Getting there, towns and day trips
Trains, buses and passes, plus day plans for Atami, Shimoda and the historic towns of Izu.
Izu is easy to reach and harder to cross. Trains run down the east coast and up the central valley, while the south and west depend on buses. This guide covers the journey from Tokyo, getting around once you arrive, and one-day plans for the towns most visitors start with.
Shimoda in a day: Perry Road, Ryosenji, the ropeway and the black ship harbour
Where Japan's isolation ended: a walking day in Shimoda from the station to Ryosenji temple and Perry Road, up the ropeway and out to the beaches and the Ryugu sea cave.
A day in Atami from Tokyo: the plum garden, a 2,000-year-old camphor tree and the MOA Museum
Forty minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen: Kinomiya Shrine and its sacred camphor tree, the Atami Plum Garden, the MOA Museum of Art and an evening bath by the sea.
Getting around Izu without a car: trains, buses and the passes worth buying
How the JR Ito line, the Izukyu line, the Izuhakone Railway and Tokai Bus fit together, which rail passes cover them, and the bus passes that make the south and west affordable.
Getting to the Izu Peninsula from Tokyo: trains, buses and driving
The Odoriko and Saphir Odoriko limited expresses, the Shinkansen to Atami or Mishima, and how to get around once you arrive.
Shimoda Park (Joyama Park): harbour views and hydrangeas
A wooded hill above Shimoda's harbour, best known for one of Japan's largest hydrangea displays every June.
Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace: a World Heritage site from the 1850s
Twin brick chimneys built in the 1850s to cast cannon, now part of the 'Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution' World Heritage listing.
Jashumon: Shimoda's retro coffee house
A coffee house open since 1966 in an old Shimoda building, known for its Wiener coffee, its antiques and its chansons.
Cafe Den: homemade cakes near Perry Road
A small café in yellow and blue near Shimoda's old town and the sea, known for its owner's homemade seasonal cakes.
Kawazu Bagatelle Park: a Parisian rose garden in Izu
A sister garden of the Bagatelle rose garden in Paris, with about 6,000 roses of 1,100 varieties in a French formal layout.
ACAO FOREST (Akao Herb & Rose Garden) and Kengo Kuma's COEDA HOUSE
Terraced gardens on a cliff south of Atami, with a glass-walled café by Kengo Kuma overlooking the Pacific.
The former Yoda residence, Matsuzaki: the Izu home of a Hokkaido pioneer
A farmhouse of more than 300 years in Matsuzaki, once the family home of Yoda Benzo, founder of Obihiro in Hokkaido.