Supporting my fav seniors #19 Railway enthusiasts and productivity Part 1: Second Opportunity for Railfans

 I often hear visitors to Japan saying how amazing Japanese trains and railways are.

They often mention how punctually trains run and how orderly people wait in line on the platforms.

 On top of that, many train lovers from other countries admire a rich variety of train cars in Japan. Even Shinkansen (bullet train) alone has various car types. Some local lines run with local mascots painted on the cars, and each of them looks fantastic, I’ve heard.

When you say “Railfans,” they are not just one, homogeneous group. Some love riding trains (called “Noritetsu” in Japanese), others enjoy taking pictures of them (“Toritetsu”), and still others are drawn to sounds, such as engines of running trains and announcements at stations (“Ototetsu”). Millions of people, from children to seniors, are also hooked to N-scale model trains and PLARAIL, a toy train and plastic track system introduced by a Japanese company in 1959.

When these railfans with various interests are young, railway clubs at school would be the place for them to get together. The majority of the members are boys, a little nerdy, and not the most sociable students in the class.

There are many reasons why they join the club, but one of them is that they can buy quite pricy model trains and tracks with the membership fees they chipped in, and run them to their heart's content in a large space. Another reason for joining, regardless of their interest area, is that they can find fellow railfans, who would let them share this “special” (nerdy) world and be themselves.

But after graduating from school, where can they go? Where can they take this passion to?

In the beginning of their working lives, they don’t have enough money to buy new models. Once they start a family, their model train room would become a kid’s room. Sadly, there is no time, place, or money to fully express their love of trains and railways; all they can do is show their passion bit by bit.

They may take advantage of business trips, spending free time separately from their colleagues to try rare trains. They may also use their children as an excuse to buy a train model or visit a railway museum. But as they approach retirement, these low-key railfans can fully indulge their passion again.

The tricky part is, these senior railfans have suppressed their passion for so long that many of them have hard time taking the first step to fully enjoy themselves.

Nonetheless, some seniors, with more money and time than in school days, try local lines in remote places or purchase an expensive camera to take pictures. They look delighted with the second opportunity to show their love of trains and railways, with their eyes sparkling as if going back to their youth.

Unfortunately, however, many of them are doing these alone.

 Enjoying things alone sure is wonderful. But even if they rode a special train or took stunning pictures of local trains running through cherry blossoms in full bloom, what would be fun about it if they had no one to share it with?

Though fellow railfans would praise their pictures, their families couldn’t care less, which often discourages them and leads them back to the low-key mode.

 Being a bit of a railfan myself, I ask myself: What can be helpful for these senior male railfans?

One of the possible solutions is… in Part 2.

Stay tuned!

Shino Sawaoka

Associate Professor,

Dept. of Health Management,

Tokai University 

jzt1864@tokai.ac.jp

https://www.tokai-kenko.ac/