Mishima to Shimoda cycling(D-15)⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘23.11th,Nov
This D-15 route is in Area-D “Tokai". See Area-D map/ See Japan map
Sight & Entertainment ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Food & Drinks ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Easiness ⭐⭐⭐
Road condition ⭐⭐⭐
Safety ⭐⭐⭐
Due to our business, it became the first time for our cycling team’s training camp in this year. This time we chose Izu peninsula longitudinal section. Though I’ve cycled as far as Joren-no-taki(water fall) in the past but it’s fun to go with our colleagues.
Gathering at Mishima Shinkansen station at AM9:00(pic.1), we started toward Kakitagawa-water spring(only Japanese language available on web site), where we can see the spring from Mt.Fuji and the water chosen as 3 major clean water in JPN(pic.2).
Within 5km from the station the Kanogawa(river) cycling road starts(pic.3). This road lasts for 20km and it’s very suitable for cycling. Finally reached a historically great base ball player Mr.Nagashima’s monument. He was training using this road and the steep mountain(pic.4 right) in winter season.
This place is good for taking a rest since from this point a slope starts.
Soon after the point pic.4, we reached Shuzenji town which is very famous for hot spring. And when we turned to right at the corner of pic.5, a calm hill climbing started. Still there were many cars running until reaching a road side station, Tsukigase(pic.6).
Here we took a lunch. Since Izu is famous for Wasabi production, I chose Wasabi soba(pic.6). After lunch I bought a cup of mandarin orange juice at \500- at outside stall, since the mandarin orange is also famous products in Izu thanks to its warm temperature. It’s very sweet.
After the road side station, the real hill climbing started. The angle was sometimes over 10 degree but not so long until reaching Joren no taki(water fall) which was introduced in my previous article(ref. D-3) . It is selected as one of the 100 major water fall in JPN.
It was about 7km from water fall to Amagi mountain pass with steep slope. There is a good sight seeing old pass, Amagi touge, above the tunnel where you can reach by deviating the main route but it meant additional hill climbing for us, so we gave up visiting there since some colleagues were not used to doing hill climbing.
I waited my colleagues reaching this highest point(pic.8) for a while. After this tunnel, only down hill continued as far as the coast. Though there was other good water fall spots, Kawazu nana daru(seven water falls) in the middle of our route, but as we consider reaching our hotel before sunset, we skipped dropping there. I’ll visit there in the season of Kawazu cherry blossoms in late February.
When we reached the coast, we could see Izu Oshima island where we did a training camp a year ago far away (pic.10). From this point to our final destination, Shimoda city, there were many up & downs.
Sometimes we should go on a steep slope along the cliffs but it gave us a beautiful scenery (pic.11,12). But sometimes the route was scary since a sheer cliff appears just under our eyes(pic.13).
When we reached a designed observatory area(pic.14), the Shimoda city was right in front of us. We could reach our hotel at PM4:30 and after taking a shower, we again gathered at a tavern, Kaikoku-Chubo, Bochi Bochi.
Kaikoku means opening the gate of country in 19th century. Since Japan opened its port from Shimoda after its isolationism. It’s relatively close to Tokyo but there are many steep mountains among them, so the then politicians were extremely anxious about opening the country.
BTW, I was very surprised to see the collar of red sea bream as appetizer of tavern(pic.15). Such service may be seen only in this area since Izu area has good sea bream fishing ground. Other than that, I was excited to eat fried young horse mackerel. We are used to eat cut open and dried horse mackerel and its born can’t be eaten. But this fried one was enough soft to eaten up. Of course very delicious.
Actually after tavern, we went to a local hostess bar and too much drunk. So it was tough for me to wake up in next early morning. But since it took 4hrs to my home, I woke up at AM5:30 and went to Izukyu-Shimoda station.
<Transportation info>
From Tokyo to Mishima: 42min by Shinkansen, \4,070-
From Izukyu-Shimoda to Tokyo: If not using any express, Izukyuko to Atami 1.5hrs, And change to JR Tokaido line 2hrs. \4,000-.
<Connected route>
D-3: Amagi pass climbing
D-2: Hakone pass climbing