Japan, Izu Peninsula - Road Trip to Remember

As a new year dawns, many of us will be busy with work. However, we must also find time to rest, relax and rejuvenate as the year progresses. What better way to do that than to plan a road trip to your favourite travel destination?

For me, I will be going on another road trip to Japan in early April 2018. The trip's dates are timed to coincide with the annual cherry blossom season and also early spring where the weather is cool but not very cold and I can spend a lot more time outdoors without feeling the chills.

I will be doing a road trip from Osaka to Takashima and Kyoto and then to Tokyo.

In April 2017, I went on a road trip from Atami to Ito along the Izu Peninsula. The trip was awesome  and it brought back great memories interspaced with many travel tales to share. There were many firsts for that road trip. These include staying at a hostel for the first time in my travels, visiting a zoo (sort of, I visited the Izu Shaboten Park) for the first time outside my home country, going full monty at a public bath and viewing sakura at the foot of Mount Omuro, an extinct volcano.

We traveled to experience life from a different perspective. So live life and enjoy yourself if you can. After all, we only live once! :-)

Capybaras enjoying a hot spring soak, Izu Saboten Park, Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (2017)

Stopping the car to enjoy and photograph the early spring blooms along the road, Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (2017)

A local wet market along the road from Atami to Ito, Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (2017)

A sign advertising a local hot spring. This was where I went full monty and bared everything at a public bath for the first time (including my full shoulder and chest tattoos), Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (2017)

Signs along the road advertising eateries, Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (2017)

A delicious and fresh sashimi meal for lunch, Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (2017)