Overview of today
While yesterday I spent the sunny day in the city of Hamamatsu, today I venture off far into the rain soaked rural landscapes. Kanzanji Sago Royal Hotel concludes with two morning baths, breakfast, and a bike ride up to visit the local deity and the beach. I take a ferry one stop across an arm of the lake. A rainy walk to Sunza on the rural Tenryu Hamanako railway to Kanasashi station. From there, longish taxis ride to the Ryotanji temple to enjoy a remarkable garden and a cup of hot matcha tea. Another taxi back to Kanasashi station and on to Tenryu Futamata station. A bus shuttle takes me to the final event: an open-air boat ride along the placid Tenryu River, accompanied by a boatload of Japanese. Retracing my steps back to JR Hamamatsu station, I jump on a random Shinkansen back to Tokyo, arriving around 8:30 p.m.

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Overview of today in Hamamatsu
A shinkansen bullet train zippy ride from Tokyo station to unknown Hamamatsu, population 822,716, begins the day. I visit nearby Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments, and then take a bus ride to the Hamamatsu Castle of Tokugawa Ieyasu. A second bus ride takes me to the coast where I check my bags into the Kanzanji Sago Royal Hotel. Nearby, I take an aerial lift up over the Lake Hamana to the hilltop Hamanako Music Box Museum. Later, I glide down through an orange sunset to enjoy a walk back to the Hotel, encountering strange sights and a tranquil outdoor footbath, followed by a terrific dinner, and an evening soak. My room overlooks the beach and a picturesque hillside. The sound of lapping waves and seabirds lulls me to sleep on the tatami.

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Overview of today:
After an early morning soak in my own private ofuro, I am back together for another wasabi-laced breakfast. I race around the perplexing corridors searching for the gargantuan stone outdoor onsen and stumble across dusty artifacts and tiny gardens. Generations of grandpa’s ghosts are suspected of hoarding in the manor. I bid a riotous farewell to the Shirakabeso ryokan. Okami-san (proprietress) Uda joins me at the Joren Waterfalls, a tiny upstairs museum of the area, an abundance of omiyage souvenirs, and the Joren Waterfalls Travel Center with busloads of sightseers. A long country drive through the rice fields and hamlets takes me to the Sekitei Wasabi Garden for a cooling river breeze to admire the wasabi plantations and to make my own wasabi preserves—the old-fashioned way. I discover a slice of my own Northern Californian Napa Valley dropped into Izu at Nakaizu Winery. The sommelier shows me the cellars, and I stroll through the sun drenched vineyards sampling grapes, wafting intense grappa fumes from copper kettles, and catch a bare outline of Mt. Fuji through the field burning haze. Eventually, I return to the glittering canyons of Tokyo and back home to the cat, who pointedly wonders why I have not brought her any wasabi-nip.

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Overview of today:
After exploring the remarkable composition of my suite of rooms, appreciating the outdoor garden views, and happily fantasizing I have lived here all my life, I enjoy a fine kaiseki ryori breakfast and complete transactions with the gift shop. Bidding fond farewell to the ducks and koi, the staff and my hosts of KAGETSUTEI conduct me through departure. Next, I visit the Izu Glass and Craft Museum of glass-blown works by Japanese artists who went native in France, and then settle in for the afternoon in Ito at Kenny’s House, a surfer hangout transplanted from Santa Cruz, California and time-warped from the 60s. I make fanciful seaweed art as well as several new friends. Rugged nature captures me on the Jogasaki (or “Jyogasaki”) coast, enlivened with a spidery suspension bridge, a lighthouse, and adventurous boulder hopping above the pounding surf. Finally, Shirakabeso ryokan welcomes me for the evening, where I get lost in the dark, winding maze of steep hallways with mysterious signage and crooked corridors into ghostly pasts.

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Overview of Day One:
I begin with Ryosenji in Shimoda, near the southern tip of the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka, then drive to Shimoda’s pier on an overcast morning for a mercifully short boat ride, where I feed the predatory birds and enjoy the suggestively shaped mountains. I drive to the Shimoda train station area and scout out a cheap, quiet lunch of noodles. By mid-afternoon, I am in the pottery studio and gallery making a tea burner, enjoying the scent of clay, and roasting green tea. At last, I arrive at my exquisite evening ryokan. I am then shown to my beautiful room suite, feted with overwhelming waves of exquisite Japanese local cuisine, and left to drift in the vast steaming onsen, floating under the stars in the evening misty rainfall.

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