The man who drove the first Shinkansen out of Shin-Osaka on 1 October 1964 is ninety-three, and he was at Tokyo Big Sight on 22 August 2026 to talk about it. This is what he said, and what else I saw at the 25th International Model Railway Convention.
This Year’s Theme: The Shinkansen and the Eve of Its Opening
This was my second time at this convention. In 2024 a typhoon stopped me from going at all. In 2025 I finally made it, and this year makes two. Last year’s theme was freight trains
The convention ran for three days, 21 to 23 August, and I went on the Saturday. The venue was Tokyo Big Sight again, the same as last year. Looking down from above, the layouts fill the floor almost edge to edge, with people flowing between them. I was there from half past eleven until a little after five, five and a half hours in all
A 93-Year-Old on the Day the Shinkansen Began
The speaker was Wataro Oishi. On 1 October 1964, the day the Tokaido Shinkansen opened, he drove the first up train out of Shin-Osaka Station.
I was told he is ninety-three, and I did not believe it. Nothing in his voice or his delivery suggested it. The stories came out as though they had happened the day before.
According to his talk, on that opening day the drivers had been instructed to keep the speed down to 160 km/h, out of consideration for how the operation would be seen internationally. Oishi, though, wanted to reach 200 km/h. So he ran slowly at first, deliberately, and then made up the lost time — and in doing so finally touched 200 km/h, or about 124 mph.
The opening was nine days before the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. The eyes of the world were on Japan. It is not hard to see why caution was called for.
He did it anyway. Watching him tell that story with the face of a child whose prank has come off was, honestly, the best thing I saw all day.
There was one more thing I have not been able to forget. The Shinkansen project itself had been opposed from many directions. It could not be done; nothing could run that fast. That was the air in which the driving training was carried out.
Sharpening a skill in the face of opposition, reaching the opening day, and then hitting a speed nobody had reached before — I heard the whole of it from the man himself.
There is something good about the view you get from taking on a challenge. Without those 200 km/h on that day, the Shinkansen we know might have taken a different shape.
What I Noticed in My Second Year: How the Booths Present Themselves
When I stood in this hall last year, I was simply overwhelmed. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of railway enthusiast.
In my second year, my eye went somewhere else: to how each booth presents itself.
Some had put out chairs so that visitors could sit down. That is a deliberate choice — it invites people to stop and look properly rather than drift past. Others had set their layouts low, at the eye level of a child.
Every booth is built as a place to show what its people love. It is not simply a matter of laying things out. Who you want to look, and how you want them to look, shows up in the height and the arrangement. Noticing that was what I took away this year.
I do not think I would have seen it without looking at the same hall twice.
Tikoppi and Presley Tried to Jump on the Models Again
Our two mascots came along, as always.
The photograph behind them is a display panel of Doctor Yellow, the yellow inspection train, which was on show at the venue (photograph by Kunihiko Tsuji).
And they were exactly as they always are. The moment they spot a model in motion they try to jump aboard, and stopping them is hard work. A hall with that many running layouts must have been nothing but temptation for those two.
My one regret is that I never got a photograph of that. I had my hands full holding on to them.
In Closing: What Changes Between the First Year and the Second
Last year I came home overwhelmed, thinking only that it was an extraordinary world. This year I could see further in — as far as how the people inside that world choose to show it.
And hearing Mr Oishi speak was something that could only have happened in a year whose theme was the Shinkansen. More than sixty years have passed since the line opened, and the number of people who can still describe that day from memory is small. Being able to hear that voice directly is what made the trip worth it.
I intend to go again next year. In the third year, perhaps something else will come into view.
Last year’s convention, with freight trains as its theme, is written up here → the 2025 convention
If you are interested in riding the Shinkansen yourself, the seat to ask for is here → the E seat on the Tokaido Shinkansen