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Day 2: Izu Skyline
All I can say is, you MUST ride this, and any/everywhere on the Izu Peninsula at some point in your life. You must do this especially if you consider yourself a keen moto tourer. The scenery and corner carving cahoonery is OSM (panorama). OSM. Sometimes when you read moto magazines they talk about an ear to ear grin when riding a bike. I had one of these. A lot. It was OSM. I felt so ecstatic because here I was, a total newbie to Japan, second day riding a bike here, and I’d found one of the most wicked routes to ride in my life. It’s a skyline for sure, you get views from the ridgeline across the peninsular east and west and it’s fun just to sit and chill at a look out, watching other motorcyclists cruise by, or ogle the other parked bikes. Basically there’s not a straight section of road from the Toyo Tires Turnpike (closed when I went so I had to take Hwy 1) all the way to Shimoda at the peninsular tip. After the skyline I rode along the coast into Shimoda, which is also really beautiful. I love riding along the coast, you get all the little picturesque seaside fishing villages on one side and some nice mountain views on the other. There are always plenty of places to stop and lots of fishing paraphernalia to check out. It was the same situation with accommodation in Shimoda – honestly this trip wasn’t really planned beyond the route I drew up in OSRM with the help of Gaijin Riders forum members. But no matter, I happened upon the bus station in the centre of town and they sent me round the corner to the tourist info place, where a couple of little old ladies lined me up with a Y4500 guesthouse.
I learned a valuable lesson for touring Japan out of this. Always head to the town’s transport hub and you’ll find someone nearby who can direct you to accommodation. Every town I stayed in had a train station so I always aimed for that. Shimoda is a beautiful little place. Make sure you take the time to go for a walk. It’s so quiet. There are so few cars you can just walk down the middle of the road almost. I checked out Perry’s memorial, a US seaman who negotiated to start trading with the Japanese by landing in Shimoda a couple of centuries ago… including just traipsing along the shore checking out boats and people fishing.
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