Izu, 1999

The Izu Peninsula  is a peninsula to the west of Tokyo on the Japanese island of Honshu. Formerly the eponymous Izu Province, the Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka prefecture.

		First of all, The Izu Peninsula is all part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The Peninsula justs out into the Pacific Ocean with the Surga bay on the West and Sagami Bay on the East (actually Kamakura - which I saw with Kazuko and Tani during my first visit - is directly across Sagami Bay)... Our train ride took us past many small villages that did not appear on any map we had as well as the main stopping points of Atami and Ito. We took a very long day trip to the Izu Peninsula. (Next time we may try to make it an overnight trip.) Although we didn't see nearly all there was, what we did see was beautiful.
At Izu beach
There are many museums, including the MOA Museum in Atami which has a lot of primarily Japanese art and a very nice indoor laser show every hour on the hour, which if you are at the museum is definitely worth seeing. If you go, make sure you take time to visit the Jungle Park Botanical Garden at the very southern tip of the peninsula. It is the largest collection of green houses I've ever seen connected together to make one long tropical jungle with monkeys, ponds, banana trees, papaya, & many other plants.
		The water-fall
There is a road that follows the shore line all the way around the peninsula. The shore varies from sandy beaches to beautiful cliffs. At one point there is a monkey park with a lot of wild monkeys running around.

 

 

About Kanto Region The Kantō region is a geographical area of Honshū, the largest island in Japan. The region encompasses seven prefectures around Tokyo: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Its boundaries are roughly the same as those of the Kantō plain. The plain itself, however, makes up only slightly more than 40 percent of the region. The rest consists of the hills and mountains that border it except on the seaward side. Izu was a province of Japan including the Izu Peninsula that is today part of Shizuoka prefecture and the Izu Islands that are now part of Tokyo. Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Another name was Zushū. Prior to 680 A.D., it was part of Suruga province. From that year until the Edo period, Izu included three districts: Tagata, Kamo and Naka. During the Edo period, Kimisawa became the fourth district of Izu.