I have been lucky enough to visit the Isu Peninsular to the south of Tokyo on two occassions now. Once when Richy was visiting during summer we went Hiking on the Izu peninsular with Tomomi and enjoyed driving around the coast, swimming, eating amazing and disgusting seafood, and watching dolphin shows. We were lucky enough whilst hiking to get close to some of the local deer.

I was also lucky to visit Izu with Alex, Meg and her friend Hiroko to do the waterfall tour, have real green tea in a traditional house, watch fireworks, take an ocean view onsen under the stars and generally enjoy good company.

The traditional house, set amongst a bamboo forest was particularly impressive – especially as the owner had re-built the whole thing from scratch and using traditional techniques. The wood was hard and polished and joined using traditional techniques and limited nails. The walls had been woven and then plastered with home made horse-hair mud and the whole reconstruction had been photo documented. Impressive.