Izu touring
Just came back from a bike drive around the Izu peninsula a couple of hours away from Tokyo. Excellent bike roads! My lady really had to give everything to keep me on the road =)
First a pit stop in Yokohama for some italian food in Minatomirai close to the Yokohama land mark.
Via Kamakura, down on road 134 and 135 along the coastline to Atami. With the usual nantoka naru attitude I was hoping to find somewhere to stay overnight along the trip. I had to ask at a couple of inns before I found a nice hotel around 11.30pm. The view from the room was excellent and there were some fireworks going on!
07.30:I started out on my way down to Shimoda. Known to be the harbour where Commodore Perry signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, which resulted in the opening of Japan in 1856 after the isolation. Shimoda and Hakodate (In Hokkaido) were two of the ports opened up. By pure coincident I've visited both of them in during the last week. =)A replica of the Susquehanna. Perry's "Black Ship" could be found in Shimoda.
After a short while I felt that I needed to get on the road again. Next stop was Irouzaki, the southernmost point if the Izu peninsula.
Road 16 down there and road 17 between Toi and Numazu are perfect bike roads! メッチャお勧め！
Arriving in Numazu having completed the whole coastline drive from Kamakura, I decided to let her show what she really is built for, speed, on the Toumei Numazu Highway. Around Gotemba I got caught... by a horrible thunderstorm. Pretty cold and rough, but the worst thing was that my plans to see Mt. Fuji from the highway was ruined. The good thing was that I've been wanting to washing the bike for a while now. Now I don't have to =) 
15 hours of driving, 475km.
Appearantly give you a good "Bonnabränna"!
