Gaia Series 19 : ECO Resort Operation

Tobu Railway’s Spacia X limited express train commenced operations on Jul 15. It travels from Tokyo’s Asakusa district to Nikko, which is known for its majestic nature and the World Heritage Site, Nikko Toshogu Shrine. Tobu Railway is run by the Tobu Group, which wants to turn the Nikko area into an “international eco-resort”. The Spacia X’s exterior is made of aluminium alloy. As part of the group’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), it has been made lightweight and as energy efficient as possible. We look back at the months leading up to the launch of the Spacia X.
 
In March, the train travelled from Yamaguchi Prefecture to Tobu's facility in Saitama Prefecture. It was towed by a JR Freight locomotive. It travelled almost 1,000km on a JR track for two days. Tobu Railway’s terminal is Asakusa Station, which opened in 1931. Its headquarters is near the Tokyo Skytree Station in Sumida City. Tobu Railway was founded in 1897 and it was the first the operate a train connecting Asakusa and Nishiarai. Now the railway line spans about 460km and spans over four prefectures.

In mid-May, a training session was held for the staff who will manage the cafe onboard the Spacia X. For example, they are taught how to pour Spacia X’s limited-edition beer on a moving train. The person in charge is Ayano Suzuki from Tobu Railway’s Sales Management Division. She also visited Nikko Brewing, where beers are made using ingredients from Tochigi. As Tochigi is the top producer of strawberries in Japan, a strawberry beer was created for the Spacia X by Yasufumi Tsurumaki. It will be served in the train’s Cockpit Lounge, where passengers can enjoy appetisers and sweets made from ingredients related to Nikko. Another drink related to Nikko is Nikko-Cola. 

Spacia X reduces CO2 emissions by 40 per cent compared to the current Spacia trains. Its electricity comes from solar panels installed along the railway line. This is part of efforts to make Nikko an international eco-resort.   

To promote the new limited express train overseas, Tobu Group participated in the 8th Railway Bento Festival in Taipei in June. At Tobu Railway’s booth, the company’s Taipei Office Director Tomohiko Yamauchi prepared special train station lunch boxes that come in two types of SL boxes, silver and black. He also took the opportunity to sell Spacia X merchandise to not only garner interest in Nikko but also introduce the new limited express train.   

Mr Yamauchi also visited a local travel company to promote the Spacia X. The second-largest number of tourists visiting Japan come from Taiwan. Furthermore, among their Taiwanese customers who travel internationally, approximately 40 per cent to 50 per cent go to Japan. 

The new limited express train went through a few test runs and we managed to go on one of them, during which we met Tobu Railway President Yutaka Tsuzuki. The travel time between Tokyo and Nikko is about two hours. We arrive at Tobu-Nikko Station and explore Nikko, which is being transformed into an international eco-resort. Three years ago, the Ritz-Carlton opened in Nikko and it is located by Lake Chuzenji. It is managed by Tobu Railway. The Tobu Group has also invested in other things in Nikko, such as sightseeing boats on Lake Chuzenji, ropeways and a theme park. In 2016, it even acquired the famous long-standing hotel Nikko Kanaya Hotel. We visited the hotel, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. It is said to be the oldest Western-style resort hotel in Japan. Famous personalities like Albert Einstein and Helen Keller have stayed in this hotel. We checked out the restaurant on the second floor. A popular dish is the “100-year Rice and Curry”, which is made using a 100-year-old recipe.  

In commemoration of its 150th anniversary, Kanaya Hotel developed a special menu. Dishes include rainbow trout, which is Nikko's famous fish. It is raised at the Kiyotaki Trout Farm, using natural running water from the Nikko mountains. Another item features Premium Yashio Masu, a Tochigi brand fish known for its bright, orange-coloured meat. The limited-time summer lunch includes rainbow trout sauteed and deep-fried with bamboo charcoal and Premium Yashio Masu cooked at the right temperature and served “mi-cuit”, or half-cooked.

The management decided to renovate the annex next to the main building of Kanaya Hotel, in time for the debut of Spacia X. It is considered a historical building, where items from the Meiji era can be found. An example is a document from November 1907 which was signed by the founder, Zenichiro Kanaya. As part of the renovations, the copper roofing was reinstalled and the exterior walls were painted. The building is a registered tangible cultural property so no major renovations can be done to the exterior. A special room on the third floor, where Emperor Showa stayed twice, was also redone. As part of the company’s SDGs related to “responsible consumption and production”, a steam radiator using fossil fuel was replaced with an electric one and the lights were changed to LED ones. 

Within Nikko, there is a place called "the hidden realm in the sky". This mountainous region is called Oku-Nikko. At the entrance, there is Lake Chuzenji, 1,269m above sea level. Thirty years ago, Tochigi Prefecture was one of the first in Japan to prohibit regular vehicles from accessing Oku-Nikko, to protect the environment and vast land rich in nature. The only vehicle allowed was Tobu's eco-friendly bus. Now the authorities want to try using autonomous electric buses. This project is led by Satoru Kaneko from Tobu Railway. In June, the members involved in this initiative gathered at the Akanuma Parking Lot to test the autonomous electric bus. The initial test run was not successful. With no GPS signal or cell phone signal, the bus could not drive on its own. So Mr Kaneko visited the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo. He met Professor Yoshihiro Suda, who is an authority on autonomous vehicles. He suggested Tobu Railway use LiDAR-detectable coating and control the speed of the car using the black magnetic sensors. 

The new limited express train Spacia X finally arrived at Tobu Railway's Asakusa Station in early July. One day, Mr Toru Iwade from Tobu Railway planned a meeting comprising travel agencies from Tokyo and businesses from Nikko. The 100-person business meeting was held onboard the new Spacia X limited express train. The two-hour meeting was attended by Nikko City’s mayor, Shoichi Konakawa, and Masanori Okuma, the manager of Nikko Kanaya Hotel.  

Tips: 

1)    Try delicacies and drinks related to Nikko at the Spacia X’s Cockpit Lounge
2)    Nikko is known for its majestic nature and World Heritage Site Nikko Toshogu Shrine