Hi! I started this blog soon after moving to Japan in the fall of 2023 as an attempt to do some archival work and engage in long-form writing and storytelling related to my life here – in particular, things that I expected wouldn’t get too much English-language coverage or recognition elsewhere. I initially found myself writing about manga art exhibitions, a film memorial museum dedicated to my favorite movie director, and live theater I was attending… but it pretty quickly morphed into being something much more focused on travel.
I love public transportation – or, more generally, just exploring the world – and I’m a proud pedestrian and transit rider, though my “I like trains” phase came about as an adult (while studying in Budapest!) rather than when I was a little kid. But my interest isn’t in rolling stock, engines, or things of that sort; I’m more drawn to what public transit represents and enables, on the social, human side of things: providing services and connections within and between communities, joining people both physically and more abstractly in shared public spaces, and the culture, nomenclature, and history that develops as a result. This follows from the fact I’m a sociolinguist by training (my graduate research focused on linguistic landscapes, and yes, I take a lot of pictures of signage and any sort of orthography). But I’m also a computer scientist by trade, and love the technical side of things too, especially here in Japan.
Japan’s public transit is great, and comprehensive, but also extremely complex, with very little English information about the sheer amount of unexpectedly weird things you can do with it… less so on the fancy, world-famous, high-speed network, but rather when riding the slow, scrappy, conventional lines that stretch across the country and go deep into the countryside, run by hundreds of different operators. So I’ve found myself interested in exploring the breadth and depth of Japanese transit from a “systems and operations” perspective, as well, making intentional use and taking advantage of all the intricate rules and regulations in regards to ticketing and fares, playing around with exceptions and edge cases and analog and digital technology which dates back over a century, all while physically exploring the country, too.
I also like art in all its forms, and all sorts of weird architecture and unique infrastructure, so I often try to go out of my way to see those sorts of things on my trips too.
There’s links in the header, but for quick reference: These maps show the major train travel I’ve done. You can also see all the train routes I’ve ridden, or browse my collections of transportation IC cards and eki-stamps.
My Twitter is @frozenpandaman. My main website, portfolio & other projects are all at elifessler.com. Feel free to contact me through either of those places – and, if you’ve enjoyed this blog, I’d deeply appreciate a tip which you can leave via my Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/eeeli
This website is best viewed on desktop. There’s no tracking, ads, or anything of the sort. Pretend it’s 2004 and the internet is still good.
The image at the top is a photo taken by me of the wonderfully strange, bespoke, unique – and now sadly retired – Skyrail, located on the outskirts of Hiroshima.
Thank you so much for reading!
