Continuing from what I covered last time, I would like to introduce a beautiful Japanese garden and a charming local train in Shimane Prefecture.
After spending a night on the Sunrise Express, I got off the train at Yasugi Station on the San-in Main Line the next morning. My destination was the Adachi Museum of Art in Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture. The museum was founded by Adachi Zenko, a businessman born in the area. It is well known for its seamless harmony between modern Japanese-style paintings inside and the traditional gardens outside. These gardens have been ranked Number One among Japanese-style gardens by The Journal of Japanese Gardening, published in the United States.
After enjoying both the paintings and the gardens, I took the Ichibata Electric Railway and headed toward Izumotaisha-mae. On the way, I came across an orange-colored train—Set 2104 of the EMU 2100 series—at Kawato Station. This nostalgic train was transferred from the Keio Electric Railway in 1995. Its former name was the Keio EMU 5000 series, a well-regarded commuter train that served from the 1960s through the 1990s. It even won the 1964 Laurel Prize from the Japan Railfan Club as the most outstanding newly introduced train of the previous year. The curved front windows and double rounded headlights of this more-than-50-year-old train felt nostalgic, yet still very stylish. Incidentally, the body color of Set 2104 is inspired by Ichibata’s old baggage car, the DeHaNi 50 series.
(To be continued…)
