Zichar wrote:
The story of the little engine that could... The Choshi Dentetsu
Quite fascinating, it's a private train line that's still operational when most of the big boys with federal funding have taken over. Serves about 6 small stations in a straight line all the way down to the lighthouse.
A few years back they were facing bankruptcy due to low ridership. And in desperation decided to raise funds by selling Japanese rice cracker biscuits. The local area is famous for soy sauce production, and they make a biscuit variant not found elsewhere - the biscuits are dipped into soy sauce and packed into the wrappers while still hot, instead of waiting for the biscuits to cool and the sauce to harden as a glaze. Nure-senbei or wet/moist cracker, just, well, tastes like a limp soggy biscuit... I'm not a fan
But they sold really quickly - I suspect nostalgia played a huge part - more than production could keep up. They were saved! The press and then the media picked up the story; now mostly, ahem, older tourists come by to take a ride on a train that's reminiscent of a bygone era. And it is a quaint ride, passing by tiny cottages and another local specialty - fields and fields of cabbages.
Oh my. Thank you for this story. My late uncle worked for Yamasa soy sauce company and lived in Choshi. I never took the train, as far as I can remember though. I am so glad to hear those small private lines are surviving. I am certain, famous one, like Enoden is still fine. Private train network in Tokyo is really integral part of the city scape in Japan. One little notstalgia.
