At a bar in Osaka, company employees returning home from work tip their glasses while watching a blue model train run past.
The Kitashinchi Tetsudo RE-TO-RO railway bar opened in June in the high-class Kitashinchi area in Kita Ward, capitalizing on the boom in dramas and cartoons about railway enthusiasts.
At the entrance, model trains are arrayed in showcases. For ¥2,000, not including drinks, customers can run a model train on the bar's track. Buy a train and you can keep it behind the bar, like you would a private bottle of alcohol.
In front of the counter there is a miniature 1950s-era station, complete with a railway that runs for about 30 meters.
Naoki Teraoka, 43, the bar's owner and self-styled stationmaster, said he opened the railway bar because he wanted to provide adults with a little time away from daily life.
