It’s the perfect gift for a bullet train otaku!
You don’t have to be a train otaku to appreciate bullet trains, whose sleek designs, impossibly smooth rides, and amazing speeds can inspire awe in anyone. But if you want to get your hands on the new Smart Phone Stand with Charging Functions that Plays Train Jingles, you might have a hard time, because we can guarantee that train otaku were there first.
The charging stand is newly released in celebration of the 30 years of service of the Nozomi Shinkansen, which is the fastest bullet train in Japan and runs on the Tokaido line between Tokyo and Hakata. The stand is packed with features that Nozomi fans will appreciate, but probably the best thing about it is that, when you place your phone on the stand, it plays Nozomi bullet train jingles.
The stand can play four different jingles that have been used inside the train, which it cycles through in turn each time you place your phone on it. The first two are jingles that date back to the original Nozomi train: the jingle that played when it departed the first station on the line and arrived at the last station, and the jingle that indicated the train was arriving at stations in between.
The other two jingles are the current arrival and departure chimes, which are snippets of “Ambitious Japan”, a song by popular boy band TOKIO that was used as part of a promotion for the Tokaido Bullet Train. Each of the chimes is a gentle and soothing music box-like song, a nostalgic sound if you’ve regularly ridden the bullet train, and calming even if you haven’t.
More appeal for Nozomi fans appears in the design of the stand, which is in the shape of a prism that mimics the triangular shape of the front of a bullet train. Three sides of it are decorated with pictures of five historic Nozomi models, including the popular Series 500. The front of the stand shows the heads of the trains…
…while the sides have depictions of the cars from the sides.
The back features a map of central Japan tracing the path of the Nozomi bullet train, though it only shows up to Shin-Osaka.
Lastly, as a functional bonus, the stand comes with a USB cable, which, when plugged in, allows you to wirelessly charge your phone just by placing it on the stand (so long as your phone has wireless charging capabilities).
These Nozomi charging stands are likely insanely popular with train otaku, and only 1,000 were made, making them extremely difficult to get your hands on. They’re already sold out at the JR Central Passengers (JRCP) Online Shop, where 600 of them went on sale on June 4. You might have luck finding one at an ekiben shop at a station serviced by the Nozomi. Only 400 were slated to be sold in shops starting on June 4, but they’re scattered between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, so there’s a chance there are some left. The stands are officially selling for the reasonable price of 3,800 yen (US$28.32), but it will be probably be resold online for higher prices, so if you are lucky enough to see one at an ekiben shop, you’d better swipe it up!
Source: Japaaan
Top image: JRPC
Insert images: JRCP Online Shop
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