This is a little side story continuing from my previous post “Taking a Little Break.”. My son and I had gone to Shinsekai and Janjan Yokocho, both in Osaka’s Naniwa Ward, for a change of pace. After eating our fill of the famous kushikatsu skewers and looking up at the flamboyant Tsutenkaku Tower, our usual routine is to take the Hankai tram home, rocking along at an easy pace.
And this time, by chance, we got on this tram. Yes! It was the NHK morning drama “Massan”-decorated “Massan” tram! Huge images of the two lead characters covered the body, and inside it was Massan everywhere. This was Hankai Tramway car Mo 164.
Hankai Tramway Car Mo 164 Was Built in Shōwa 3 (1928)!
But that was not what made me excited. What delighted me was that this car had been built in Shōwa 3 (1928). Even though I live along the tram line, these days I rarely see a car built in 1928. This “Massan” tram is Mo 164 of the Mo 161 series, one of the cars that the Hankai Tramway introduces as Japan’s oldest tramcars still in active service.
What is more, in 2014, before it became the “Massan” tram, Mo 164 was restored to a brown body inspired by its original appearance. Then came the “Massan” wrapping, for a story set in the early Shōwa era. Somehow, it suits the old car perfectly.
A Tram That Has Watched Osaka Change
Born at the beginning of the Shōwa era, it lived through the Great Depression, war, the air raids on Osaka, the fire and demolition of the original Tsutenkaku Tower, postwar reconstruction, the Expo, and the Flower Expo. Thinking of this old tram rattling through Osaka for so many years, watching the city and the times change, makes its aging body impossible not to love.
When I first wrote this article, it was 87 years old. And still in active service! Keep going, Massan tram!!