Usami beach, Otsuka minshuku, and a new Pepsi

Beaches in Japan are wonderful. Some beaches are family oriented, others are for those who like to see and be seen. Shirahama (literally, “White Beach”) is one of the latter, and it also has good surfing, swimming and suntanning. The sandy beaches on the west side of Izu are all really nice, though, and once they are officially opened they all have lots of easy access to cold beer and chu-hi (a sweet canned drink made with sho-chu and lemon/lime/grapefruit or whatever). At Shirahama there are even “beer girls” who walk up on down the beach selling cold beer, so you don’t have to get up and go to the yatai (food stall) to buy one yourself!

Shirahama is a bit far, but we wanted to spend time at the beach this weekend, so we decided to spend a couple of days at Usami beach (not far from Atami). It was only an hour and a half or so away, and we got to enjoy a few hours sitting in the sun and savouring the still-unpopulated beach before the crowds converge after the official opening. (Usami officially opened Sunday afternoon, so the other beaches likely did too).

We stayed at the Otsuka minshuku, where we’d stayed once last year. We did not take the dinner and breakfast option this time, but immediately wished we had. The food at the minshuku is fabulous traditional Japanese fare (as we remember from last year), and they are also fairly well-known for their cuisine, which includes unagi and, their specialty, fugu. You can call ahead and reserve a fugu-nabe course, if you feel daring! Otherwise, there are not many options for dinner within walking distance. Luckily, we did find a nice ise-ebi restaurant that also served up pretty good tempura.

The Otsuka itself is a nice but very simple and slightly run-down place. The tatami has seen better days, as has the shoji and fusuma paper. But the owners are very friendly, and the minshuku is super-close to the beach.

Unfortunately, it is also super close to the highway (as in, it is ON the highway), and it was our misfortune to get (again) room 201, which is street level, “ocean view” – a euphemism for “right on the highway”. With hundreds (thousands?) of cars and large trucks speeding past our window, it was much too noisy for comfort. So, while we will stay at the Otsuka again, we will request a different room upon booking…and to be safe, we may request not to have the ocean view, but rather, the mountain view!

Otsuka’s English homepage is here: http://www.izu.co.jp/~otsuka/justa.htm
Or call them: 0557-48-8839 (English is probably ok since the owners spoke English while we were there).

Some photos from our weekend:

Our room at the Otsuka - I love traditional Japanese rooms! (We put futons down on the tatami for sleeping at night).


Me, reading and relaxing in our room:



This summer's Pepsi is Blue Hawaii, with Pineapple and Lemon...though I thought it sort of tasted like spruce beer; on the right is frozen green tea - a great summer refreshment:



A close-up view of the shoji (black and white):


On Sunday, the weather was windy and cloudy, so we drove around Izu for a bit before heading home. We stopped at a small temple and got this photo:


Finally, the sun came out while we were near the Jogasaki coast: