It is mid-winter in Japan. In this season, the backbone mountains block the cold and wet wind blowing from the northwest, which causes heavy snow to fall on the Japan Sea side. In contrast, it's clear every day in Tokyo on the Pacific Ocean, because the only dry air jumped over the backbone mountains. The maximum daytime temperature is lower than 10 degrees Celsius in Tokyo; however, I found that the roses were blooming beautifully here and there outside the downtown area. One of the examples is on the Arakawa line, which is operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (Toei).
Let me review the Arakawa line. It's a precious survivor of the tram route in Tokyo. It was once operated as two routes, namely Routes 27 and 32; however, they were merged into one route, the Arakawa Line, in 1974. Connecting Waseda and Minowabashi, its route length is 12.2 kilometers. The track is 1,372 millimeter-size gauge and double. Its electric system is 600 V DC with catenaries.
After looking at the magenta-colored rose blossoms, I decided to shoot both the roses and the magenta-colored tram in the same image. If my memory serves me correctly, there are 7 units of magenta-colored trams on the line, namely unit 8801 to 8805, 8905 and 8906. Five minutes later, the tram, which I was looking for, was approaching me. That's unit 8804 of the electric car 8800 series. Its body color was completely same as those of the roses beside the track (top photo). Hooray!
