u/Magical_Astronomy

In Japan, the passenger railways (the JRs) own the lines and the freight (JRF) "borrow" the lines. In China, the state mandates that passenger services have higher priority than freight services. Therefore, it is still possible to see passenger trains giving way to freight trains in Japan and China, although very rarely - and definitely rare enough for Amtrak and VIA Rail to envy their counterparts across the Pacific.

guys i felt it today and i kid you not i almost cried

After WW2 the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways, DB) and Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railways, DR) were formed respectively over West and East Germany.

Although both sides had to deal with the devastations of WW2, DR was in a much worse position since Russians took locomotives, train cars and factory equipment as war reparations. DR was also plagued by the problematic East Germany economy throughout the cold war. By 1990, DR was significantly inferior to DB in terms of equipment maintenance and infrastructure modernizations, like electrification of lines.

DB was not without their own problems. They were facing more and more competition from road transportations (household cars and truck freight), are forced to run local lines that are not profitable, and suffered from inefficient bureaucratism. They also accumulated huge deficits thought the 80s, and are barely kept afloat with government funding.

Then the year 1990 came, the Berlin Wall fall and Germany reunified. DB and DR remained separate entities until 1994, when they merged into the newly founded Deutsche Bahn, the DB we know of today. For average German the future looks bright; for DB, very much not, as on top of the previous problems and debts, they now also have to deal with even more problems inherited from DR.

Privatized former national railways, UK 🤢🤮🤮

Privatized former national railways, Japan 🌸❤😍

Context: JR West (blue logo), JR East (dark green logo) and JR Central (orange logo) have a much higher revenue than JR Kyushu (red logo), JR Hokkaido (lime logo) and JR Shikoku (light blue logo). JR Hokkaido and JR Shikoku are especially notorious for their high deficits, since they are serving regions with population density as low as Iowa and it's simply not profitable at all.

I'll never stop finding this dynamic fascinating/hilarious.

Thanks to Blas0330, u/smart_chapter_7512, u/paulionm, u/taongkalye, u/bananasareviolet and u/LFelipe_01 for their help with feedback.

Context:

Japanese language use Katakana to spell terms with foreign origins. This sometimes applies to things with quite some history in Japan, one of them being the Castella Cake (カステラ). The recipe for this cake has been in Japan since 16th century, and the cake was even considered a type of Japanese confectionary rather than a Foreign confectionary. Nonetheless, the name of this cake is still spelled in Katakana.

Chinese language would use various term to call foreign things "foreign". Depending on historical period, the term used was changed though, from "huns" （胡） to "western" （西）then to "ocean" （洋）. This is related with where the major cultural exchange was coming from for every historical period. One notable example would be tomato as 西红柿, with 西 (western) implying foreign origin, 红 (red) indicating appearance, and 柿 (persimmon) refers to a somewhat similar local fruit to show its general characteristics.

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Lyrics are from Sabaton's Shiroyama and Battotai (抜刀隊).

Quote from wikipedia:

>The Satsuma Rebellion...was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government of the Empire of Japan, nine years into the Meiji era. Its name comes from the Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in the Restoration and became home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their status obsolete. The rebellion lasted from 29 January until 24 September 1877, when it was decisively crushed, and its leader, Saigō Takamori, was shot and mortally wounded.

Sabaton's song Shiroyama and the Hollywood movie The Last Samurai both featured this war. However, the real situation wasn't that of samurai launching suicidal charges against the firearms of the modernized Imperial Japanese Army, as depicted in these two pieces.

The rebellious domain first purchased Snider rifles, then established production plants even earlier than the Meiji government did. After war broke out the tide swayed towards the rebellious side even more: the rebellious samurai knew their land well and are very motivated to defend their home and way of life. Meanwhile, the IJA is made up of conscripted peasants, had insufficient training, and their spirit to fight wasn't strong either. During the battle of Tabaruzaka this became more evident, as IJA suffered heavy casualties in close quarter combats.

Eventually a solution came: some samurai loyal to the government were working in the rear-support police units, and they proposed to form a special unit to use their fighting skills against the rebels. Army General Yamagata Aritomo approved this proposal and named this special unit Battotai (The Sword Forces). This unit achieved much success against the rebels in battle of Tabaruzaka, which eventually led to the victory of government forces.

Context见图2

I couldn’t find the registry number or the NSC through some basic google search. Anyone knows what are they for and/or why are they here?

Wish they are the latest addition to Translink’s fleet.

Fairly deep holes carved in a tree. No animal marks or tracks nearby.

This region has woodpeckers, beavers and bears in this season, but I don’t think any of them might have caused this. These holes look too large and too deep for woodpeckers, and it’s on a mountain trail far from any waterbody so beavers are unlikely (plus they can’t climb). Bears might be capable of doing so but why? I’ve never heard any stories of bear making holes in a tree.