Smart Sushi Train

Nona and I have always enjoyed eating Sushi together and I especially like the restaurants where it is delivered on some sort of conveyor belt or boats.   This last March we were out walking around near Meguro station in Tokyo and happened across this place called "Smart Sushi"


It's a fairly large place with the kitchen behind a wall so not visible.  The "Train" is more like a monorail, with the guide way made of wood that goes around the counter and through the wall into the kitchen.  There is an electronic beeper and a lighted push button is at each seat.  There is also a touch screen display terminal at each seat for the customers to enter their orders.  The orders arrive on a two car train of sorts.  It's really two trays that ride on the wooden guide ways and are connected together.  A total of 4 dishes of Sushi can be delivered with each trip.  When your order arrives the push button flashes and the beeper sounds.  When you have removed your order you press the button the send the train back to the kitchen.

I have put labels on this photo to point out the features of the sushi train mentioned above.  No, the beer is not delivered by the train.

This was a fun place and the Sushi was also quite good.





Here's a short YouTube video showing the delivery of an order.  This was my first video with my new camera and I'm quite happy with the results but I just need to hold it more steady.

Adding to my Tokyo taxi fleet

While in Hong Kong, I spotted a tiny shop at the Kowloon Star Ferry Terminal called 80M Bus Model Shop.  They had all kinds of bus and vehicle models in several scales.  I picked out a couple of 1:160 Hong Kong taxi cabs.  The cabs in Hong Kong are basically the same model cars that are used in Tokyo so I thought they would make be a good stand in.

The 80M Bus Model Shop has several locations around Hong Kong and this English web site.

Having seen this new TomyTec set out on ebay before we left on this trip, I thought I would look for it while in Tokyo and found it at TamTam in Akiharaba.

I had always thought that Tomytec would come out with a big set of taxis the way they have with other vehicles but so far just these small sets.  This new set like the one before it, has two Crown models and two Prius models.  I hope they do the green one next.

At another Akihabara hobby shop I was also able to find this set of Showa era taxis that I was looking for to use on the Hot Springs Junction Ntrak module.

I took these first three photos while packing to come home.  Our luggage situation was such that I had to take all of these out of their packages to consolidate things.

The 80M Bus model actually a tiny bit larger than the TomyTec model. This would not be noticeable unless they are side by side.   It also has rear view mirrors and a bit more painted detail. Overall it's a very nice model.

While I was away.....

While I was in Asia, the annual Trains and Planes exhibit took place at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California.  This year it was an 8 day long event with up to 7 operating layouts in N, HO, O, and G scales represented.  Last year, using my Hot Springs Junction module we did a combined Peninsula Ntrak / AsiaNrail layout.  But this year with my module and myself not being available, two separate layouts were set up.

Here's Paul Ingraham with the AsiaNrail layout at the Hiller exhibit.  The Peninsula Ntrak layout is in the background.  We have often run point to point operations on the AsiaNrail layouts but with Paul having to run this layout by himself this time he went with an oval.


Here are a couple of YouTube videos of the AsiaNrail layout done by Julia Jackson of Peninsula Ntrak.  Paul explains the concept of his modular design and the scenery on some of the modules.

The layouts at the new Kato Store

One of the things that makes the Kato shop different is it's operating N and HO scale layouts.  What better way to promote your products than to show them set up and operating.

This view is of the largest N scale layout.

That's a lot of Unitrak !
It would have been great if they had a lot of trains running on this layout but when I was there they only had a couple of trains running.

As most of my photos of moving train models tend to come out blurry, I chose to photograph some of the many detailed scenes on the layouts.

Modeling a station scene in Tokyo, you need taxi cab models and lots of people.

In the upstairs part of the store, there were several smaller layouts and displays along with enough room that they could host club setups of modular layouts.  I have no idea if they actually do that.

One thing that caught my eye was this display of a section of clear acrylic pipe with a platform inside wide enough for a double track section of Unitrak - for a Subway ?

While not all of the buildings on the layout are weathered or detailed, this small group of older style buildings were very well done.  Are those solar panels on the roofs ?



The Kato Hobby Center is certainly a great place to visit when in Tokyo.  In my previous post, I show a map of how to get there from the nearest subway station.  Here is another link to a great collection of photos done by John Sing in 2008 of  the old store and also has photo directions on how to get there from the subway station.

Shopping at the new Kato Store

My first visit to the Kato Hobby Center in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo was in 1999.  I went again in 2005 and both those times I took the Sebu-Shinjuku line from Shinjuku as I was not yet comfortable with the subway system.  This required a bit of walking up hill from Araiyakushimae Station.  The past couple of trips I used my shopping time to explore some the the hobby shops in other parts of town such as in Akihabara.  On this trip I was aware that the shop had been complety rebuilt since the last time I have visited and was better than ever.  Also I needed to find a replacement for a broken coupler on one of my Japanese Shinkansen trains so this was high on my list.  By now being more comfortable with the subway system, I took the subway this time only needing one transfer.

This map shows my route from the Toei Araiyakushimae station to the Kato Hobby Center.

It's a short walk on level ground from exit A1 of the station to the Kato store.

This is the view approaching the shop from the subway station.

This was an entirely new building since the last time I had been here.  Only the railcar in front is the same.

As I was looking for a replacement for a broken coupler on my N700A power car I was drawn to the parts aisle.  In the old shop, much of these parts were behind the counter but it seems it's all self service now.

And I was not disappointed.  I found the part in this aisle, picked up two packs of each type of coupler for this train so I would have some spares.

As these seem to be positioned in the aisle by part number, it's helped that I had the part numbers for what I wanted written down.

Besides having Kato products, this is a full line hobby shop.   It's quite spacious inside with wide aisles.

As they did with the old shop, there are also operating N scale and HO scale layouts.  I will show something of that in my next post.

Most recent visit to Japan

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  That's because Nona and I have been traveling in Asia.  Our trip took us to Osaka and Hiroshima in Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong in China, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and then Singapore.  We ended the trip with a week in Tokyo.  This was my first time to any countries in Asia besides Japan.  I found each place we visited to be interesting and a little different from any other places I've been too.

This was the view from our hotel room window near the Hazomon Metro station in central Tokyo.  That's the new Tokyo Skytree in the distance.

Because we were so close to a Metro station and the connections were good to everywhere we were going, we actually went for the full week not riding any surface trains in Tokyo.


Whenever we have visited Japan I've always come away with new experiences, new modeling ideas, and new trains that I wanted to buy.  This latest trip is no exception, and I'll be expanding on some of this in future posts.

Modeling a bicycle parking area

Many residents of Tokyo use bicycles for shorter trips in their neighborhoods or to get to the train station. It is common to find a large number of bicycles parked in the areas around any train station.

This photo I found on the web is an example of what I am talking about.  This is right next to the tracks and it looks like there is a station platform in the background.    I wanted to create a similar scene on the Musashi-Koyama modules.




In the August 2013 post Modeling Japanese bicycles I prepared a number of Tomix bicycles and that is mostly what I am going to use to populate this parking area.

TomyTec kit # 095 represents a small, covered bicycle parking area.  While I did not assemble this kit as intended, I did use some of the parts from it to make this scene.  I wanted a more open scene so I did not use the awnings but they will get used in other scenes.

The base is made from Evergreen tiled styrene sheet airbrushed brick color then a wash of cement which settled into the cracks.

I made by bike racks by removing every other vertical post from some roof top railings from a Tomix building kit.

Here is the finished bicycle parking area just a short distance from the station entrance.  This is also the place to catch a taxi.