Kitatopia is a seventeen-story building standing in front of JR East Ouji Station. It was constructed on the site of old Ouji Freight Station in 1990 as composite cultural facilities. Kitatopia has three concert halls, meeting rooms, a fitness gym and restaurants, but that is not the only thing it has.
Kitatopia also has a free observation deck on the top floor. Once you visit there, you can access the beautiful scenery of northern Tokyo including the forests of Asukayama Park and Ouji-inari Shrine. More importantly, this spot offers you a great view of JR East's railway tracks just below your eyes.
Let's look at the tracks in detail from the northern side of the deck.
There are elevated double-tracks to the right. They are the Shinkansen tracks. You can see super-express trains such as the blue colored EMU E7 series there. The third and the forth tracks to the right are for the Keihin-Tohoku Line trains. 10-car trains with light blue stripes, namely the EMU E233-1000 series, continuously pass there. The fifth and the sixth tracks to the right are for the Shonan-Shinjuku Line trains and freight trains. For instance, you can see the container cars pulled by an electric locomotive traveling on these tracks. Finally, there are double-tracks of the Ueno-Tokyo Line to the left. The long commuter trains, such as the EMU E231 and the E233-3000 series, are the leading trains on these tracks.
Kitatopia... it is a utopia for rail-fans.
Kitatopia also has a free observation deck on the top floor. Once you visit there, you can access the beautiful scenery of northern Tokyo including the forests of Asukayama Park and Ouji-inari Shrine. More importantly, this spot offers you a great view of JR East's railway tracks just below your eyes.
Let's look at the tracks in detail from the northern side of the deck.
There are elevated double-tracks to the right. They are the Shinkansen tracks. You can see super-express trains such as the blue colored EMU E7 series there. The third and the forth tracks to the right are for the Keihin-Tohoku Line trains. 10-car trains with light blue stripes, namely the EMU E233-1000 series, continuously pass there. The fifth and the sixth tracks to the right are for the Shonan-Shinjuku Line trains and freight trains. For instance, you can see the container cars pulled by an electric locomotive traveling on these tracks. Finally, there are double-tracks of the Ueno-Tokyo Line to the left. The long commuter trains, such as the EMU E231 and the E233-3000 series, are the leading trains on these tracks.
Kitatopia... it is a utopia for rail-fans.
