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Historical Highway with Nature and Hot
Springs
 Izu Peninsula looks like a spearhead projecting from the
foot of Mt. Fuji into the Pacific Ocean. Blessed with scenic beauty of
mountains and sea, the area belongs to Fuji Hakone Izu National Park and
is one of Japan's prominent tourist spots. Many people visit here all year
round because it is close to the capital, Tokyo, and the climate is relatively
warm.
The Hakone district spreads out from the northeast edge of the Izu peninsula, and also features beautiful scenery of mountains, lakes, valleys, and deep greenery, as well as many hot springs fed by abundant waters. In the Edo period (1603-1868), the main road connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto, Tokaido, went through Hakone. The principle checkpoint in Tokaido was set up here to monitor people going in and out of Edo. Today there remain many historic monuments which remind the visitors of importance of Hakone as a transportation hub during that period. Izu Peninsula has as many as 30 hot-spring resorts. While
possessing many natural tourist attractions, Izu has been depicted in many
outstanding literary works, such as Konjiki-yasha (The Golden Demon, 1897)
by Koyo Ozaki, Izu no Odoriko (The Izu Dancer, 1926) by Nobel prize laureate
Yasunari Kawabata, and Shirobanba (1960) by Yasushi Inoue. There are various
tours around the places that are related with these novels and authors.
With several ports open to the Pacific, Izu Peninsula has long played an important role in Japan's history of international exchange. Ito City, on the east coast of the peninsula, is known as the place where William Adams, the first British person to land in Japan, helped build a British-style sailboat and presented it to Shogun at the beginning of the 17th century. The first American Consul General to Japan, Townsend Harris, took office at Gyokusen-ji Temple in Shimoda at the southern tip of the peninsula in 1856, which was the first foreign consulate established in Japan. Photos: (Top) Owakudani, a famous sulfur spring in Hakone Mountains (Satoshi Matsuzaki); (middle) Lake Ashinoko in Hakone (Satoshi Matsuzaki); (bottom) Irozaki, a southern point of Izu Peninsula (Shizuoka Prefecture). Unauthorized reproduction of the
photos in this page is prohibited.
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