A little segue into trains...

I like trains. I enjoy the romance of arriving at train stations and the thrill of smooth travel through the countryside.

And in Japan, the warning sound for people at railway crossings, if you hear it while in the passing train itself, sounds like the shreik-shreik-shreik sound accompanying Norman stabbing someone in the shower in the movie Psycho, but that's not what this utterly pointless post is about.



HT to LOTD. While getting the embed code for the train, I ran across this other short film from Japan. Clever in its premise but even more pointless than the first.

Enjoy the weekend! I'll be watching the University of Hawaii football season opener today. In Hawaii we have no pro football, basketball, or baseball teams, so the UH's football and basketball games are our proxy. Everyone on the island gets into it, even if they've never set foot on the Manoa campus. I'll send pictures of the rickety stadium, which, to tie this in with the original theme of the post, looks like it was put together with rusted railway track.

...

Maybe Santa just thought he was naughty this year

Open Radio for North Korea is reporting that a train full of gifts intended for Kim Jong-un, the heir apparent to Kim Jong-il, was derailed near the Chinese-North Korean border.

According to the Toronto Sun:

A train packed with birthday gifts for North Korea's leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un derailed this month in a possible act of sabotage, a Seoul-based radio station which broadcasts across the border reported on Monday.

Open Radio for North Korea, a non-profit station which often cites sources in the reclusive, impoverished North, said the train laden with gifts including televisions and watches came off the rails on Dec. 11 near North Korea's border with China.

"The security service has been in an emergency situation because a train departing Sinuiju and headed for Pyongyang derailed on Dec. 11," the radio station quoted a source in the security service in North Phyongan province as saying.

The city of Sinuiju is a North Korean trading gateway.

"The tracks and rail beds are so old it is possible there was decay in the wood or nails that secured the tracks could have been dislodged but the extent of damage to the tracks and the timing of the incident points to a chance that someone intentionally damaged the tracks," the source said.

"It's highly likely that it was someone who is opposed to succession to Kim Jong-un," the source said, according to the radio station.

Now I've gone on record stating that I think the Western media (to include some elements of the South Korean and Japanese media) have made the ascension of Kim Jong-un to replace his father seem like it's much further along and more of a done deal than it actually is. In particular, we frequently read reports of how much he is praised by the North Korean media when in fact they hardly mention him, and when they do, it's as part of a list of "also present" people.

So what would that mean if Kim Jong-un's train (or a train carrying his gifts) really were derailed? Well, leaving aside the possibility that someone is reporting rumors or embellishing a story of an actual derailment to the point that it becomes mostly fictitious, it is possible that forces within or without North Korea are actively working to undermine the succession if not the regime itself.

A group within the Pyongyang regime opposed to yet another handover of power to yet another incompetent heir might be behind this, while a group of anti-Pyongyang saboteurs supported by outside forces (the South Korean government, ROK marines gone rogue, a network of militant NGOs deciding that tomorrow can't wait) might also see this as a great symbol to take down.

Let's not forget that this is the area and mode of transport that was apparently used for a targeted assassination of the Dear Leader a few years ago (note the explosion above, in Ryongchŏn). But let's not also forget that much of North Korea's infrastructure is decaying, and even train ties in the cold North can fall apart, after which people offered money to speculate then concoct a story that it was all supposed to happen that way, and it was full of gifts. That to me is the most likely scenario, but I wouldn't rule out something much, much bigger going on. T'is the season for anything goes.

UPDATE:
In relation to story #2 found here, the video mocking this incident that hackers put up on the official North Korean YouTube site can be found here.

Arnie coming to Korea

Loyal Monster Island readers should know that high-speed rail is coming to California, and Korea's existing system, the KTX, is being held up as a model (along with high-speed rail in other countries). Well, it looks like our governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger, you may have heard of him) is taking a tour of Asia to check out the rail systems in China, South Korea, and Japan:

Schwarzenegger had a photo opportunity Sunday at a train station on a high-speed rail link between Shanghai and Nanjing. He spent Saturday, the first day of his weeklong trade mission of nearly 100 business leaders, hobnobbing in Hangzhou with Jack Ma, founder of Internet trading behemoth Alibaba.com, and other Chinese entrepreneurs.

The governor will also try out high-speed rail in Japan and South Korea - two others among at least seven countries that have officially shown interest in helping develop California's system - assuming the state can find the money.

"There is great potential over there and in Japan and Korea, when it comes to building our high-speed rail and also providing the money for building the high-speed rail," Schwarzenegger told reporters before leaving California.

The fact-finding mission is also aimed at better understanding the technologies on offer.

He'll probably check out the plans for even faster railway lines currently under construction in South Korea and Japan.

South Korean technology should also be familiar to the Gubernator, what with SoKo trains already being put to use in SoCal.

I hope he reads this 2006 post before he rides the KTX. I'd hate for him to not get a seat or end up with motion sickness.

Korea and transportation safety

After a few too many high-profile rail accidents, the Los Angeles area is opting for some cutting-edge safe trains:

Among the key defenses incorporated into the shiny, stainless-steel double-decker cars will be collapsible nose cones in front of engineers and riders on so-called cab cars, the passenger vehicles that lead the trains half the time as they run in reverse, heading inbound toward the Los Angeles Union Station hub. Current cab cars have little in front of the driver's control booth and the passenger compartment except a flat, thin car wall. ...

Other new safety features include piston-like, push-back car frames and couplers that transfer crash energy around passengers to the rear of the train. Redesigned seating, tables that crush on impact, improved escape and rescue access, fire-retardant materials and anti-derailment technology also represent a "material step forward," said Grady Cothen, a top Federal Railroad Administration safety official.

Federal studies have found that such improvements can dramatically reduce deaths and incursions into passenger space in many accidents.

And the relevance? These are the same Korea-manufactured Rotem cars that will be put together in the SoCal community of Colton.

Hmm... I wonder if we're back to a situation where other countries are getting better Korea-made goods than Korea does.

Thoughts on the KTX

As a postmortem to my recent trip to Pusan, here are some thoughts. 

1. Don't wait until the last minute on the last day of a weekend or holiday to buy a KTX ticket (or any other railway service) for a train headed back to Seoul.

2. If you do wait until the last minute, be prepared for the inevitability that they will tell you Maejin! (sold out). Anticipating this, go to a ticket counter staffed by a person of a different gender than yourself and ask with puppy dog eyes* if there isn't some way you can get back home. Look as desperate as possible (emphasis: desperate, not desperado, which will backfire). This can get the person not your gender to head to the backroom to get that one ticket that was cancelled and that they've been holding just for the right case**.

3. Avoid getting a seat facing backward (half the seat on the KTX face backward so that they won't have to turn the half-kilometer-long trains around, which would have required knocking down a lot of buildings in both downtown Seoul and downtown Pusan). In a few people susceptible to motion sickness, the backward-facing seats can trigger queasiness.

4. Right now the two-hour-and-fifty-minute ride from Seoul to Pusan or back is perfect for watching an entire movie on DVD, giving you enough time to settle in to your seat and also allow time for potty breaks. Once the Taegu-to-Pusan leg of the KTX is finally completed, allowing the breakneck 300-kph from Seoul to Taegu to continue all the way to the Korea Strait, travel time will be reduced enough that your movie options will be limited to Disney flicks and sequels to action films.

5. Each car on the train has a monitor in the middle which will tell you the train's speed when it's over at 250 kph. When it hits 300 kph, you will be tempted to look out the window and remark how it doesn't really look like you're going that fast, after which you will try to fixate on certain points and use some form of one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi to verify or refute the speed appearing on the monitor. This is a good way to get very dizzy. Instead, bring a portable GPS device and press it against the window to verify your velocity.

*If you've never utilized puppy dog eyes to get something you want, practice in the mirror first. If rather than looking endearingly desperate, you look you are heavily medicated and about to vomit, scrap the puppy dog look in favor of yelling loudly in a foreign language. A properly staged "scene" involving shouting in English has been known to be effective, even if it engenders residual resentment toward whatever nationality your are (American citizens: this is when you wear a Maple Leaf somewhere on your person), but that's the problem of whomever comes after you.

Also, try to avoid using words like "fuck" and "shit," since people with poor English skills might mistake these well-known obscenities as profanity directed at them. Example: you might say, "How could I be so fucking stupid?!" but it may be interpreted as, "Hakeidblo chrintikiho FUCK YOU!" Similarly, "Sometimes my brain is as worthless as shit" can be heard as, "Your country is so full of shit." This will not help you get a ticket.

**True story. Happens a lot.