1 November 2018
Rocks and clouds on Izu Peninsula
Hiking along the Jogasaki coast from Futo station
Today I took 5 trains to get to the coastal walk south of Atami on the Izu peninsula. This took forever, despite all my trains more or less lining up perfectly. I cant even remember the names of all the places I changed trains, many of the changes were actually on the same line as trains changed from express to local and back again, and then changed from Japan Rail to another company that takes over the line. The whole journey was covered by my excellent 3 day Tokyo Wide rail pass that covers not only Tokyo but most of the surrounding prefectures also. I used it yesterday, I will use it again tomorrow, because I must get as much value as possible!
On the way back I only had to take 2 trains, because form Atami to Tokyo there was a special naval themed ocean view train. Again, my pass covered that train, I proudly waved it at the ticket booth at Atami and got a 'free' ticket on the expensive train.
Enough about the damn trains, how was the peninsula?
The actual place I went to is called the Jogasaki coast, it has lots and lots of rocks and I would imagine its awesome to take photos of with sun and blue sky, but unexpectedly it was very cloudy the whole time I was there.
Of course as soon as I walked up from the coast as I finished the trail, the sun started shining again, and on the return train journey it was time for all the Japanese people to pull the blinds down on the special ocean view train to block out the terrifying sun.
In total if you do the whole journey from Futo to Izu-Kogen the journey is about 15km. There is a point as you will see where theres a bridge for photos. Most people only go to the bridge. If you go, dont do this, it gets better beyond that point, dont be lazy, you can do it!
Yesterday a waving lucky cat was at the start of my hike. Today this curled up cat, possibly dead, is completely ignoring me and will not wave.
Here we have a static display of a boat that shoots steam out of it. I could not work out what was going on. Is it volcanic steam? Why is it coming out of a boat? Volcano powered boats?
These boats have failed to understand that they are supposed to be in the water to operate correctly. Out of the water they are as useless as a turtle on its back.
There were lots and lots of divers at many points along the coast. I dont know what there is to sea in the ocean near here, mercury, nuclear power plant fuel rods, that kind of thing.
OMG there will be lots of photos of rocks and clouds. I deleted lots of them, but should have deleted more.
The bottom half of the screen here is rocks, the top half is cloud. Now that you are familiar with the rock and cloud separation and how it works, read on.
These sort of photos would be great if there was sunshine, instead we have silver skies and dark trees.
A wave could come through that gap at any moment.
This area is a bit like the great ocean road in Australia. There were lots of similar rocks sticking up out of the ocean, ruining someones ship whenever theres a storm.
Here is the bridge and the lighthouse. This is where most people came to do the coast walk. Except they came to take 100 photos for instagram 50 metres from the car park and then leave.
View towards land from bridge. I describe it as it is. No more no less.
You can climb the lighthouse and the view from the top is good, but you cant open the windows, and they are all smudged where people pressed their face against them to exchange fluids.
I would be going that way, along all those jagged inlets along the peninsula.
Just one of many, with a nice dark blue ocean.
About half way along you get to a spot where the path ends prematurely and you have to walk around the car park of the bizarre concept that is the New York lamp museum.
Like everywhere, theres a temple. This one looks old but I suspect its just weathered. I dont think anything this close to the ocean in Japan can be that old due to Tsunami. There were tsunami warning signs everywhere.
No chance of losing the trail today, there were even yellow bee harboring flowers to guide me.
This cat was keen to show me which way to go. There were a few cats in this particular area.
I have nothing more to say about this.
RIP Golden Bear.
Smugglers cove.
Have a bit more view.
I wish there were sunshine, I think the colors would have been great.
The whole coastline is actually pretty nice, there is a lot of development but since the mountains basically meet the see its dramatic cliffside construction, threatening to fall into the sea whenever the next earthquake comes.
Redundant at this point.
So very redundant.
OK, this is the only guy I saw for a couple of hours, which was surprising. More surprising, he is playing a trumpet, very badly. He is also filming himself playing the trumpet. He somehow was slowly going further and further out of key and getting slower. I think on purpose. He was filming a movie called sad trumpet by the sea.
There is a second suspension bridge! Someone tell everyone to get down here and take more photos, build them a car park!
This fishing village marks the end of the journey. I dont think a lot of fishing happens here anymore, there seems to be more diving going on.
Back at Atami to change trains, and I found I had 20 minutes to spare until the limited express departed, which makes the journey back to Tokyo an hour quicker than normal trains. Just enough time to run a lap of Atami and take photos in the glorious sunshine! Really, I had to run to get to the beach and back. Heres the shopping street, I ran through it.
The beach, the sun, the holiday resort buildings. Apprently Atami was the place to go in the 1970s but has fallen on hard times. In my run through the city it still looked ok to me.
Atami even has a castle but I think its controversial. There was never a castle here historically, they built it in the 1980's and its an exact copy of another fake castle somewhere else.
I had just enough time before boarding my train to buy some banana water. BANANA WATER, it is water that tastes like bananas!