1 August – Woke at 5 am (its light then). I had not been sleeping well. The night before going to Mt Fuji 5^th station I had hardly slept at all! And then didn’t sleep much that night as well.

Sometimes when I am around the energy zones/power spots, my body goes into some sort of overdrive. Mt Shasta was like that, sometimes it’s time to leave, and it was time this morning. I got on an early bus from Kawaguchiko Station to Gotemba. Then, I caught another bus to Mishima Station. After that, I took a few more trains from there.

At the train station before Ito, I meet a fellow traveller. His name was Corby. It turns out we were staying at the same place – K’s House Historical Ryokan Hostel.  We walked to it, he helped me in that he dragged my ‘belt bag’ – which is difficult to do! We checked in and stored our bags. Check-in is not until 3 pm. We found the restaurant that was recommended to us. It is called Kappore, where we had a hearty lunch.

That afternoon, I sat by the fan at the hostel and wrote. The doors open out to the river. I could hear the sound of the cicadas. It is a wonderful hostel; there are Onsen baths, both public and private.

I walked to the beach. It was Orange Beach, just up the road. I put my feet in the water. People were swimming.

That evening after doing some washing, I met a few more people from my room. There was a free dinner at 7pm. The food was delicious with noodles, tempura, and toppings. It was the hostel’s fourth birthday. I felt very lucky and enjoyed the food with conversation, and so slept well that night.

Ito (伊東, Itō) is a famous hot spring resort town on the Izu Peninsula.  About ten km south of central Ito is Izu Kogen. It has many small museums and restaurants. You can also visit Mount Omuro and the beautiful Jogasaki Coast. 

I headed down on a bus for a day trip to the Jogasaki Coast. The jagged cliffs and stone formations that hug the coast make for a beautiful small hike.  I walked the Kadowakizaki Suspension Bridge and went to up to the observation deck on the Lighthouse. 

It was very hot waiting for a bus, if you weren’t in the shade.  I jumped on one to Mount Omuro.  The energy here was very powerful on this extinct volcano.  A gentle mountain with a crater of 300 meters in diameter and 70 meters in depth. Panoramic views at the top as I saw Mt Fuji peaking at me at one stage.  A chair lift transports people up and down, I enjoyed this ride and view swing. 

I did the loop round and there were many energy spots.  Sometimes I pretend I am taking photos. As sometimes, I am called to stand in a certain spot annoyingly for quite a long time. When I felt the ease, then I would move again. 

I met a few lovely folks from the Hostel. We went out for dinner that night to a cool local restaurant.  Smoking is still allowed in this place. I found it uncomfortable at times. However, the food and company made up for it.

4 August – I woke in Ito. I went down early for an Onsen Bath in the public one downstairs. It was so lovely.  I have never been as clean as I was in Japan!!!  Then I went for a walk to get some breakfast. I ate it by the water and said some words out over the Pacific.  I was packed up, bag was stored at Hostel. Then I hopped onto a train. Well, I say hopped, but it was a hard feat walking my bags down to the station without the handle.  I had booked the train’s reserved ticket when I arrived at Ito. Turning up was all that remained.

And the trains – I caught five. They were all booked to give me time to get to each station. At one station, I caught the Shinkansen again. It was incredible to see the bullet trains go racing past when they weren’t stopping… Whoosh! I left at about 11.30 am and got to Osaka airport at about 5 pm; my flight wasn’t until 11.45 pm.  I was early, but I was there! I had Sushi from a conveyer belt. I met a young traveller who had just flown in from China. He said it felt much calmer in Japan. We enjoyed watching the steamboat pull up with the order.

I had to pay for the baggage again. I tried to explain to them that my baggage had been wrecked. I also mentioned that the other flight had been rescheduled. It was an interesting time. I unpacked some of my bag. And curiously tried that thing of putting some of my clothes on, to make the weight less. But that was just silly really. Sometimes I have to make peace with not trying to be such a cheapskate. There was a really slow queue too, so took about 2 hours standing in lines. Flying with Air Asia X. The tickets are a good price, so you take the yin with the yang. There was a very cute Japanese baby in the queue too, so that helped time go faster. Arrived in KL at 5 am in morning.

Arigatou – Thankyou Japan!