The Izu Peninsula Hot Spring Circuit

Tokyo's Hot Spring Backyard

The Izu Peninsula drops south from Shizuoka into the Pacific, a volcanic landmass where hot spring water flows so abundantly that entire towns smell faintly of sulfur. For Tokyo residents, Izu is the closest escape that feels genuinely different, the climate is warmer, the pace is slower, and the coastal landscape alternates between black volcanic rock and turquoise coves that could pass for Mediterranean. The peninsula has been a resort destination since the Edo period, fell into slow decline during the late Showa era, and is now experiencing a revival as a new generation of visitors discovers its combination of onsen, coastal scenery, and culinary quality.

A three-day circuit, Atami to Shuzenji to Jogasaki to Shimoda, with a detour through Kawazu if timing allows, covers the peninsula's full range. The distances are short (the entire peninsula is about 60 kilometers north to south), the trains and buses are reliable, and the concentration of onsen means you can soak every evening in a different mineral composition.

Atami: The Comeback City

Atami was once Japan's premier honeymoon destination, a resort city of grand hotels, ocean views, and abundant hot springs that peaked in the 1960s before decades of decline emptied its streets and shuttered its hotels. In the past five years, Atami has staged one of Japan's most surprising urban revivals. Young entrepreneurs have opened cafes, craft shops, and boutique ryokan in the old hotel district. The waterfront promenade has been redesigned. The morning market at the fishing port draws weekend visitors from Tokyo, 45 minutes away by Shinkansen.

The MOA Museum of Art, set on a hilltop above the city, houses a world-class collection of Japanese and East Asian art in a building that is itself an architectural experience, long escalators descend through a tunnel of shifting colored light before opening onto a gallery with a panoramic ocean view. The permanent collection includes three National Treasures, and the seasonal exhibitions draw from a collection of over 3,500 works. Admission is ¥1,600. Below the museum, the Atami Plum Garden (Atami Baien) hosts one of Japan's earliest plum blossom festivals, typically peaking in late January to mid-February.

Shuzenji: The Literary Onsen

Shuzenji is the peninsula's interior hot spring town, set in a narrow valley where the Katsura River is lined with ryokan, red-lacquered bridges, and bamboo groves. The town has literary credentials that run deep: Natsume Soseki convalesced here in 1910 and nearly died of a stomach hemorrhage (the episode became central to his later writing), Yasunari Kawabata set stories here, and the general atmosphere of refined melancholy has attracted Japanese writers for centuries.

The Shuzenji hot spring, at the town's center, is the oldest on the Izu Peninsula, according to legend, discovered by the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) in 807 AD when he struck a rock with his staff and hot water emerged. The original riverside spring, Tokko no Yu, is now a viewing-only monument, but the town's ryokan draw from the same thermal source. The public bathhouses Hakoyu (¥350) and Kumasaka-no-Yu are affordable alternatives to the ryokan baths and use the same alkaline sulfate water that softens skin and loosens joints.

Jogasaki Coast and Ito

The Jogasaki Coast, south of Ito city, is a nine-kilometer stretch of volcanic shoreline where black lava rock meets deep blue Pacific water. A well-maintained hiking trail follows the cliff edge, crossing suspension bridges over narrow inlets, passing a lighthouse, and offering views of offshore rock formations and, on clear days, the distant Izu Islands. The full trail takes about three hours at a moderate pace, with multiple entry and exit points for shorter walks.

The Kadowaki Suspension Bridge, near the trail's northern end, crosses a 48-meter-deep gorge with a waterfall dropping directly into the sea below. The bridge is 23 meters high and 60 meters long, and the view from its center, down to the crashing sea, up to the forested cliffs, is the trail's highlight. Ito, at the coast's northern end, is a mid-sized onsen town with over 780 spring sources and a relaxed, unpretentious character. The Ito Marine Town complex on the waterfront has a free foot bath overlooking the harbor and a seafood market where the morning catch is grilled to order.

Shimoda and Perry's Landing

Shimoda, at the peninsula's southern tip, is where modern Japan began. In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry's Black Ships sailed into Shimoda harbor, and the resulting Treaty of Shimoda opened Japan to American trade after 200 years of isolation. The Perry Museum (¥500) documents this pivotal encounter, and the annual Black Ship Festival in May re-enacts the arrival with parades and naval demonstrations. The Ryosenji Temple, where the treaty was negotiated, is a quiet site whose modest appearance belies its historical weight.

Beyond the history, Shimoda has some of Izu's finest beaches. Shirahama Beach, a 700-meter white sand arc, is the most popular. Tatadohama Beach, slightly further north, is less crowded and backed by a forested hillside. The water clarity in this area is exceptional, snorkeling straight off the beach reveals tropical fish species carried north by the Kuroshio Current, an anomaly at this latitude. The seafood at Shimoda's harbor restaurants reflects the Kuroshio influence: kinmedai (golden-eye snapper, a Shimoda specialty), sazae (turban shell), and seasonal ise-ebi (spiny lobster, October-March) served as sashimi or grilled.

Kawazu Sakura and the Wasabi Heartland

Kawazu, a small town between Shimoda and Ito, is famous for one thing: sakura that bloom a full month before Tokyo's. The Kawazu-zakura variety, discovered here in the 1950s, opens in early to mid-February and holds its deep pink blossoms for three to four weeks, far longer than the Somei-Yoshino cherries that define hanami season elsewhere. The Kawazu-gawa river, lined with 8,000 Kawazu cherry trees, becomes a tunnel of pink that is, for those three weeks, the earliest hanami experience in the Kanto/Chubu region.

Inland from Kawazu, the Amagi area is the center of Izu's wasabi cultivation. The mountain streams here provide the cold, mineral-rich running water that wasabi requires, and the farms, terraced stone beds built into forested streamsides, have operated for generations. The Wasabi no Sato farm in the Amagi highlands offers wasabi picking experiences (¥1,500, seasonal) and serves wasabi soba, wasabi ice cream, and freshly grated wasabi on rice, the sharp, nasal heat of real wasabi bearing no resemblance to the dyed horseradish paste served in most restaurants outside Japan.