Wednesday 1 February 2012

City of "Hot Sea" and Izukyu Railway


EMU Izukyu (ex-Tokyu) 8000 series at Atami Station, JR East Ito Line

Atami is well known as a resort city in the Tokyo metropolitan area. It is located in the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture; and 100km west of downtown Tokyo. From Shinagawa, one of the city centers in Tokyo, Atami is close, just 33 minutes away by the quickest Shinkansen train.

The name of the city, Atami, means "hot sea". Obviously, it represents that hot springs are seen on the coast in this city. In fact, we can see many bursts of steam from hot water wells here and there in the city. Another appeal of Atami is its beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. You can see Hatsushima and Ooshima islands floating in an endless sea from every side of the city (see the bottom photo).

Atami also acts as a gate city to Izu Peninsula. To visit this resort peninsula, take the JR East Ito Line from Atami Station. The trains on the Ito Line are directly operated into Izukyu, a local private railway along to the east coast of the peninsula.

You can see nostalgic commuter trains of Izukyu Railway at Atami Station (see the top photo). They are EMU Izukyu 8000 series, ex-Tokyu 8000 series from Tokyo. They moved to Izukyu to spend second life after retirement from Tokyu Railway. Their brothers were also moved to other companies such as KRL Jabodetabek in Jakarta, Indonesia (see my blog on September 17, 2011).

A trip to Atami is interesting all the way through.

 
Hatsushima Is. (left) and Ooshima Is. (right), winter morning view of the Pacific Ocean from Atami

More information about Izukyu Railway: http://www.izukyu.jp/foreign_language/en/index.html