Along a path lined with rice paddies, a familiar silhouette appears: an old red-and-cream tram, almost stepped out of a dream. Under the sun, it seems to calmly wait for the passengers of yesterday, frozen in time. There, in the heart of Muroyama, begins our unexpected encounter with a Showa-era piece of Tokyo.
The old tram car no. 7022
This “Totoro Train” is a former disused tram car from the Toden line that once ran in Tokyo. It’s now found in the town of Muroyama, Saitama Prefecture.
This shiny tram was built in 1954 by Nippon Sharyo. Decommissioned in 1968, it was donated to the village. The Shinshikimura Nakayoshi kindergarten, founded the same year, received the car as a gift and used it as a learning and play space for the next 16 years.
After the kindergarten closed in 1984, the car was used as a playground for children. In 1996, the car was restored, reinstalled on a base, and covered with a roof. In 2009, it got a fresh coat of paint to recover its original red and cream stripe.
This precious wagon is preserved and managed as part of “Shinshiki-mura,” a local community aiming for self-sufficiency based on the ideas of Saneatsu Mushanokoji.
This Toden 7000-type wagon model has become a precious relic of the past, a memorial souvenir of the Tokyo trams of the Showa era.
The Toden 7000 trains: nostalgia from the Totoro era
The Toden fleet of trams was operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei) on the Toden Arakawa line. The original cars date from the 1950s but were renovated several times afterward. Some have become historical relics, others continued to roll until 2017 on the Arakawa line.
