For Golden
Week I went to Tokyo and the Izu peninsula, and I had an amazing time. On the
first weekend I went to Tokyo with some friends. I stayed in the North side of
Tokyo, which is more relaxing than where I usually stay.
On the
first day I went to an exhibition called Katagami Style at the Mitsubishi
Ichigokan Museum. It was brilliant and very inspiring, I want to try and make
stencils for this type of dying and printing. I then went to Ueno Park and
relaxed, its was a lovely day to walk around the lake. We met this man feeding birds, there were so many round him.
The next
day I went to a baseball game with some friends. I was exciting and fun, and I
actually understood more about the game this time.
On the
second weekend I was supposed to go to Nii-jima Island but the weather was very
bad on Thursday and the ferry was cancelled. Everyone was stranded at Ito station because the trains wouldn't go to Shimoda until 11am.
I didn’t
want to waste the day so I went to the Museum of Art in Atami to see the
exhibition of traditional Japanese paintings. They were so beautiful and painted
in such detail but unfortunately I could take pictures. The gardens were great
as well but the view was clouded over.
The next day, three
friends and I decided to rent a car and travel around the Izu. I was amazing
and the weather was so good that I actually got a tan!
We went
to Shirahama beach in Shimoda and I tried to surf. The waves were very big and
I couldn’t stand up but I had fun trying.
That
evening we camped out and my American friend Anna taught us how to make
s’mores. They are roasted marshmallows trapped between two honey crackers with
chocolate. It was a delicious dessert and they were so much fun to make.
The next
morning we went to Tatado beach and relaxed. In the afternoon we went to see
the Jogazaki coastline and the suspension bridge. The coastline is very rugged
and beautiful, and it reminded me of the coast in Ireland.
This was all of us on the bridge, it moves a bit when you are walking on it. As you can see it was very windy!
That
night we stayed at the Onsen hostel in Ito called K's Hostel. (I stayed there with my mum and aunt so I'm not going to put more picture up.) It is a traditional style ryokan and it is very relaxing because you feel like you are in
Japan 100 years ago. I was excited to eat sushi because I feel like the weather has been too cold to eat it recently.
Before
heading home on the last day, we went to spa area in Amori. There was a nice tearoom there
where you could put your feet in a spa as you ate your lunch. It was so beautiful there and was a great way to end our Izu trip.
