Fu’s colleague was visiting from USA and since it was her last weekend, we asked her if she’d like to drive somewhere. We suggested flowers (it’s hydrangea season now!) or beach and she was more keen on the latter, so we headed there.
June is the rainy season but on the day we set off, we were surprisingly blessed with one of the sunniest days in recent days! She’s one lucky lady, haha.
When we reached arrived in Izu – a speeding ticket and 4 hours later – the weather regressed to cloudy skies -_- But ok la, we should be so thankful it didn’t rain!
We stopped at a conbini to pick up lunch and the 4 of us stood in a line facing the sea and eating our food. I think we must have looked quite a sight to people who saw us. They must be thinking “These people never sea the sea before ah?” lol.
But it was really refreshing to have the vast expanse of sea before us and the wind in our hair!
Another hour of driving later, we arrived at:
Shirahama Beach 白浜海岸
Ugh, let me first state upfront that cloudy skies + iPhone combo don’t make for very good pictures. But I didn’t want to bring my camera to the beach, so we just gotta make do for this post ._. I did what I could to improve it in photoshop!
Shirahama Beach looks so different on sunny days though! Take a look at photos on Google! Makes me wonder if we went to an entirely different beach…
Despite the lack of blue skies and blue waters that day, Shirahama Beach is still one of the nicest beaches we’ve visited in Japan. The sand is white (unlike the black sand at Zushi -_-) and the water was so clear that I could see my toes even when I was about waist deep in the water!
We decided to bodyboard and rented a board for just 1,000 yen for the entire day.
The water was pretty cold but after a bit of moving around in the water, the body warmed up enough for us not to notice the cold.
I actually remembered how to bodyboard after that single lesson last year! Muscle memory FTW! Fu didn’t really get into the groove and he ended up with many good waves simply lapping over him and leaving him floating by his lonesome self lol.
Oh, we noticed a very interesting thing in Shirahama! FamilyMart (a convenient store) usually looks like this:
But in Shirahama, it was black and white!
Fu and P walked to return the bodyboards and P told me he also spotted a black and white 7-11!
Why on earth is that? I’m really curious! Is it because it’s in Shirahama (literally meaning white beach)? So like, I dunno… make it white (and black)?
Alas, it was time to go and we left without solving the mystery.
As we still had a bit of time, we decided to bring them to a place we passed by earlier (and that we’ve been to before 5 years ago).
It was a 50 min drive along the coast and Fu said if we can tell him if we spot a place where we can stop the car and enjoy the scenery. At this point, P quipped, “Or you could just speed again and the friendly traffic police will show you exactly where you can stop your car” LOL
Jogasaki Coast 城ヶ崎海岸
Jogasaki Coast offers beautiful views of the Izu Peninsular coastline with its rugged cliffs and unique stone formations.
One of the main attractions at Jogasaki is Kadowaki Bridge, a 23m high, 48m long suspension bridge.
It’s quite a cheap thrill standing on the bridge and looking down at the waves crashing below!
There’s also the Kadowaki Lighthouse that would normally give a great bird’s eye view of the area, and on a good day, you can even see distant islands! But it was closed when we got there, so we’ll have to make do with just a photo of the lighthouse.
There is a 9km hiking trail around Jogasaki Coast, but we only explored the area a little. We did wander into the forest for a bit though!
The skies were starting to darken so we made our way back to car and searched for… DINNER!
SUNABA HANDMADE SOBA 砂場 手打ちそば
Our eagle-eyed (either that or starving) driver spotted a nice traditional-looking building with a 手打ちそば signboard (which means handmade buckwheat noodles) so we decided to stop there for dinner.
The soba was delicious – fresh and chewy! They also brought by a pot of そば湯 soba yu (water the soba was cooked in) after we were done eating so that we could add it to the soba sauce and drink it (soba yu is said to be full of nutrition).
Random, but the melon was so juicy and sweet! And let me tell you an even sweeter thing…
I had no idea till I finished eating the melon, but my lovely husband gave me 3 pieces while he only ate 1 piece and spent the rest of the time gnawing on the skin to get out whatever tiny bits of melon left on it. SO SWEET HOR?! XD
And on that potentially goosebump-inducing note, I shall end the post of our day trip to Izu :D
Oh, and in case you’re interested, I pinned the places mentioned above in Google Maps (Shirahama Beach ➤ Jogasaki Coast ➤ Soba shop)
