As far as trips away go this one was for the maximum possible time available to me. As soon as I finished work on the last Saturday in June I headed straight down to Izu and then returned the following Saturday going straight to work. As is often the case, much of our time there was fairly standard (housework and lots of gardening) but there were a few notbable things we hadn’t done before.

The most interesting thing we did together was probably going up the coast a few stops up the Izukyuko Line to a place that I’d been to a fair few times. Never had I stepped onto the sandy brown Usami Beach though. Just walking from end to end was sufficient enough for us as it was a super hot day when we were in attendance.

As we headed back to Usami station we could just about see the wonderful Usami Kannon-ji Temple statue in the mountains in the distance. My wife has still not visited it but this wasn’t the day for that to change as it takes a lot of effort and energy to get there.

Going back in time to the start of this trip, and that began with a solo trip for me to the far western point of Shizuoka Prefecture. I’d only arrived in Izu the night before and it was a very early start to complete the 3.5 hour local train journey to Hamamatsu before 10:00 am. Sadly, it was all to no avail as things didn’t work out with my first two plans. Thankfully, visiting Japan’s 42nd best castle in Kakegawa saved the day a bit.

Aino station after that not only provided me with the gateway to Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa (for a football match) but also a couple of “hilarious” pun-based photo opportunities. 

Back on familiar ground in Ito the following morning, we inevitably went to Komuroyama for the usual mountain climb with the dog

A lot of our time is devoted to our little fluffy chihuahua whether it be walking him or just playing with him in the house and garden.

As I was awake very early one morning I decided to go down the coast a bit to Izu-Inatori station to see a quirky shrine and a bit of the surrounding area before being back for breakfast with my wife. The sign on Izukyuko Line train doors are pretty nonsensical in English but it seems it just means the doors may close to keep it warm in the colder months.

Dontsuku Shrine is one that I’ve been meaning to see for a couple of years now but finding the motivation to go there alluded me on all my previous other visits to this region of Japan. There is an annual festival at this shrine, which is located right on the coast, but it is the large wooden phallic portable shrine inside the main hall which gets visitors attention!

Lunch at the nearby family restaurant Gusto one day should’ve been relatively cheap if we had just stuck to the very reasonably priced set meal on offer. However, I wanted a few extra other things which pushed the price up a bit. It was not served to us by humans but by the robot-things which some restaurants employ these days to cut down on labour costs.

A few weeks before this trip I had read about beef-bowl chain restaurant Sukiya having a very cheap breakfast meal set available. Even though there is a Sukiya near our house in Tokyo it seems we can only ever go to the one in Ito!

This very local ramen restaurant was a completely new experience for us, and one that will no doubt be repeated again as it was only 500 yen! It won’t be long till we return I’m sure!

Click here to read ‘A Week of Golden Funtime With The Family In The Izu Sunshine’

Click here to read ‘Cold Lemon Ramen, A Ghibli-Like Temple, Local Green Cola, Video Cassette Tapes, Spicy Chicken McNuggets & An Awe-Inspiring Sea Cave’

Click here to read ‘Izu Coastal Adventures; Mountains, Beaches, Lakes, Parks, Bridges, Temples, Food, Dogs, Football, Abandoned Ruins & Chainsaws!!’

Click here to read ‘Fantastic Mount Fuji Views, Unique Regional Burgers, A Beautiful Watergate And Live J-Football!’

Click here to read ‘Japan’s Cheapest “Beer” Cans, Family Cup Noodle Time, McShakes, Star Wars Day, Dogs & Dinosaurs!