A book and a train are a perfect pair, with one catch: once you arrive, you have to get off, even mid-chapter. The Japanese city of Higashimurayama solved that problem by building a whole library right into a train car. You can’t actually go anywhere on it, but you can still travel through worlds of knowledge and imagination.

Local residents built the “Reading Car” themselves in 1967, back when the town had no municipal library, social media was still half a century away, and books were one of the main forms of entertainment. The local railway company donated a decommissioned Seibu 101 series train car, which residents restored, fitting it out with bookshelves and a reading area. Today it holds around 5,000 books, mostly children’s titles, with the collection refreshed every year.

The library’s standout feature is the actual driver’s cab. Restorers kept some of the original controls intact, and kids are free to touch the buttons and levers, an instant hit with young readers.

P.S. Off the rails, into the stories.

🚃📚🎌

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