After countless trips to Ito on the Izu Peninsula there really aren’t that many local places which I haven’t been to but this time my father-in-law, on a whim, took us to a new location. The original plan at first though was just to head down to Kawana Dolphin Beach before breakfast to get the dogs out of the house. Admittedly, it’s not the best of beaches but it is always a nice tranquil place to spend some quiet moments.

Expecting to go home after that, my father-in-law then chose to take us all a couple of kilomeres further up the Izu coastline to Shiofuki Park. There is a mountain trail going up to Ogiyama Observation Deck on the summit but that’ll have to wait till next time though as we only had time to descend the tight slope towards the Sagami Sea where Teishi-jima Island could be seen just across the water.

There’s a promenade leading to Shiofukiiwa, so you can get up close to the cliff-face for when the tide comes in and hits the rocks whereby the water enters the cave holes and then spouts out the other side. We were very lucky I guess to actually witness such a spectacle and thus feel the grandeur of nature. It was a pretty cool image but nothing too out-of-this-world, and of course I didn’t manage to capture footage of it!

When the waves hit the rocks white smoke blows out of the rock hole to the accompaniment of some great sounds. Naturally, the size of it all is completely dependant on the tide level and I imagine it can actually be quite dangerous on a high day with the risk of a person being swept away or certainly given a good soaking anyway!

• Shiofuki Park (487-1 Arai, Itō) is just under four kilometres from JR Ito Station; ten minutes by car or a 50 minute walk.

In the back of the car on the way home the dogs were calm and relaxed having enjoyed the fresh sea-air that morning. That wasn’t the end of the sights though.

Later that day we returned to Komuro-yama Park again (we briefly visited the day before!) but this time to ascend the mountain. Usually I have to climb such things the proper way but when with family that can’t always be done and so this time we took the chair-lift to the top which is actually a fun way of doing it and the views (looking backwards!) are impressive.

From the top, Teishi-jima Island and Mount Omuro-yama could both be seen in the distance on opposing sides.

As you can see, trying to get a good shot of the dogs together is not easy and one kind of wants to just enjoy watching them play rather than trying to capture it.

There was to be no detour to Dinosaur Space this time due to time being against us as we needed to return to Tokyo. Taking the chair lift back down was even better than the ascend in terms of the view of the mountains in the distance.

If we’d been able to visit in Golden Week the first view below would’ve been a sea of beautiful pink-coloured azaleas. However, 5-6 weeks later on a rare sunny day during the rainy season it was all it’s regular green.

Click here to read ‘Puppy Love Pt II: When Maron (Finally!) Met Cocoa’ 

Click here to read ‘Cycling In Izu #1 – The Stunning Jogasaki Coast Plus Teddy Bear & Cat Museums’

Click here to read ‘A Park Of Beautiful Pink Azaleas, Egg Vending Machines & Family Time In Izu’

Click here to read ‘Lake Ippeki-ko & The Abandoned Ruins Of It’s Lakeside Hotel’