The Olympic feeling – on a train

The Winter Olympics feature some of the fastest sports on two legs – ski cross, speed skating and the ski jump all are major adrenaline rushes. Don’t feel left if out if you couldn’t make it to Vancouver, though. If creative enough, anyone can experience the excitement of the games by simply getting from A to B on Tokyo’s transit.

Ski Cross

As of the Vancouver Games, ski cross has become an official Olympic event, pitting four to six competitors in a race through a course containing obstacle-like jumps and banks. The first to reach the finish line is the winner. Based on speed, skill and old-fashioned courage, it’s an event that even the most untrained eye will find easy to understand.

You too can experience the thrills of a race in which competitors tackle obstacle after obstacle in an effort to gain the lead – after a fashion – between Tamachi Station and Tabata Station on the Keihin-Tohoku Line and the Yamanote Line.

This area is a quadruple track line, with more than two lines going in the same direction. On a regular quadruple track, one side is used for a rapid-service train, and the other for a local train which stops at all stations. Even if the trains are travelling in the same direction, they make different stops and generally there is no real contest between them – excepting this section.

If trains on both lines depart from Tamachi Station simultaneously, it’s a rather sure thing that a close run contest will unfold, with the trains overtaking and being overtaken in turn. In the real ski cross, the excitement lies in competitors vying for the best positions on the course; though exciting in its own way, the trains follow the same principle, but on a smaller scale. The deciding factor is how long the passengers take to get on and off the trains, adding suspense. Adding to the tension is the fact that both lines stop on the same platforms, so you are always aware of the movement of the train on the opposite side to your own.

The tension builds as the two trains depart and move to within a few metres of each other and the expressions on the faces of the other passengers (or rivals, if you really get into it) come into view. The distance is so close that if you actually make eye contact with someone in the other train it can feel strangely – but comically – awkward. The contest stretches over 10 km, around ten times the length of the ski cross course, and continues for around 20 minutes.

The Yokohama Line travels on the left hand side, so if you grab a spot near a door on the right-hand side of the Keihin-Tohoku Line train you can get an even more real sense of the manoeuvrings. But be warned: between 10:30am and 3pm the Keihin-Tohoku Line runs a rapid service, and the race is put on hold.

Speed Skating

The drama of ice skating hinges on the synthesis of sharp metal with smooth ice, creating a show of speed and power – speed skating in particular reaches speeds of up to 60 km per hour. This may very well be the fastest event to achieve such speeds purely by human strength, and without special equipment or the forces of gravity.

The top speeds on the different commuter routes in central Tokyo vary, so Time Out looked for a line where you can experience the same speed as the speed skaters.

The first one we found is the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line. Opened in 1927, it’s Tokyo’s oldest subway line and it travels the 14.3 km between Asakusa Station and Shibuya Station in around 30 minutes. Its highest speed is 65 km per hour, making the Ginza line the slowest of Tokyo’s 13 subway lines. As it gets close to Shibuya the train runs above ground, but as most of the line is underground it is difficult to get a real sense of whether 65 km per hour is actually fast or not - a drawback when looking for a speed skating experience.

To shed some light on the speed the New Transit Yurikamome (more formally known as the Tokyo Waterfront New Transit Waterfront Line) fits the bill, being not only above ground, but also scenically interesting too. Because the Yurikamome runs with rubber tyres on a concrete track, it’s not strictly your ‘iron wheels and iron rails’ type of railway line. It is, nevertheless, classified as a railroad. Its top speed clocks in at 60 kilometres an hour, and it covers the 14.7 km distance between Shinbashi Station and Toyosu Station in around 30 minutes. Crossing the Rainbow Bridge between Shibaura-futo Station and Odaiba Kaihinkoen Station it follows a 360 degree turn, exactly like a loop in figure skating. The Yurikamome also affords a view of the city from a height of 50 metres above sea level on the Rainbow Bridge, arguably one of the best views the Tokyo public transport system has to offer.

Ski Jump

Speed aside; thrills can come from the simple act of the sport. The angle of the jump in ski jumping is around 30 degrees. If you just look at the figure, it doesn’t seem so steep, but if you actually stand at the top, the drop is so sharp it feels as if you are at the edge of a precipice. Any beginning skier or snowboarder will understand the feeling.

Riding the cable car that travels up Mt. Takao affords the chance of feeling like a ski jumper (albeit a slow one) in your everyday clothes. It takes 6 minutes to cover the line’s length of 1020 metres, arriving at an elevation of 271 metres. For the ski jump experience you will need to take the trip down the mountain, rather than up. When you board the cable car stopped at the Takaosan Station platform, the tunnel ahead beckons. The tracks seem to rise up a little before you, just as if you are about to reach the top of a peak on a rollercoaster. When you pass through the tunnel the sense of an ascent disappears to be replaced by a sudden drop. This is the Mt. Takao cable car’s steepest point, with an incline of 31 degrees, also making it Japan’s steepest cable car line. The Mt. Takao cable car travels down carefully, hardly a rush inducing experience, but still suspense-inducing because of the orientation the incline produces.

Once you get through the minute it takes to go down the steepest area a much more relaxing, calm scene takes over. As the angle of the slope changes on the trip down, the seats - which seemed comfortable at the start – begin to feel as if they are reclining with the changes. Even when you reach Kiyotaki Station at the bottom you feel like you are leaning back a little.

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