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!

Hamazushi

Before we ever moved to Japan, Peter and I always loved going out to eat.  Combine that with our love for Japanese food, and now actually being in Japan and exploring our new city, and it's trouble.  We eat out way too often!

One of our favorite family spots that we've discovered since being here is Hamazushi.  It's a conveyer belt sushi restaurant!  AND! It's only ¥100 per plate (which was usually two pieces of sushi).  Some items, like karage, or different types of noodles were ¥200/plate, but still totally cheap.  We ended up getting a ton of food for a great price.

The sushi isn't the best sushi I've ever had, but it's definitely good.  That, plus the entertainment and novelty factors of being able to choose our food as it rolled by, made it an instant winner in our book. The kids ate really well too.  Will likes shrimp sushi, both kids love rice and noodles, and we can usually get them to eat karage or little pieces of beef that were served on different items.  In other words, there were plenty of things that my kids would eat, unlike a lot of sushi restaurants that are limited to only sushi.

I LOVE sushi, however, there are still a few things that even I won't try . . . 

Full squid served on some rice with mayo like it's no big deal?!  And don't worry, I've seen these same type of squid sold at the grocery store and they were about 10 times the size!  

There are several Hamazushi restaurants around, but the closest one to base is really easy to get to.  Just turn right out the east gate and drive until you see it on your left (it's right before the Moritown Mall and close to the Akishima train station).  

GPS Coordinates: 

35.714904, 139.365382

Date Night at Sushi Kazu

For Peter's and my first date night in Japan, we went and got sushi.  Sushi is my very favorite food, and I had been dying to eat real, authentic sushi here in the Motherland.  So, upon a recommendation from one of Peter's coworkers who is from here, we ventured out to a place pretty close to base that was supposed to be fabulous.  We found the restaurant and walked in, only to find that every chair was filled.  The sushi chef apologized that there was no room and politely just waved us off.  Um, okay.  What do we do now???

We decided that another sushi restaurant had to be close by, so we started roaming the streets (poor Peter was carrying Bennett in the carseat the whole time, which is no small endeavor--that kid is heavy!) looking for a place to eat.  After about 20 minutes of walking and searching, we were about to give up as we reached the end of the street on which we were walking.  I saw a small restuarant-looking place, and peeked through the paper windows, and hooray!  I found a little sushi restaurant!  And by little, I mean very small.  Like 3 seats at the sushi counter and one table that could fit maybe 5 people.  And that's it.  It was a total mom and pop place, with pop as sushi chef, and mom as the server wearing traditional clothing with a white smock for working worn over her clothes.

After being seated, and ordering (we had the choice of two sushi combo platters--that was the entire menu!), we proceeded to eat THE BEST SUSHI OF OUR LIVES.  Seriously.  I don't really know what else to say.  The fish was perfect, and we were completely in awe as we watched the sushi chef make each roll.  That night set a pretty great precedent for our date nights in Japan!

(Please excuse the poorly-lit, poor-quality iPhone pictures--they really don't do it justice!)

Sushi Kazu

GPS Coordinates: 

35.742900, 139.329555