A Peninsula Pirates are us!

August 7: Touring the Izu Peninsula

Today Jiuna and I got up at 8:30 and packed up our stuff to head out for our trip.  We grabbed a breakfast of assorted breads at Ueno station, which turned out to be quite good.  We took the Yamanote to Tokyo, where we caught a Shinkansen for Atami.  In Atami we had the delightful experience of eating frozen oranges. O_O  They had them sitting in a little box in the station, and were about 250円 for two of them.  When mandarin oranges come into season in Canada, you all should try freezing a couple and eating them; it's really good.

From Atami we took a train to Jogaseki, where we walked to the coast to see some rather impressive cliffs.  We've got pictures, so I won't go into too much detail, but the scenery was quite good.  There were a ton people though!  It's tourism season in Japan, so I think we can expect decent crowds everywhere we go, unfortunately.  At Jogasaki was also the official disappointment of the day.  They had some suspension bridge advertised, and it was like, the most boring thing ever. >_<  It wasn't particularly long, it didn't sway too much, and there were a bunch people standing around on it like it was nothing, so it was kind of hard to get excited about in the slightest haha.  Oh well, the rest of Jogasaki was cool, so perhaps asking for an interesting bridge on top of that is asking too much.

We walked back up the long hill to the station, and were delighted to discover that at the station, they appear to be aware that they are situated on top of a giant hill.  Off to the side of the platform, there's a little pool-type-deal, intended to be a foot bath, that may or may not be fed from a hot spring, according to Jiuna.  The water was a little slippery (which would mean alkaline, right?), so that might mean it came from a natural source.  In either case, it was soooo nice to have after walking all over the place, and we agreed that our feet felt much better for the entire rest of the day.

From Jogasaki station, we took the train to Shimoda, where we transferred to a bus bound for Kisami, where our accomodation is.  Tabi-tabi, the place where we're staying, is quite cute, and seems to be comfy.  Apparently one has to be careful with respect to... ahem, certain types of belongings though.  According to the people in charge, bikinis specifically have gone missing from the drying lines outside when left overnight, on not one, but two occasions. D:  Eugh...  We had no bikinis to hang, so we were safe in either case.

We got a recommendation for a place to eat from one of the proprieters, and it turned out to be really, really good. :D  If you ever find yourself in Kisami, you should eat at Cafe South.  Jiuna had an excellent Ahi pokke salad, and I had a respectable proscuitto salad, but the star of tonight's show was the ceviche.  It had all kinds of seafood that was all REALLY good (we're by the sea), and the dressing had shiso and mirin in it, we think.  Jiuna also had a mango mojito that was quite good.

After dinner, we walked to the beach, and on the way, we made a somewhat disturbing discovery.  All along the river to the ocean, there are crabs.  Burrowing crabs that also like to scurry about on the path and hide in trees.  O_O  I don't care what you think, crabs in trees is a thing that is both wrong and scary.  We made it to the beach without any serious trauma, where we saw a multitude of surfers hanging out in the waves.  We walked along the beach, and pondered getting our suits, but it was getting dark, and most of the surfers were turning in as well, so we decided against it (besides, we'd need to find a way to dry our suits...  Eugh... >_<).

On the walk back, we discovered that the crabs are possibly nocturnal (or perhaps crepuscular), as there was greatly increased crab activity on the boardwalk by the river.  They scurry like spiders, which Jiuna despises, and I'm afraid of crabs, so we were not having too much fun walking back.  On the final stretch it proved too much, as there were dark shapes darting back and forth in front of us, and the trees above entirely covered the path, and we just booked it back to Tabi-tabi. >_<  We are not the bravest of souls haha.

Back at Tabi-tabi we had a snack of food purchased at the local Family Mart, and while eating, we chatted with one of the owners about skiing in Japan.  He came to the conclusion after we mentioned we really liked Revelstoke (when we mentioned it, he clutched his head in despair at not having been there), that we would probably like Hakuba.  Apparently the glades are very skiable, and the terrain is more difficult than on Hokkaido, but the snow is not as good.

We took showers after that, and are now getting ready to go to bed.  We have to get up early to get to our kayaking trip, so we'd best get to sleep soon.

Night!