next_train (100 pts)

Which station was this sound recorded at? Answer the name of the station.

(The station name should be as it appears on the official website of the railway company or on Wikipedia.) Either Japanese or English are acceptable.

Flag Format: Diver25{Kyoto Station}

We are given this recording.

438KB

next_train.m4a

Open

My solution for this one would be kinda biased since I can understand a little bit Japanese and am a railway enthusiast myself :)

Anyways, the first thing to do is to listen to the recording itself. I couldn't get it at first, but from experience, I know that there are some railway enthusiasts out there (especially in Japan) who records every single in-train or station announcements from every train lines. So, here was my thought process:

• The announcer say something like "Kurihama-yuki desu" or "bound for Kurihama".

• Kurihama is the name of a station.

• The announcer also says "local train".

• Only ONE line has Kurihama Station as its terminus station, that is the Yokosuka line. Also, it's going to be specifically the local train (not the express one). And finally, some Yokosuka line trains ends not in Kurihama (usually in Zushi Station). Basically, this narrows down the search so much :)

• Now, I just need to search for station announcements of the Yokosuka Line on YouTube.

• I found this video (refer to 15:46). It is the exact same announcement, just different in the train's scheduled departure time.

• Now with the context, I can hear the recording better, and finally able to transcribe it fully below.

Kondo no 15-bansen no densha wa 14:16-fun hatsu futsuu Kurihama yuki desu. 

Thank you for riding with JR East. The next departure from track number 15 will be the 2:16 PM local train bound for Kurihama.

• What I need to do is to find a station that has a Yokosuka Line train bound for Kurihama departure on 14:16 local time.

• Actually, just from knowing that the Yokosuka line is on track 15, we can infer that it's a big station. And of course, the video I mentioned above was taken from Shinagawa Station, so there's a big possibility :)

• I put my guess on Shinagawa Station, and visit the JR East website to check its timetables (from the recording file's metadata, the recording was taken on Saturday, so we need to check for the "Saturdays and holidays" timetable)

• Finally, I was able to confirm it :D

Flag: Diver25{Shinagawa Station}