Sand Sledding and Cave Exploring in Shimoda

After lots of beach time in Shimoda we headed down to Toji Beach and Ryugu Park to check out the secret cave and try out sand sledding!  The cave in Ryugu Park was so cool--having been formed from a volcanic burst, it formed an enclosed, beautiful, little private beach with turquoise water.  It was serene and peaceful down in the cave, and then hiking up above and around the cave was just as beautiful, or even more so since we were able to see more views of the rocky, jagged coastline in addition to the cave!

After spending a while exploring the cave and admiring the views from Ryugu Park, we walked over to the Toji Sand Skiing Beach.  We hadn't planned on going there, so we didn't bring any of the little plastic sleds (they sell them at the ¥100 store) with us.  Usually the shops around the area rent them out, but because we were there during rainy/off season, none of the stores were open.  Luckily though, we had our boogie board with us and it worked just great!

The hill is really, really steep!  So, going down it on a slick boogie board can really get you flying!  It was so much fun!  Bennett LOVED it.  Andrew took him down the hill several times, and every time they got to the bottom of the hill, Bennett would start crying and refuse to get off the board because he wanted to do it again!  It was hilarious.

I've got a bunch of videos that I'll try and upload later, but we all had a blast sledding down the huge sand hill!

And again, the views were beautiful!  Shimoda is full of gorgeous spots!

While we were in Shimoda, we also ate at a couple of delicious restaurants!  The first was a conveyer belt sushi place, called Sakanadonya, with really great quality fish!  It was some of the best sushi we've had since we've been in Japan.  I was glad that we were able to eat there with Andrew, because he is a Townsend after all, which means that he loves sushi too! 

And Bennett loved the tuna roll!  He could hardly wait for Peter to give him more bites!

Another delicious, and very authentic restaurant we went to in Shimoda was Ue No Yama.  We ate fresh sashimi, katsudon, soba, ramen, and tempura, and it was all delicious!  I only have a couple of pictures; one pic of my awesome sashimi and this shot of a little sea slug that was in our miso soup!  There were a bunch of these little guys in there, and they weren't too bad, surprisingly enough.  Although, I hit my limit quickly and couldn't eat more than just a couple!  

Oishi!