Ito, Atami, and the Isu Peninsula

JHS students have a huge focus on tests in order to get them into a High School of their choice.  It's still very important which school you get into as it holds high reference for your first employer so it's important.  So several times throughout the year the poor students study for every subject and do a day full of exams.  Poor kids.

Anyways, it meant I didn't have classes so I made a long weekend out of it and went and visited the Izu/Isu peninsula south of here.  Pretty much the entire coastline formed by ancient slow-flowing volcanos making the area pretty spectacular, plenty of volcanic activity, onsen, seafood and beautiful coastline as well.

Here are some pictures of Atami and Ito, the two main cities I visited.


Lots of fresh seafood around here.  This was some delicious sashimi and cold soba noodles



Lots of seafood - some drying in the sun











These are actually lanterns.  Lots of dried things in this shop - there's even a turtle in the background!


A geyser outside the train station








Along the coast of Atami







Stumbled across this beautiful old building in Atami











Ito.  Lots of character



Atami (and less so, Ito) both have a feel of yesterday about them.  Many many resorts and hotels most of which are cracking, paint peeling and obviously vacant.  I guess during the bubble economy in the 90's this kind of place would have been super popular being so close to Tokyo but now it just doesn't see the same traffic.







National heritage old listed building.  There was this famous one, and an older one next door which got converted into a hostel (very beautiful!)



Some beautiful timber work