen, and there is also one internal shot, that appear in the second edition of Japan: The Basics.

I really like this picture and considered getting a copy of it on my wall in my office at work, but I already have three other shinkansen pictures, including the one used in Figure 2.2 of the second edition of Japan: The Basics, and neither wanted to replace any of those or have any more. Also, I prefer not to have pictures of shinkansen at stations – but I didn’t have time to go and photograph it somewhere, such as near Okayama (see Photographing the Shinkansen: Okayama).

The photo allows for further discussion in the book on Contents Tourism as well as the seeming importance of kawaii (cute) things in Japan. I have also used a similar image in a chapter on Contents Tourism – see Contents Tourism in Plane Sight (and コンテンツツーリズム・イン・プレインサイト－聖地として航空機).

See also Hello Kitty Shinkansen Food Motifs (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition)) and Hello Kitty Shinkansen Seats (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition)).