Tokyo-twentyfive: Weekend in Shimoda

This past Monday was a national holiday in Japan called Autumnal Equinox Day, hence a 3-day weekend. The intense heat of the summer has finally broken, but it is still summer weather, so we decided to go check out the beaches in Shimoda (60 miles/2-hour train ride away).

We stayed in a family-run "pension" within walking distance of Shirahama Beach. It could be called "charming" or "rustic" or "authentic", but it was mostly just a bit run-down, musty and shabby, though still quite expensive... They have one of the few English websites, so they get a lot of foreigner guests. In our case, all the other guests were German or Japanese.

At the entrance to the pension, you remove your shoes and change into slippers that you remove inside of your tatami room. We had a 10-tatami room where we slept on futons. The toilets are shared by all the rooms and require their own changing of slippers into "toilet slippers". I find the whole shared "toilet slipper" thing to be particularly unhygienic, but tried to push those OCD thoughts out of my mind.... There is a shared bath as well -- one for men and one for women. In Japanese baths, you first wash with the hand-held shower, while sitting on a little plastic stool. Once you are all clean and soap-free, you can enter the large shared, really hot bath to soak in.

Our room

The kids tried their first Japanese breakfasts at the pension (grilled mackerel, rice, miso soup, hijiki seaweed, spinach, scrambled eggs, sausages and pickles) and quickly decided to have the "western breakfast" the next day (toast).

The beach was beautiful -- white sand and lots of surfers. There was a surprising amount of yucky trash in the sand -- bottle caps, toothpicks, cigarette butts. Part of the problem is surely that the only public trash cans you can find are at the convenience stores. Ever since the 1995 sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway, public trash cans have disappeared. Everyone is expected to carry their trash out with them wherever they are, I guess.

Shimoda is an exceptionally historic town, having been the port that U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry drove his "black ships" into in order to force Japan to open up and trade with the U.S. after 200+ years of seclusion from the world during the Tokugawa Era. He successfully intimidated the Japanese by pointing his cannons to the shore and having a white flag delivered with a note explaining that the Japanese would be needing this if they did not willingly let him dock.

There was incredible wind on the third day that created a virtual sandstorm, so we decided to catch the public bus back to Shimoda and catch the train back to Tokyo. All was going smoothly until we noticed the "no credit cards at this station" sign at the Shimoda train station. What seemed like no big deal turned into a one-hour search for a 7-Eleven where our cash card would be accepted. Lesson learned: Never travel without A LOT of cash in Japan. We always spend far more than I optimistically plan for.

A mirage? Finally, found this 7-Eleven -- the only place that I could get cash in Shimoda.

Not so fast! Still have to navigate the directions in Japanese. Kept failing until I realized that I needed to add the "yen" sign. Isn't it obvious that I want yen since this machine only dispenses yen? Ergh!

Want to make it back to Shimoda sometime in the future with a car to explore a bit more and to try the famed onsen hot springs and red snapper dishes.