Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More
When will the Japanese insanity ever end? Well, I guess when you live in a country where trains are the main means for communication, something like this would come in great handy. The Yamanote alarm clock gives a visual indication of the train’s schedule using the hand model of a clock.
The labels correspond to the lines on the Yamanote train line, while the hands correspond to where the train is at a given time. Even more cool? The alarm noises are actual melodies played throughout the Yamanote train line. Ahh, Japanese innovation. — Andrew Dobrow
“the hands correspond to where the train is at a given time”
Absolute bollocks. The only thing that clock in the picture is telling you is that it’s a tad before 10:10. Nothing to do with what any train is doing on the Yamanote line anywhere.
“The alarm noises are actual melodies played throughout the Yamanote train line”
Seven melodies in all.
Right, ahokaomae. There are several trains running on the Yamanote-sen at any one time, there is no single train to be tracked by the minute hand.
This is just a toy for people who like to listen to the train station tunes. I happen to like the tunes, so about a year or two ago when this came out, some friends and I were thinking having our buddies in Tokyo buy some and send them to us. Then we found that the time is set electronically by radio and there’s no way to use it in the US.