If you are in the Nara Park area near Todaiji temple you can find a very interesting and unique restaurant. The Silk Road Shuchaku Eki Restaurant combines dining with a world of play, and is also a great favorite with children.The restaurant hosts a large scale model railway diorama of Japanese countryside, complete with bridges, mountains, roads, tunnels as well as many different kinds of trains that are all fully functional. There are two gauges, N-gauge (scale of 1:148 to 1:160 with a rail width of 9 mm) and HO-gauge (1:187 and rail width of 16.5mm). The larger HO-gauge layout is on the right-hand side of the restaurant as you walk in the door and the N-gauge is on the left side. There is also a small shop next to the counter where train-related goods are on sale.
The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, lunch is from 10.00 to 6.00 and dinner from 6.00 to 9.00 last order at 8.00 pm. You can order a meal or a cup of coffee while watching the trains. Meals include different kinds of udon, curry rice and other light meals. In the HO corner customers who want to "drive" the trains pay a fee of 800 yen for 30 minutes or 500 yen for 20 minutes in the N-gauge corner. You take the control levers located on the counter and you can drive the trains just like a real driver! There is no entry fee but instead you are expected to order some food and drink.
The HO layout is separated into three areas, the N-gauge has seven, each track with an outside and an inside track so its possible for up to six people and fourteen people to run trains at the same time. How big is the layout you ask? Here are some facts and figures. Length of N-gauge: 195 meters, Length of HO-gauge: 150 meters. One complete circuit of the N-gauge: 14 meters. One complete circuit of HO-gauge: 25 meters.To get to the restaurant, walk up towards Todaiji and just before the intersection leading to the temple, and opposite the Nara national museum you will see a right-of-way signposted “夢風邪のひろば. walk down the right of way and the restaurant is at the bottom of the hill, on the right.
