It's getting warmer and warmer. The spring travel season has just started. I recently visited Sakoshi in Akoh City, Hyogo Prefecture, about 670 kilometers west of Tokyo. Sakoshi is a historical town, where visitors can enjoy the peaceful atmosphere by walking around the old streets. This area was originally created by Hata-no Kawakatsu in the 7th century. He was a senior official of the central government, but was defeated in a political fight, and fled to Sakoshi in 644. His tomb remains on Ikishima Island, just off the coast of Sakoshi town. If you climb Mt. Chausu behind the town, you will be able to see a panoramic view of the Seto Inland Sea and an archipelago including Ikishima Island.
To visit Sakoshi, I got on a local train from Himeji on the Sanyo Shinkansen, and got off at Sakoshi station. My vehicle was a direct current suburban train, EMU JR West 225-100 series. The 225-100 series was launched in 2016 as a sister model of the 225 (225-0) and 225-5000 series. 30 sets, 132 cars in total, were built by Kinki Sharyo and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Its technical specifications are almost the same as those of the 225 and 225-5000 series, but the frontal "face" of the 225-100 series is more rounded. All cars of the 225-100 series have motors, but each car has both driving and non-driving wheels (so-called 0.5M system) to equalize each car's behavior.
I enjoyed both the historical town and the local trains as usual.
