Yamanot.es: A music box of train station melodies from the JR Yamanote Line
36 comments
·August 27, 2025marsavar
My favourite, when I lived in Japan many years ago, was the Musashi-Koganei melody in Tokyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT2xTUPveCw
It stood very much in contrast with all the other jingles, and I simply loved it.
ekusiadadus
I listen to them every day.
By the way, Ikebukuro’s melody isn’t this one anymore. Bic Camera, an electronics retailer, acquired Seibu, and now their song is played instead. https://youtu.be/9Emi-ZAnnlc?si=G8iazo945capvT5T&t=221
It’s fun, isn’t it?
rootnod3
Seibu had nothing to do with it. BicCamera started in Ikebukuro and was influential in building up the area. The jingle change is a campaign as BicCamera is doing a cooperation with the ward to build it out more. See [1]
ekusiadadus
Ah, my mistake — Bic Camera didn’t acquire Seibu’s site. Seibu Ikebukuro was actually sold to Fortress, and then the property was transferred to Yodobashi Holdings, which is now planning the redevelopment. Bic Camera started in Ikebukuro, so it’s influential locally, but it wasn’t part of the acquisition.
Sources:
Wikipedia – Sogo & Seibu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sogo_%26_Seibu SBbit – Seibu Ikebukuro redevelopment: https://www.sbbit.jp/article/cont1/144891
presentation
Other lines have some bangers too - used to live in Koenji and Asagaya, love those.
presentation
They changed the melodies for a lot of the stations recently, I’ve noticed.
kmorg
Unfortunately JR East has phasing out the custom melodies and have been standardizing the Yamanote line to always play the same tune. They are saying labor shortages are the reason since they need to press a physical button in the station in order to play the melody.
cbhl
Huh.
https://kaisercougarconnection.com/2784/news/musical-trains-...
My impression is that all of the Yamanote line stations are above ground -- I'd have expected it to be possible to have "one button plays the right sound at each station" if you used a standard phone's GPS to figure out which station you were at.
austinallegro
This is up there with the Hard Off in store music. Magnificent!
bluecoconut
The first time I got off at and heard Komagome's tune I mistakenly thought it was some halloween special because it was late October at the time, and the song felt so distinct and unique.
ajb
Ebisu has the "Harry Lime" theme from "The Third Man"? Wasn't expecting to recognise any... I wonder who was a fan of that film.
makeitdouble
Yes, it's that song.
The station is named after a beer company that operates there, and they used their beer CM song for the station chime as well.
Zee2
Why don't I remember the Ueno station being an electronic office telephone ringtone...
zelliot
Here is the correct Ueno melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGaCcvBcDQc
modeless
Yeah I'm not sure about some of these. Some are duplicates too, is that accurate?
ekianjo
When you get this, I believe the actual song is missing
haunter
I'm playing JR EAST Train Simulator with the Yamanote Line DLC and I need these station melodies asap as a mod somehow! So good
okonomiyaki3000
Takadanobaba has always been my favorite. The Tetsuwan Atom theme song.
I'm also a fan of the Yamanote Line.
I made a psychedelic AI audio-visual collage inspired by it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUSzUvShqcaa
I made field recordings during my last stay in Tokyo. From those, I made a song for each station of the Yamanote line, using the Jingle in the prompt. The visuals were made similarly.
Used mainly Suno, Udio, Runway and Ableton Live.