Yamanote Eki-Melo
May 12, 2016 5:59 AM   Subscribe

The Yamanote Line is the most famous and well-travelled train line in Tokyo. Each station on the Yamanote plays a song (eki-melo, "train melody", 発車メロディ or "hassha melody") when trains are about to depart, differing by platform, direction and station. Click any post to listen to that station's eki-melo! (Links to sound clips can be tricky to discern - begin with the station list, find a station you like and then click on the title of song which follows the platform & station names.)

For more check out these very thorough collections of other Japanese rail-related field recordings:
the sounds of the JR (tons of lines and platforms accounted for)
sounds of private railway
and other sounds (includes door warning chimes and automatic ticket processing machine error sounds)
posted by timshel (11 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
I SEE A NEW RINGTONE IN MY IPHONE'S FUTURE.
posted by SPUTNIK at 6:14 AM on May 12, 2016


My personal favourite, Takadanobaba, plays the Astro Boy (Mighty Atom) theme song to commemorate his "birthplace"
posted by krunk at 6:21 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Around the country, various stations have different door closing songs. Maihama, the station to get to Disneyland, plays something, uh, Disneyish, while on the same line, at Kaihin Makuhari, they play the fan song for the Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team, who play at the nearby stadium. It's always fun to run into a door closing song you haven't heard before.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:42 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


It would be interesting if these eki-melo could have shared characteristics to encode additional data. Like, Major Key going north Minor key going south or something like that,
Maybe each station on a route is in an increasing or decreasing key in each direction so you can sort of get a sense of where you are on your journey.
Then, even if you're not listening specifically to them you can get a sense of location and direction from the tune. For regular commuters it would act as a kind of sixth sense, a semi-concious data input.

(and seeing as I'm a train consultant, if this happens anywhere near London I'm taking all the credit for the idea)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 6:44 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


I loved this when I was in Tokyo. Such a great idea!
posted by asok at 7:30 AM on May 12, 2016


Little known fact: Shonen Knife used a Japanese station melody (Osaka subway?) as the basis for the guitar riff that they use at the start of their cover of the Carpenter's Top of the World.
posted by carter at 7:43 AM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


> Osaka subway?

I should hope so. I know about 10 phrases of Japanese, and half of them are the lyrics to Osaka ga Ichiban.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:35 AM on May 12, 2016


It would be interesting if these eki-melo could have shared characteristics to encode additional data.

They could have minor for going to work, and major for going home.
posted by carter at 10:27 AM on May 12, 2016 [3 favorites]


Speaking of Osaka, the Hankyu (?) line at Umeda station plays The Third Man theme, one of the catchiest earworms you're likely to encounter.
posted by zardoz at 4:32 PM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


From this article:

I do wonder about the philosophical and cultural differences whereby in Japan:
"melodies created to transmit a sentiment that reflected the surrounding area "
whereas my first thought for London was using them to encode transit data.

I think that there is a sort of assumption in engineering that how we do things is the right way, or the only way and these sort of different cognitive mindsets between different cultures (or hell, even between different specialities) is significant and greatly overlooked. I wonder if anyone will give me a huge grant to travel around and study these differences. I will write a very pretty report which will be super informative, but only if you're from the right cultural mindset to appreciate it.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:47 AM on May 13, 2016 [3 favorites]


from the same article, ...the melody known as The Third Man Theme, the jingle used in Ebisu beer TV commercials, is used to announce the arrival of trains at Ebisu station platforms, and there is a sound link, but I don't think I can link straight to it.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:49 AM on May 13, 2016


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