More Heraldry Discovered While Sitting on My Sofa

So there was I was, minding my own business, just watching one of the shows on NHK (the English-language Japanese network) as I am wont to do. My late wife Jo got me hooked, and I have continued to watch various shows of interest offered by the network.

I do this partly because, as she and I both agreed several years ago, we could never truly be able to afford to visit Japan ourselves. Oh, we could afford the airfare and hotels and food and all that! What we couldn't afford was to ship all the masses really cool stuff (ceramics, metalware, household goods and appliances, electronics, clothing, fabrics (e.g., silks), etc., etc., etc.) we would certainly end up buying there. And the cost of that would be prohibitive. So if we ever actually went to Japan, we'd basically have to end up living there.

So, anyway, as I said, we had a number of shows that we'd watch which would show us some of the really cool stuff we could buy if we were to actually visit Japan, and we would periodically turn to each other and say, "Nope. We can't go there," or "Nope, we can't visit that city (or that street, or that shop)."

But I continue to tease myself by watching these shows, which not only show me stuff I would buy in an instant if I were there, but which also teach me about the people and culture there, which is a nice bonus.

Anyway, I was sitting there, as I said, minding my own business and watching "Train Cruise" (about various train trips available should you ever visit the country) when I noticed painted on the side of a train car a coat of arms. So I grabbed a quick picture of it.

It's not easy to make out -- I'd recommend clicking on the picture above to go to the full-size image for a better view -- but it's basically a red shield with a white mountain couped slightly bendwise sinister and what may be a white rail line also running slightly bendwise sinister below the mountain.

The company which runs this particular train is Oigawa Railways, which has, of course, their own website (https://daitetsu.jp/eng?doing_wp_cron=1756923405.6365149021148681640625) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/oigawa.railway).

On their Facebook page, in a post dated August 13, 2025, they include the sentence: "There are several types of coats of arms, so please try to find the differences and complete them." So apparently the shield on the side of the railway car above is not the only version they use.

As a side note, they also have some specialized tourist trains that look like this:

Yes, that's Thomas the Tank Engine on the right, with two of his friends, Hiro and James. Yes, they converted some old steam engines and decorated them up like this. How cool is that?!

Anyway, all this is to say, once again, that "you can find heraldry everywhere!", even just sitting on your couch watching a Japanese television show. Who knew?