Izu Peninsula

The trip began pretty uneventful and the drive was nice with some very cool tunnels.  Jeff said "Japan is a civil engineers blank dream"  you fill in the blank.

Next was a spiral bridge. Yes that is right - spiral.  I don't have any pictures because I had to keep my eyes shut or throw up.  Here is a picture I found on the internet.


Once we made it there we had our hotel right on the beach.  Once again, check in is 3:00 so you have to wait.  So we checked our luggage and headed out for lunch and touring.  We found a place where Perry's ship landed and it turned out to be a temple and fun little walk through the town with narrow streets, shops and restaurants.  Very cool.  Apparently President Jimmy Carter had stopped there once so they had statues of him.

 Another Shrine

On the way back to the hotel we found these cool rock formations that you could walk out too.  There were lots of people fishing and boating.

After checking in we hit the beach.  We had a great room with a view of the ocean and a beach right below.  The beach was a little rocky and the water a little cold but it felt great since it was 97 and 80% humidity.  So we hung out and watched the surfers. The best part of the hotel was that they sold beer in a vending machine!    Bonus!

 View from our hotel room.

Out for dinner at a French restaurant.  But it was mostly pasta and pizza. The new French I guess.
It was full moon over the ocean.  Then up at sunset with the surfers.  After breakfast we hit the beach again for a few hours.

 I like the sand better than the water.

 Too much fun and sun.

View from the beach.
Then we headed down the coast where we found some other cool parks and took a boat ride through some rock formations. We also had a sweet view of Mt. Fuji. All in all it was a fun and relaxing trip!

 Mt. Fuji in the background.

Mt. Fuji!