As I posted several times, many Japanese railway companies have their own mascot characters. The purpose of these characters is to make people feel familiar with the local railways. The railway mascot character is a solution to enhance the value of the railway line as well.
Sagami Railway (hereafter Sotetsu) is keen on spreading their mascot character, named Sounyan. According to Sotetsu's website, Sounyan is a cat and an employee of Sotetsu. He is in charge of public relations. His hobby is taking photos and eating around. Umm... I think that Sounyan is not very original, just an ordinary employee... but wait a moment! There is more to Sounyan's profile. He has a serious problem that has been bothering him. People tend to assume that he is a raccoon dog in spite of being a cat. I was surprised that Sounyan has a mental problem. What a deep profile it is!
So, let me finally get to the main part. On March 21st, Sotetsu launched the 11th generation Sounyan poster train. That's Set 11004 of the EMU 11000 series. This time, we can see not only Sounyan, but also images of several sightseeing spots, on the bodies of the Sounyan train. The sightseeing spots are, for example, Shibuya on the Tokyu line and Shinjuku on the Tokyo Metro line. Why are they on the other companies' lines? It is because Sotetsu trains are directly operated onto the Tokyu and the Tokyo Metro lines. Thoughtfulness to the colleague companies is important, isn't it?
