As ever the aftermath of a typhoon brings about some glorious weather and so my father-in-law took us to Mount Omuro on the first full day of our recent trip to the Izu Peninsula. This mountain is a very picturesque and beautifully shaped volcano on the eastern side of the Izu Peninsula. I was quite surprised to later read that it is actually 580 metres high which is only a little shy of Mount Takao (599 metres) in Tokyo. Unlike that one though, the only way to reach the summit of Omuro-yama is via chair lift (500 yen return) but be warned that jumping off it is strictly prohibited!

By the way the first picture at the top of this post is just a photo I took of a poster. To get such a shot I’d have needed a drone or a helicopter! Having ascended the mountain, I was quite taken back by the view looking down into the volcano as I was expecting a rocky and watery crater. However, I was met with a lush, green field amidst some rolling green fields. I thought it’d make a great football pitch! It is actually used for sport in the form of archery.

The crater is about 300 metres in diameter and takes a leisurely 30 minutes or so to circle on foot via the footpath. Visibility was superb on the day we were there so we could see Mount Fuji and Oshima Island in the distance.

Having a car really does help a lot for getting to Mount Omuro but it’s not completely impossible to do on foot if you’re prepared to walk for one hour from Jogasaki-Kaigan station. Combined with a trip to a couple of museums on the way (including the Ayashii Shonen Shojo Museum) it sounds fine to me as it’s not as if energy needs to be saved to climb it! For the record, there are a couple of buses every hour from Ito and Jogasaki-Kaigan stations.

Just over the road from the car park was a concrete tower which on closer inspection was not as exciting as I had first thought. It was just part of Izu Shaboten Park which is home to a rather expensive zoo. We headed back via Lake Ippeki-ko but sadly couldn’t stop there as the typhoon had resulted in the boardwalks being flooded. Another time!

My wife was craving some fresh sashimi so we stopped by the local supermarket and bought some of that as well as sushi and yakitori for our dinner.

Click here to read ‘Day Trip To Mount Fuji 5th Station’