Continuing with what I covered last time, I am going to introduce a train of Ichibata Electric Railway to start. EMU 5000 series is Ichibata’s high-end train (see the top photo). It has mainly been used as a limited express train connecting Dentetsu-Izumoshi and Izumotaisha-mae to transport worshippers to the holy Izumotaisha Shrine. It's an 18-meters-long car with a steel body. One trainset is composed of two motorcars. Different from the other trains, it has only 4 doors per unit. As with the Ichibata 2100 series, which I showed in my past post, the Ichibata 5000 series is also the ex-Keio 5000 series. The Ichibata 2100 series still keeps its original design of the Keio 5000 series. On the other hand, Ichibata 5000 series looks different from that of the Keio 5000 series. Actually, it was modified before moving from the Keio line in 1998.
Taking the holy train, many passengers head to Izumotaisha Shrine. Taking this opportunity, I am going to introduce a holy beach, “Inasanohama”, near the shrine. According to a local legend, deities from all over Japan gather at Izumotaisha Shrine for an annual meeting in October of the lunar calendar. They are welcomed by local people here on this beach. It’s a beautiful bow-shaped sand beach with a holy rock named Benten-jima. It is said that the setting sun here is so pretty, but the morning scenery was also beautiful (see the photo below).
I fully enjoyed the holy beach and train in Shimane Prefecture.
