Meiji Railway History

Okay, so I'm scoping out an idea for a story (yare, yare... I don't want to hear about how many stories I have in progress... working big time on one called "Bring Me the Head of Saigou Takamori" --- it's all MissB's fault) and realize I don't know how long it took to get from Tokyo to Kyoto by train in 1878. After using I don't know how many keywords in googling, I finally hit upon the site I've posted in the links section. (http://www.jrtr.net/history/index_history.html ) It looks like it has some other interesting things, too.

Uh, I'd really like to know what kind of train Okina bought tickets for to get Kenshin et al back home to Tokyo. Track between Kyoto and nearby Otsu had only just started being laid in 1878. They should've taken the steamship after all. After a false start in 1883 (someone made the bright decision of following the Nakasendo route through the mountains... duh, it costs more and very difficult), they began the Tokaido line in 1886 or thereabouts, not connecting the two cities by rail (Shimbashi to Kobe) until 1899. Just thought I'd share that in case rail travel plays into anyone's ideas.

The reason this came up was a complaint over on the Saitou x Sano Appreciation Society LJ about how difficult it was to research the Meiji Era and the lack of sharing of links for cultural information. We know something about that, ne? :-D I went through mild torture just trying to find the Tokyo-Kyoto rail connection. After I posted an entry advertising all the different resources available through the SHQ community, I realized this source of rail history was something I should share here. I don't know if it's better served by creating an information-source folder in Links or creating a database of links, but could we all start posting up links to the sources of this subject-specific information we dig up? Going through the archive of messages is as torturous as web-searching. We really need something to help us and others find links to off-the-wall information about aspects of culture and the times. Have we already done that and I've forgotten/misplaced it?

Also, a comment to secretarytocapt3 about the message board. We should have a forum where members can introduce themselves... Shinsengumi recruitment, intake trials, party in Shimabara, or something. What do you (or anyone else) think?

phil (who has *three* times today promoted *ALL* of the venues of SHQ... I know all the URLs by heart now... and an older RK Saitou list may be showing signs of new life with possible freeing up of rules (i.e. no hentai)... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saitofans ... Saigou's head will just have to wait until tomorrow)



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 6/3/2004 3:37:43 AM Eastern Standard Time,
spiritus_saitou@... writes:
After I posted an entry advertising all the different resources available
through the SHQ community, I realized this source of rail history was something I
should share here. I don't know if it's better served by creating an
information-source folder in Links or creating a database of links, but could we all
start posting up links to the sources of this subject-specific information we
dig up? Going through the archive of messages is as torturous as
web-searching. We really need something to help us and others find links to off-the-wall
information about aspects of culture and the times. Have we already done that
and I've forgotten/misplaced it?

Also, a comment to secretarytocapt3 about the message board. We should have
a forum where members can introduce themselves... Shinsengumi recruitment,
intake trials, party in Shimabara, or something. What do you (or anyone else)
think?

phil (who has *three* times today promoted *ALL* of the venues of SHQ... I
know all the URLs by heart now... and an older RK Saitou list may be showing
signs of new life with possible freeing up of rules (i.e. no hentai)...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saitofans ... Saigou's head will just have to wait until
tomorrow)



Now, now phil! Where would history be if the Meiji government had decided
that Saigo's head would just "have to wait until tomorrow"?! LOL!

I agree with you about needing something either in the links or the database.
I guess which one depends on whether we can add a discription of where it's
taking the person to in the links area. If not, then the database would be
better. I'll start working on getting my resources together. And I don't recall if
we have a folder for info we find in books and want to share in the files
section or not? I definitely need to post some notes from some of the books I
have.

-MissBehavin


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

We had started a Database back at the Miburo Madness List...links
were divided into Japanese and English sites

Yamazaki Susumu (from Bakumatsu zankoku monogatari) or if you prefer
(Shinsengumi Kepporoku) has posted an announcement
http://p076.ezboard.com/fshinsengumiheadquartersfrm2.showMessage?
topicID=55.topic

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, spiritus saitou
wrote:

> Also, a comment to secretarytocapt3 about the message board. We

should have a forum where members can introduce themselves...
Shinsengumi recruitment, intake trials, party in Shimabara, or
something. What do you (or anyone else) think?

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "secretary"
wrote:

> We had started a Database back at the Miburo Madness List...links
> were divided into Japanese and English sites

Ooh! I forgot all about this... Do you think I can start
transferring this links database too to the DB one just to keep
everything in one place? I plan to work all day Saturday on the
database mainly in the fanworks and this (miburo weblist) if I can
use it. Please Sec?

Go ahead Grace and thank you for all your hard work on the database ^_^

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "Grace Battista" wrote:
> --- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "secretary"
> wrote:
> > We had started a Database back at the Miburo Madness List...links
> > were divided into Japanese and English sites
>
> Ooh! I forgot all about this... Do you think I can start
> transferring this links database too to the DB one just to keep
> everything in one place? I plan to work all day Saturday on the
> database mainly in the fanworks and this (miburo weblist) if I can
> use it. Please Sec?