Japan Déjà vu: May 5

When I was in high school, I read the short story The Dancing Girl of Izu by Yasunari Kawabata. The elegiac story almost took my breath away; this dreamland had been added on to my bucket list for trips even before I knew where it was on the map of Japan.

It turned out that Izu Peninsula is also the heaven for Onsen (hot spring) lovers. After a day’s trip re-visiting the recognizable landscape from Kawabata’s short story, I will end my day with a complimentary hot spring at Sawada-koen Rotenburo Onsen at Dogashima. It is an open-air hot spring located on top of the cliffs in Sawada Park. Due to its special location, you can actually vie the Pacific Ocean while soaking in the warm spring water!

Budget

Hotel $30

Hot Spring $10

Food $20

Total $60

Where

I will be going to Japan and spend half of a month there. When talking about Japan, people think about Californian Rolls and Comics. Sadly, neither of these is genuinely Japanese. Californian Roll to Japanese is like tofu burger to Americans – Japanese people have never heard about Californian Rolls. Also, comics are American art while people in Japan call theirs manga.

Besides, Japan is just so much more than its food and contemporary art. With land area 1/25 size to Canada, Japan is surprisingly blessed with 6 vastly different climate zones from north to south, and over 90,000 species of wildlife.

Who

I will be travelling by myself, which I have never done before. This will be somewhat inconvenient from a traveler’s perspective, since no one will be at my side to help me make decisions, nor will there be a company to share my laughers and doubts to a new culture. But I want to be an explorer this time, an explorer who strides along in a totally different country, with people speaking an entirely different language. And this will be a great chance for me to push myself beyond limits to overcome obstacles yet to come. To be honest, I kind of take these potential obstacles as surprises that will add flavor to my trip!

May 5 – Izu 伊豆