Saria, could you please tell us about trains? Why are they so cool? Do you have a favorite kind of train?
Trains are super cool!!! Here's a non-exhaustive list things they do:
- they go chugga chugga
- they go choo choo
- they carry people across places, lots of people in fact, very efficient
I started liking trains while playing Spirit Tracks, and my favorite aspect of them in the game is how the overworld music (a banger) is has the same rhythm of the train, and it made me realize how musical they are (particularly steam ones) and develop my fascination for them. And it made all the playthrough of the game be more fun, despite the limitation in overworld exploration caused by the rails. I finished that game with the single tought of "man trains are so cool".
The fascination with the train's musicality was accentuated by knowing I'm not alone in that thinking and that it was inspiration for artists throughout the years, with Villa-Lobos being one I was already very familiar with and later some things like Saga Jazz's compilation of train-inspired jazz swing songs, which all find fun ways to incorporate train sound imitations into their arrangement and are all bangers.
As I grow older I admire trains more on a poetic side and the many interpretations that can come from it, some of the most meaningful to me being:
- How a train trip is a point at which many people's lives momentarily converge into a single line, where they're all following the same course, until the next stop, where some will leave to their own lives, some will stay and some will come in,
"The train which arrives is the same which departs" - How taking a local train represent a long and introspective path in which there will be ups and downs but will still take you there, even if anxiety might have held you back and made you miss the quicker path that was right before your eyes with the express train.
"If I don't know the words I lost, I'll take a ride on the local train
Also I am very glad I got asked this question as recently starting a rewatch of Nana, the two protagonists meeting at a train as they move to Tokyo just got me thinking about that poetic side of the trains again.
Some people might think but I'm not much of a train nerd and might even be considered a poser to even the person who just got a train simulator and fiddled around a bit. My admiration for them comes from watching them go or going with them and everything that doing so in itself entails.
Anyways, my favorite train model is the Series 205, popularly used in Japan since the 80's. It's very aesthetically pleasing to me and it was even featured in one of the cover arts I had for albums I never made because I can't finish personal projects for the life of me... taking the local train I guess.
Art by Kazumi Takashi
