Saturday, August 22, 2009

チンチン電車の日(chinchin densha no hi): Day of Street Car

They say today is day of street car in Japan. In 1903 the first street car ran in Tokyo (東京) between Shimbashi (新橋) and Shinagawa (品川) on business.
The first street car in Japan appeared on May 4, 1890 at the venue of the exhibition at the Ueno (上野) Park. And the first street car on the general road ran on Feb. 1, 1895 in Kyoto (京都).
Street car is called chin chin densha(チンチン電車) in Japanese. Chin chinis imitative word of the bell to tell to stop or move.
Street cars exist in 400 cities in 50 countries in the world. In Japan there are 20 places that have street cars.

When I lived in Seville, Spain in 1992, there was no street car, but when I visited there again last summer, there were street cars. I was so surprised at seeing them.

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