JRM invited to 2011 DC Cherry Blossom Festival Sakuri Matsuri

[cteno4]

Well we just got invited back for this year's cherry blossom festival April 9th, 2011! this year they just offered tent and electrical for free right off the bat! in the past they wanted to find sponsors to pay for the tent rental and electrical hookup, but i guess as we were #1 in the post visitor survey of most memorable things we are a hit to keep!

cheers

jeff

[quinntopia]

That's really great news Jeff!  Great to get the message out!  I'll bet it gets a TON of attention!  Hopefully you stir up more discussion there about how great the Japanese rail system is!  I was just watching a re-run of TopGear on Netflix, and they raced a Nissan GTR against 'public transit' - mostly trains including a 700!  During the show, various comments were made about the efficiency and speed of the Japanese rail system and the rest of my family was just amazed! 

[scott]

Congrats--sounds like you must have been a big hit!

But guess what--once again, we can't make it.    We'll be in Costa Rica in early April.

Still--as much as I'd like to see you guys and check out the layout, it'd be nice to do it at more of a low-key event.

[keitaro]

sounds good. :D wish i could go but .... different countries....

i'd like to take my layour to a show for fun one day.

[Martijn Meerts]

Meh, different countries is a bad excuse ;)

I need to start planning a trip now that the invitation has come in. I noticed I need to make some preparations before they let me into the US, they really give you this guilty until proven innocent vibe =)

[Bernard]

Jeff - This is great news! All the hard work that JRM does to educate the public about the Japanese Rail system is getting noticed! Congratulations to all the members of the JRM!

[Shashinka]

Michael, you need to come down this year. Scott, I can't believe you're ditching us again!

[Shashinka]

Meh, different countries is a bad excuse ;)

I need to start planning a trip now that the invitation has come in. I noticed I need to make some preparations before they let me into the US, they really give you this guilty until proven innocent vibe =)

See PM

[Martijn Meerts]

My trip is about 90% planned by now, so you can all come visit and see the crazy Dutch dude who's flying across the pond to see a Japanese layout at a festival ...

...

...

Well, okay, not just that, I'll be checking out other things as well ;)

[Mudkip Orange]

the crazy Dutch dude who's flying across the pond to see a Japanese layout at a festival ...

You gonna hit Philly and the big apple too?

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm very likely taking a trip to New York for a day and meet up with Bernard, my personal NY tour guide ;)

[Shashinka]

That reminds me, I need to hit Bernard up in April.

Jeff, and plans to bring New Goji to Matsuri?

[scott]

Well, dang--another reason to be sorry I'm missing this one.

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, my plane tickets have been ordered and paid for, so unless the US border dudes think I look too much like a terrorist, I'll be at the festival ;)

[Mudkip Orange]

bUMp

[cteno4]

well we had a great cherry blossom festival today! luckily no rain, but cool, in the 50s, but that did not diminish the crowd nor the new $5 fee to pay all the DC fees that have gone up recently. very good crowds, i would say attendance figures like the last couple of years. they moved up this year to a more open area near an entrance so much easier for folks to stop and not block the street flow.

the dual gojis (we now have 2 x 6' gojis along with the original 5' one) on the end of the tent were great. sort of like the chinese entrance lion/dogs! definitely stands out much better with two of them!

the layout ran pretty much flawlessly! i think its the best running show we ever had. this even with being on the side of the street (good gutter slope) instead of the center (crown pretty level) that required some heavy leveling. luckily we had curt the level headed guy, who has become the official club layout leveler. usually we are in buildings with very level floors and never do any leveling, but this show is different! no crashes at all or nay real derailments. just a couple of trains with loose couplers loosing a few cars.

set up went fast with most of the club out at this meet.

we had a great pizza dinner here at my house afterwards so nice time with some beers and lounging for the club members.

I think Martijn has had a good time experiencing america for the first time. first day we got him up to the Pennsylvania railroad museum, which is very extensive and he got to feel the real size of a GG!! we had lunch on the small 1 hr strausberg rr line. the then zipped up to nyc to spend a day with bernard seeing the big apple. bernard whipped him all over the city on foot so i think martijn things he walked every block of manhattan! after returning from nyc aaron took him on a loop around the dc mall to see al the main monuments and the american history museum. friday they went out to the new air and space museum annex out at dullas airport that his huge and houses all the big planes. he got to see the enterprise shuttle. today he had a full day of the festival with the club layout. tomorrow we will swing by and see curt's layout on the way to the plane. so hopefully he has got a good first glimpse of America!

im too pooped tonight to pull photos, ill try to get some up sunday.

cheers

jeff

[keitaro]

sounds kewl.

Looking forward to vids of the layout going.

[cteno4]

well martijn is off back to the netherlands now.

i didnt take video as my camera battery was low so just got a couple of dozen crowd shots. aaron and martijn were snapping pictures so hopefully they have some video. im sure philip, one of our members who loves taking train photos, will have some this week.

we totally forgot to do a group shot this year! we usually do that at the festival as it has the most attendance of members (and we can photoshop in the missing members easily!).

crowds at the layout were not as dense, usually averaged 2 deep, but folks seemed to stay a while. we were in a much more open area so it was much more easy for folks to get in an out. on the crowded section we were on before i think folk had a hard time even getting up to look as it was just too darn crowded. will be interesting to see what the attendance was.

martijn said he may come back sometime and bring his samurai armor along, he would be a huge hit in that!

cheers

jeff

[keitaro]

haha samurai armour. reminds me of the time my mate built a forge in his parents yard and built a samurai head piece and part of the body armour then gave up after that.

he made bellows and everything.


--- His parents are still asking him to come up and remove it ahahah

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, just got back home, I'm pretty darn exhausted right now, but it's only about 1pm, so I still need to stay awake for a few hours, otherwise the jetlag will really hit me big time ;)

Was definitely great meeting some people from the forum and the club, and seeing some bits and pieces of America :)


As for the armor, mine is hand made in Japan by a company that's making them (mostly) the old fashioned way. Most armors seen in Kurosawa's "Ran" are made by them. Mine is just a foot soldier/cannon fodder armor, but it's adjusted to fit me. It's all metal (not quite as thick metal as an original, although considering it's foot soldier, the thickness might actually be correct) and weight in at about 20-25 kilo's. I also have a fitting katana and wakizashi (both are iaito, or iaido practice swords), also custom made to my specs. It takes a LOT of practice in many different skills to make an armor, definitely not something you can just whip together ;)

[cteno4]

Just realized i never got pictures up from the cherry blossom festival. they are now up!

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/2011SakuraMatsuri/index.html

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

NOOOOOOOOOO! I'm on one of them too =)

[cteno4]

yes we are selling those photos to the tabloids!

sorry martijn when you act like a rock start flitting over the pond to attend train shows, you will be treated like one!

it was great to have you over!

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Yeah, rock star flying economy class and trying to spend the nights as cheap as possible =)

I already feel like going for another visit actually, but for now I have to wait until the whole new house thing has been taken care of.

[cteno4]

Martijn,

you are most welcome to come back! you only got one day of NYC, lots more to see! perhaps next time i can pop up with you for a day or two.

america is huge! lots to see and do, but can take a lot of time getting around!

jeff

[Shashinka]

Wish the weather was better and could have done more railfanning.

[scott]

The pictures are great--someday I *will* see this layout in person.

[Martijn Meerts]

Jeff, you just want me to bring you more of those cookies =)

Of course, if I could stay at your place again, it would make a trip a lot more ... .economical :) But next time at the very least I'll want to treat you and Dorothy to dinner in return.


I would love to see some more of the museums in Washington, and the Smithsonian Zoo would be great to visit as well. A boat trip on the Potomac is also something I'd love to do. Definitely would want to see the Pennsylvania museum again and get some more of that open turkey sandwich    Maybe a trip to MB Klein's could be something to do as well, they're fairly close aren't they? Would definitely be a dangerous trip though, considering I still want to get a bunch of the named trains, most of which they have in stock .....


Going back to New York is on the list as well. Bernard gave me a great tour there, and we saw a ton of stuff. Would be cool to go there with a couple of people, and meet up with some more people who live in/near New York, get a little JNS meeting going :)


What I thought was interesting, was that I sort of felt at home in Washington, I really had this feeling that I could live there no problem. I've been to quite a few places all over Europe, but I always felt more or less a tourist. Even in New York I felt like less of a tourist than I do in most European places I've been to. I guess the New Yorkers found it easy to spot I was a tourist though, considering I did look up quite often, even if I tried not too. Then again, I did notice Bernard doing the same  


America is definitely too big though, there are so many cities I'd love to vista, and so many things to do there as well :)

[cteno4]

You are most welcome back Martijn! Hopefully it will be a time when life is more relaxed, that was a busy week with work and the festival coming up.

DC is pretty relaxed these days, definitely not as uptight as it was a decade ago. in the mid 90s i use to look like a martian walking around here! You will need to visit the west coast and experience the real laid back US culture!

Most places in the us are now pretty diverse or at least use to diversity so folks being different is less and less of an issue. I grew up in Northern California where the main thing was to never assume about people. the guy in the scruffy shirt maybe the CEO and the guy in the suit the street person... also a lot of cultural and racial diversity historically so no one really sticks out.

of course you would a little if you spoke no english, but even that is not deemed all that odd these days in most cities.

i have heard the size comment from europeans visiting so much. it does not sink in until they get here usually. its definitely a place you need to either come and do the multimonth crawl tour or come back to different regions over time. just like visiting europe, but you just cant hop on a train and jump over to the next area so easily here. you can sort of do that on the plane, but its a hassle now days.

would be great to have a get together in NYC as well!

something for the future. first get the new house situated!

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Usually the first year after buying a house, you get quite a good amount of money back from the tax office, so that could be interesting :)

I'm also looking at buying a race bike early next year and do some more cycling, and of course a decent race bike is going to cost quite a bit as well.

[Shashinka]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z7J7oYQtaTI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Z7J7oYQtaTI</a>

[Webskipper]

You guys get invited again and I might just fly out to see you and run some bullets with you.

[Shashinka]

D'Oh just realized I psoted the 2010 video!

[cteno4]

thought it looked a bit brighter than this year!

cheers

jeff

[keitaro]

D'Oh just realized I psoted the 2010 video!

HAHAHA GOLD

how bout that 2011 video I am eager to see the e5 in action on it. Assuming your ran it i do recall you all talking about it being so close to the festival?

[cteno4]

sorry no E5. martjin was going to bring his, but it did not arrive before he took off to fly to dc. none of the club members had one yet.

jeff

[keitaro]

oh well next year maybe 

[cteno4]

You guys get invited again and I might just fly out to see you and run some bullets with you.

we usually know by feb, we have been invited the last three years and i expect we will again. the first year was tough as we could not afford to pay the tent rental most orgs need to get (and we needed 3 of them) and they were trying to get jr to sponsor us. in the end they couldnt pull a sponsorship and decided to just go ahead and the festival popped for the tents. we were a big enough hit that the next year they just said cummondown w/o anything on tent rental. the second year we popped up as the most memorable thing at the festival on the exit survey they did. so i expect we will be down there next april.

happy to have folks come run trains! we usually have a pizza party or bbq afterwards as well with the whole club.

cheers

jeff

[keitaro]

nice 

[Martijn Meerts]

It was quite fun.. A lot of people were asking questions, but they were taken a bit by surprise by the cost of it all. That still seems a bit strange to me, considering you can get a full 16 car shinkansen for the same price as 1 (smallish) Marklin locomotive ...


Just make sure you're not scared by hairy and heavy dudes dressing in tiny female manga outfits. If you don't like that, you might end up getting nightmares =)

[Sir Madog]

I never made it to DC in my life. I spent a fair part of my youth in Washington State, toured around the western states a number of times and went on business in the Big Apple and Philadelphia, but DC - not yet.

Id wish my economic situation would allow for a trip over the Big Pond to meet some of you folks, but that´ll be something which will most likely not happen to me in this life - maybe next.

[Martijn Meerts]

That's what I used to think.. I think before I went to Norway the first time, the furthest I'd been was Germany, which doesn't really count much considering I live in Venlo, which is almost German :)

I was quite surprised that a ticket to DC was only about 650 euro, and being able to spend a few days at Jeff's place, and share a hotel room with Aaron for the rest of the days really helped cut down the cost. I'm definitely thinking about going again next year, maybe a little longer this time, and spend some more time in New York as well.

(Of course, buying a MacBook Air in DC really added to the cost of the trip =))

[cteno4]

DC is mainly about museums and monuments. its a great place to see a concentrated bit of history and other artifacts in a really small area. nice living here as lots of folks end up passing through either in association with some sort of government work/meeting, conferences or the pretty standard take the family once to DC thing.

NYC is more the jaw dropper with the density and glitz. west coast is a totally different beast, then there is the south, mid west, texas (its its own country) and then alaska. its a pretty big place to try to see much in one trip unless you plan to really do the get a car and drive it, but that takes month or two to see much w/o just driving all the time!

cheers

jeff

[linkey]

I am the only member of the AJMRG that has a E5 Hayabusa at the moment, she ran four times during the AMRA Model Railway Exhibition (just recently 20th-21st August). Sadly, I didn't get any video footage but I did get some photos of her. I will try and post photos later. Meanwhile the 2010 DC Cherry Blossom Festival looked great and funny to see the N700 and the 0 series gave a crash right at the end of the video. :( As one of our members says "Sack the driver" lol

[cteno4]

we now have at least 1 E5 which will be out in our fall shows. im going to try and get more diligent about taking photos and videos at shows...

2010 cherry blossom we had a few more wrecks than 2011, we are finally figuring out some of our joint issues with the viaduct track between modules. its tough to get the viaduct track securely fastened down using the regular kato supports. at first we thought perhaps it best to do looser supports, and let the S joiners let things float a bit, but now we may be doing to making some firmer supports and screwing the viaduct down to them. the tough thing is on a module joint as the track joint is right on top of it and the track support then needs to straddle the module joint. will be looking at a way of splitting the custom supports and masking the joint.

cheers

jeff

[scott]

Jeff -- will you post when you when/where the fall shows will be?

[cteno4]

scott,

yep will do. the next timonium will be oct 29-30, although we have not yet totally confirmed if we are doing this show yet, but expect we will.

the lions club show will be in early nov as usual i expect, but have not gotten the details on it yet. there is an issue with that show as the seniors' center its in is having its exercise room doubled in size and construction was not due to be done before the show so there may be short space. we were the last club into this show over the years so we may be the short end if push comes to shove. hopefully will hear from them soon on the matter. its a really fun show with just layouts and lots of families.

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

So, planning way ahead a bit, I'm considering visiting DC again during the 2012 festival. If JRM is invited once again, I think it could be a cool idea to see if we could get more people visiting as well, make it a bit of an unofficial JNS meeting ;)

I might also bring my kyudo gear (minus the bow ;)) and dress up a bit. Although, I guess most people will wonder which character from Bleach I'm supposed to be, considering they pretty much wear what we wear during kyudo practice ...

I could also bring some of the World Kougei stuff which should be done by then for some more special trains, but I guess most people are more interested in the fast stuff anyway.. And the price of the World Kougei kits will scare them off too fast :)


(I did actually check the cost of shipping my armor, but at around 150usd it's a bit over the top for just 1 week, and bringing it as luggage on the plane... Probably not a good idea ;))

[cteno4]

Martijn,

It would be fun to have you back again! wont know till probably feb about the show, thats usually when they contact us.

armor would be very cool. could you pack it in a big suitcase? its about $35/bag i think on the plane...

would be fun to have a jns con sometime! probably going to happen in europe easier than here though... i think a lot of us in the us are spread all over the place.

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

The armor won't fit in most suitcases, especially not the hard shell cases that'd be required. There's very little flexibility in the breastplate parts :) It would really have to be transported in it's original box (the box also serves as the base for the armor stand), but that's not something to lug around to the airport and back. The armor also weighs well over the 20 kilo max limit, so it'd be more expensive.