The JR Yamanote Line, a loop line which connects many places around the centre of Tokyo, is 34.5 km in length.
So, a question: how many level crossings are there in these 34.5 kilometers?
The answer: one. Just one.
The level crossing in question is known as the Nakazato Number 2 Crossing (第二中里踏切), and it’s just a short walk (about 10 minutes) from Komagome Station. The following is a video of trains passing the level crossing.
If you want to pay a visit, then get off the train at Komagome Station. As you go out of the ticket barriers on the station, turn right, and right again, so you double back past the station platforms, heading in the direction of Tabata Station. The road drops steeply, and passes through a small alley of shops, before opening out adjacent to the end of the platforms of Komagome Station. Follow the road as it rises slowly to meet the level of the railway, and you’ll find the level crossing. If you’re in the Komagome area with half an hour or so to spare, it’s worth taking a walk to the level crossing, even if for no other reason than because it’s interesting to see the Yamanote Line from an unusual perspective. The frequency of trains is quite amazing; luckily, the crossing seems to be only lightly used by road traffic, which is perhaps why it’s survived.
The following should go without saying, but if you do visit, be sure not to trespass onto the railway or to do anything which might interfere with the safe passage of trains, and always pay attention to your own safety.
Surely in line for the Gold in any ‘Confectionery looking like raw meat’ competition is this, ‘this’ being Tomato Chocolate.
A sister product to the fabled Spinach Chocolate, this comes in the same format- two sizeable sticks- and has the same crunchiness. The aftertaste has a hint of tomato, but I’m not entirely confident that in a blind taste test, I’d guess that this was in fact tomato chocolate. If anything, I’d say it tastes more like watered-down vegetable juice.
The idea of tomato chocolate may well be more appealing than spinach… but I have to say that, in terms of taste, I’d choose the spinach every time.
Want a quick chocolate fix (not a drink, though), but feel you should really eat something healthier as a snack? Well, how about a product that combines healthy vegetables with the guilty pleasure of chocolate? How about… spinach chocolate?
For around just 130 yen, you get two fairly hefty sticks of chocolate- but no ordinary chocolate. It’s apparently white chocolate, but it smells of spinach, has the colour of spinach, and has a very distinct taste of spinach. The only place where it might be said to fall down a little is the texture: think spinach, and you would almost certainly not think ‘crunchy’. Yet crunchy is just what this chocolate is: it’s almost like eating a mouthful of very fine (and, needless to say, quite soft) gravel. Spinach-flavoured gravel, that is.
Don’t let the gravel image put you off, though! All in all, this spinach chocolate is not bad- and I do feel more virtuous than I would had I eaten normal chocolate. 130 yen well spent, I’d say!