Izu Peninsula

This weekend was spent with Rob Plowright, Masumi and Caio (their 10-year old son), touring the Izu Peninsula. We left Rob's house in Mishima on Saturday morning, emboldened by sunny skies and a perfect view of Mt Fuji, and headed south. First stop was the wasabi fields. Wasabi is a root vegetable that is ground into the paste that you all enjoy on your sushi. But the vegetable itself has to be grown in a cold, clean mountain stream - so the wasabi fields are terraced fields, planted in 5-10cm of mountain stream water which is continuously flowing. A pretty unique landscape.

We continued our drive down the Izu Peninsula, looking for Kazuma's 7 waterfalls. This is a nice, easy tourist grade hike past some pretty spectacular waterfalls. We had our lunch on the walk (mostly onigiri, which are the packaged rice triangles cold from any 7-11 with a variety of fillings).

From here we meandered down to our hotel in Shimoda, and took a nice coastal walk on the neighbouring headland, which included some daring rock-hopping escapades from Ella and Katy, and a climb up to the site of the old Shimoda castle, of which only the moat and embankments remain. Caio stayed in the hotel, watching the sumo wrestling (the second last day of the major winter tournament).

The hotel was rated pretty highly by our girls - Ella said it was the best on the trip, Katy said the best ever! There are a few reasons for their high rating:
1. It was by the seaside and we got the biggest room on the top floor which had tatami mats, futons and views over the bay.

2. After our little walk, we all bundled into the onsen (except for Caio; sumo was still on). Both  male and female onsens had an outdoor bath, which is pretty nice to sit in the steaming water while being outside in the cold.

3. After our onsen, we all put on our yukatas - cotton kimonos which are worn by both men and women. And when I say worn, I mean that everyone in the hotel wore their onsen. To dinner, and all around the hotel. They also wore their little slippers (which are too small for our clodhopping feet) and little jacket/shawl thing which goes over the top to keep you warm. The dinner was an all-you-could-eat buffet of Japanese food, most of which are too adventurous for us, but it means that the entire hotel eats at the same time. In their yukatas. We found it very bizarre - like going to a school camp where everyone has to eat dinner in their PJs…

4. The girls couldn't find a yukatas small enough for them, so they elected to wear their own newly-bought kimonos. This caused quite a stir in the dining room, where all the Japanese  told them how cute they looked (we learnt that 'kawaii' is the word for cute) and smiled at them.

5. You could play ping-pong. You have to book the room, of course, but we all had a try at it, although Caio was the champion.

6. Finally, just when we were about to go to bed, Caio raised the prospect of karaoke. For this, you go down to the basement, where two tables of middle-aged Japanese bogans were sitting (in their yukatas and shawls) taking turns at karaoke. We were welcomed with open arms, and some of the locals forced us to sit at their table. Ella jumped right into it, and immediately signed up to sing Adele's "Someone Like You". Katy then had a go at Katy Perry's "Roar", but it's a fast-paced song and she couldn't quite keep up with reading the words. Then, after a few more Japanese dirges from our friends, Ella sang "Thank you for the Music" and they sang "Mamma Mia" together. It was hilarious, and they received rapturous applause from the crowd.

We got up this morning and had the all-you-could-eat buffet breakfast (in case you were wondering, only about 50% of people wore their yukatas for the this) and headed out the door. Our route took us back up the east side of the Izu Peninsula, with a 5 km walk around a headland and back through the forest. Ella and Caio egged each other on with acts of daring and bravery on the rocks around the headland, but no one got swept out to sea and we had another great walk. We had lunch further up the Peninsula, and then got dropped at Ito Station to catch a train to Tokyo.

We saw a very different perspective to Japanese life with Rob and Masumi, which we really enjoyed. To be in a hotel which was entirely occupied by Japanese was a real eye-opener. And to explore just a small corner of the country by car and see areas away from the tourist trail was great. Also nice to catch up with Rob, who I haven't seen much of in the last 15 years, and to see and hear what life is like for an Australian living in Japan.

And now, for something completely different. We're back in the hustle-bustle of Tokyo; final stop is to immerse ourselves in a non-Japanese environment : Tokyo Disneyland …