Izu Peninsula (Ito)

For Spring Break we rented a house in Ito, a city on Izu Peninsula.  We left on Monday and returned on Thursday, so it was a quick trip.  The drive, which was only supposed to take about 2 1/2 hours took almost 5.  We stopped for lunch on the way, and had to split the family up into groups around the restaurant.  We fumbled through ordering, based on the pictures.  Felicity recently learned the word for "gross" and said that very loudly at one point drawing looks from the couple next to us.  Lunch was not gross, aside from the gelatinous, mucus seaweed soup they gave us as a side.

We arrived in Ito just before dinner.  Google Maps tried to take us down roads that were not meant for cars so we had to guess on where to park and then walked up the road to the house.  Upon entering the house, we were met with an overwhelming stench of sewage.  I was really concerned that we would not be able to stay in the house.  The girls were begging to go swimming in the ocean and it was almost sunset so we decided to walk down to the beach (only a few minutes walk away) and let them swim.  The high that day was only 52 degrees but the girls were determined to swim so we let them.  

After a cold swim, some funny looks by the locals, and a gorgeous sunset, we walked back to the house.  The smell had not magically gone away but there was someone working outside the house and we hoped that he was doing something about the smell.  We discovered that if we closed off part of the house, we couldn't smell it as bad.  It did actually get better by the second day with only small whiffs of yuck.  

Mike and I left the kids at the house and went in search for dinner.  We found a grocery store where we got milk and cereal for breakfast and then found a McDonalds and brought food back.  

The following morning we headed to Mt. Omuro, an extinct volcano.  I had been watching the weather for a week and knew it was going to be rainy and in the 40's but was hoping it would not be so rainy that the outing would be a flop.  We brought rain coats and umbrellas and paid for the chair lift to the top.  It started snowing almost immediately, our umbrellas folding backwards from the wind, and by the time we hopped off the lift at the top, we met blizzard like conditions.  Eli and the girls opted to stay in the souvenir shop while Mike, Isaac, Will, and I decided to attempt to walk around the volcano.  Usually the view is incredible from the top but visibility was so bad we could barely see a few feet in front of our faces.  We left the umbrellas because they were useless in the wind and then we laughed and shivered and walked around as quickly as possible.  It was spooky looking and magical and miserable and hilarious.  We came back covered in snow, grabbed the kids from the shop, and hopped back on the lift.  Felicity was frozen, her fingers going numb, and her raincoat was not warm enough for the weather we encountered.  She cried on the way down the volcano while Mike tried to shield her with the umbrella from the snow and I tried to warm her little fingers up.  The rest of the kids were behind us in seats and we heard laughter all the way down.  We spent the next 30 minutes trying to warm ourselves in the van.  Mike said, "That was an adventure.  Think of the memory this just made."  Felicity piped up and said, "I wish this was a memory I didn't have to have!"  

We spotted a restaurant next door and when we thought we were warm enough, we braved the rain again and rain inside dripping and cold.  We ordered hamburgers and curry.  The hamburgers were more like meatloaf with a bun but everyone was happy to find something to enjoy for lunch.  We had other things we wanted to do that day but we decided the wet, cold adventure was enough so we went home and got in dry clothes while the girls took a hot shower to warm themselves.  

Mike and I braved the rain that evening to go hunt down food.  We didn't want to do McDonalds again since we had burgers for lunch.  We did a search for restaurants and discovered that most had weird hours and were only open on certain days and were very Japanese, which means it was a lot of fish and not what my kids would want to eat.  We tried a Chinese restaurant which ended up being this tiny room with only five people inside and one cook.  He didn't look at us or try to talk to us for a full five minutes.  We asked in Japanese if he did take out and he pointed to a menu and then continued to ignore us.  We realized that this wasn't a good option so we left and drove around the town trying to find somewhere.  We finally found a Chinese place and ordered a bunch of food we thought everyone would eat and brought it home.  

On Wednesday, we drove to Jogasaki Coast to walk the suspension bridge and trail.  The girls and Eli enjoyed climbing all over the volcanic rock.  The weather was much better than the day before with sunshine and temps in the 50's.  The trail was an easy one for the girls with beautiful views. We found a Japanese steak place for lunch and then went to the grocery store to get more milk and let each kid choose what they would want for dinner that night.  We came back with random chips and ramen and some baked goods, stuff for peanut butter sandwiches, and ice cream.  After dropping of our groceries we got back in the van and headed to the city just North called Atami where we found a beach for the girls to play with their sand toys and a big park.  The boys walked the boardwalk and then after a few hours we went back to the house.  We had dinner, played Pitt, read books, and just chilled at the house.  

The following morning we cleaned up and packed up the van.  After checking out, we headed up the mountain to find the Usami Kannon-Ji temple. The website said it was open but when we arrived it was closed off with a sign we translated to say was closed for a holiday. We have no idea what holiday it was. I was pretty bummed but we drove back down the mountain and stopped at an orange stall and got oranges and clementine's. We also passed a pick-your-own strawberry farm so we did a u-turn and went to investigate. It ended up being different than we expected but I'm glad we did it. We were given plastic trays with one side filled with sweetened condensed milk and then we were directed to four or five different aisles with three different kinds of strawberries and told to pick as many as we could eat in 30 minutes. Probably not the most Covid-friendly activity, but we didn't care. We filled our bellies with strawberries and they were really good. Japan has the best strawberries!

On our way back into Tokyo, we decided to check out the Atami castle, which really wasn't a castle. It was just built to look like a castle with different floors showing what castles were like back in the day. They had a foot onsen which the girls and Mike and I enjoyed. The boys refused to take off their shoes and try the onsen out. The kids were pretty disinterested in the castle so we sent them to the basement where they had a free arcade while Mike and I walked around and looked at the different things featured on each floor. We decided to skip the floor with erotic paintings......We found the kids in the arcade, played a few games with them, and then headed home.

All in all, a memorable vacation. Not all of our plans panned out. The volcano will be one of those memories that will be brought up in the future, "remember that time we went to the volcano and got caught in a blizzard and froze our faces off?" We were able to find food the kids would eat for each meal. The smell in the house mostly subsided. I loved staying in a sea town and being so close to the ocean. I loved watching the locals walk to the beach each day and drag home seaweed behind them for their dinners. I am glad that it wasn't rainy and freezing the entire time and that the hike went so well. I loved watching the surfers and seeing fisherman each day. I am grateful we could find things to do when plans didn't work and that were were able to get out of the city and explore.