I took advantage of a short break to go to Izu with some friends. Izu is a peninsula about two hours from Tokyo. The main goal of this trip was to cover as much of Izu as we could in two days and one night.
Our first stop was Numazu, a port famous for its abundant seafood. It’s also home to the main shop of Numazu Uogashi Zushi, the sushi place known for being cheap and tasty, which also has a branch in the Marunouchi Building by Tokyo Station.
But when we got there around 11, the market was mostly closed. When I asked, they said it only runs until about 9 in the morning. Oh well… nothing to be done… we decided to just wander around the area.
There’s a market like this open for the tourists.
There are still a fair number of tourists around.
Dried fish, 10 for 500 yen
They were cheap, so I bought some. ^_^ They’ll go with rice at home.
Simmered fish heads
They looked delicious, but I held back because I figured they’d spoil easily.
A dried-fish specialty shop
You don’t have to come to this particular shop; I saw plenty of places selling dried fish all over Izu. But since we’d come all the way to Numazu, I just bought them here.
We’d eco-driven all the way from Tokyo (gas prices have gone up, so we have to save), which took a whole two hours, so it was about time to eat. After looking around for where to go, we headed into a place called Maruten. It had the longest line of all. Numazu Uogashi Zushi was packed too, but I didn’t particularly feel like eating there. These days you can find its branches just about anywhere.
The front entrance
Set meals and sushi are the main menu. They do a bit of Western food too, and it looks like they serve every dish you could possibly make with seafood.
Tea
Chutoro set meal
The portion’s a bit small. The taste wasn’t bad, but for the price it was just so-so…
Kuruma prawn fry set meal
A set meal that comes with two huge prawns. The prawns were great in both size and flavor, but the frying was meh. The coating was thick and not even crispy. My mistake, really. Expecting frying skills from a place like this… Ordering the ordinary Japanese-style dishes seems to be the way to go.
Miso soup
The miso soup alone was superb. They must have packed in a ton of ingredients, because the fish flavor was amazing. Of course I ordered another bowl.
Rice
Maybe because it’s the countryside, they’re still generous with refills. In Tokyo they often charge you for this too.
Negitoro gunkan roll
It felt like we didn’t have quite enough, so I ordered this as an extra. The taste was so-so.
When I went to order, the popular dishes had already sold out by lunchtime. Numazu seems like it’d be more fun in all sorts of ways if you came early in the morning, but I doubt I’ll ever be diligent enough to travel like that.
After a loop around Numazu, we headed down the west side of the Izu Peninsula. Rumor has it the view of Mt. Fuji from the coast is spectacular, but you can only just make it out on a really clear day. (I got fooled…)
Driving along the coastline, we reached a small port called Heda.
It’s a really small place.
The sea from the observation deck
Inside there’s a tiny beach with rather dirty water.
There was nobody there except the locals. After talking it over with my friends, we decided to swim and play for a while at this abandoned-looking beach. We had nothing else planned for the day anyway.
Bonus shot
A shirtless shot my friend took of me. After a stretch of loose living, my belly’s grown and I’ve lost a lot of muscle. From now on I’d better eat some chicken breast.