if you have followed our travels before you might recall our photographs of signs that urge young Japanese from jumping on the tracks to pick up the hat that has blow off.

Well yesterday we did have the opportunity to see the extender arm hat remover in actual use. Unfortunately, it was for one of items that had unfortunately had fallen between the rail car and the platform.

It appears that every platform has one of these devices safely stored in a locked cabinet to avoid unauthorised use. To get an authorised person to us the extender arm hat remover. This involved rushing up to the station staff at the ticket gate and finding someone that could understand enough English. Not too much is needed… Track six quick please get my property of the ballast!

Lucky for us the platform was used for the hourly limited express for Nagano to Nagoya/Osaka. 

Anyway…. Cutting a long story short. Don’t worry my iPhone 6 fell 2 metres onto ballast without a scratch thanks to my Freitag bag…..

Why was my iPhone there in the first place….. I guess you should ask Helen!

Here’s a photo of the train we missed…. But if you want to know more you know what to do.