Got up, had a great buffet breakfast, and met our tour guide to take us on a tour of the Izu Peninsula! Our first stop was Shimoda. 

It was beautiful with tons of hydrangeas!  They were so big and all different colors. 

It was a lot of stairs and a bit of a hike.  The kids and I were really huffing and puffing up the hill.  

We heard what we thought was an ice cream truck, but it was actually a garbage truck! 

Besides the flowers, The place seemed a bit run-down.  But it was still very pretty with streams and mountains around you.  

Next stop we drove 30 mins and drove across a corkscrew bridge … to get to a beautiful hiking trail with 7 waterfalls.  We mostly were walking down steps and hills but it was still strenuous for us.  Stopped at a shop and got ice cream. We tried wasabi ice cream and it wasn’t bad! 

Lots of nature along the way.  We saw a gorgeous butterfly.  And then a lizard eating a different butterfly.  At the last waterfall it looked like you could bathe in a hot spring!  Just amazing and the water was crystal clear. 

We drove to lunch and had a fresh fish dish that had a lot of bones in it, but was very delicate and good. 

Then we drove to the top of a dormant volcano. We took a ski lift to get to the top which was fine on the way up but very nerve wracking on the way down.  Such a wonderful view of the bay and the grass covered caldera.  It looked like a scoop of matcha.  

We then drove to our train.  It was a fast bullet train to Kyoto!  It only took 2 hours!

Played on my switch and relaxed and ate snacks. 

We arrived took a cab to the hotel and dropped off our things. We’re all staying together in this place. 

We took a cab to dinner. A great tempura place!  We walked around this covered outdoor shopping mall and peaked in a few stores, too. 

It started raining so we went back to the hotel!