I recently took Sunrise Express for the first time in my life, and visited Shimane Prefecture. I’m going to show you photos of this train today.
Let me review Shimane Prefecture and Sunrise Express to start. Shimane Prefecture is located in the western part of Japan, facing the Sea of Japan. The population of the prefecture is about 0.7 million, which is the second least populous prefecture in Japan. To get to Shimane Prefecture from Tokyo, a convenient transportation mean is Sunrise Express. It is an overnight sleeper train that has comfortable berthing. Connecting Tokyo and Izumo-shi, it travels on three JR group railways, namely JR East, JR Central and JR West. A 14-car train, the EMU 285 series is operated as "Sunrise Izumo and Sunrise Seto" from Tokyo to Okayama. This train is detached after arriving at Okayama station. "Sunrise Izumo (a 7-car train)" then runs to Izumoshi in Shimane Prefecture; meanwhile, another 7-car train is operated to Takamatsu as "Sunrise Seto".
The EMU 285 series is owned by JR West and JR Central. A total of 5 sets, 35 units, were built in 1998 by Kinki Sharyo, Nippon Sharyo and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. I think that the "sleeper EMU (Electric Multiple-Unit)" is quite unique. I used a B-class (standard class) sleeping car, which has single rooms. Its window is very large, so, I could fully enjoy night views of downtown Tokyo, and fell asleep without realizing it.
To be continued…
