Category Archives: japan

Quick Local Radiation Check

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Obviously an ongoing concern for many people in Japan, both in the environment and in the food chain, is that of radiation levels. To be honest, around our area most independent checks (such as by Safecast drive-bys) show a level of around 0.107 micro sieverts/hour, which seems to be pretty much a background level for the area generally.

In February I believe, our local City Hall started offering some radiation monitoring devices for free half-day loans. We expected these things to be booked out for months, but when we asked, they said anytime was OK, and when we picked it up we saw we were only the fourth people to borrow it. That somewhat surprised me.

The device in question was a Horiba PA-1000. I’m still looking around to see what kind of reputation this has, but it seemed to work and at least be consistent.

Environmental Monitor

Environmental Monitor

We were asked to use it in it’s bag, playing it in one place, 5cm above the ground, for 60 seconds, and repeat the test five times, and calculate an average. So that’s what we did.

Around our small house, averaged readings ran from 0.037 to 0.068, with a highest average at the nearest street drain (in front of our neighbours house) at 0.073. We also went to take some readings in the local park, which ranged from 0.04 in the general kids play area, with one anomaly, a bush in the corner, at 0.172. Hmm. Odd.

Device Reading

Device Reading

However, all of these are by most definitions ‘safe‘. The City Hall had asked us to inform them if anything regularly topped 0.19 and they’d come and check.

I wont claim this is awesomely scientific, and that one set of readings one morning is in any way conclusive – nor to we have a baseline from before March 10th 2011 to compare this against. However, we’re going to repeat this quarterly, hopefully, and just see if their is any variance over time from now (We took photos of location and device positioning for repeatability).

Device Reading

Device Reading

For some international contrast, Safecast and others have rated the micro sieverts/hour in Hong Kong at 0.22, Seoul at 0.14, and Dublin and New York around 0.12.

 

The Words of Noda

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I don’t usually stray into the world of politics on this blog, it’s [hopefully] meant to be informative and constructive, rather than a critique of the national political psyche. Japan’s political system is as odd as most other country’s, still being based on political families and dynasties and a reliance more on yelling people’s names during campaign times than actually discussing issues.
The current Prime Minister is called Yoshihiko Noda, who replaced Naoto Kan, the man who saw Japan through last year’s quake and the immediate response to it, and was thus summarily fired, likely due to saying and supporting some fairly straight things about TEPCO and their supporters, which didn’t go down well with the Old Men, meaning Japan was back to lacklustre suits, spouting the same old stuff and not trying to fix 20 years of stagnation, and the world’s largest public debt.
Yes I know Greece is exciting and all that, but for sheer number of zeroes, Japan has long been up there (228% of GDP, at $10.5tn.).
Anyway, getting to the point, over the last month, I couldn’t help notice Noda has come out with a couple of interesting soundbites which in a short space of time which seem to completely contradict each other within the same story – here’s a quick one about Japan’s recent execution of 3 prisoners:
 ”I have no plans to do away with the death penalty,” Mr Noda said, according to the Kyodo news agency.
 ”Taking into consideration a situation where the number of heinous crimes has not decreased, I find it difficult to abolish the death penalty immediately,” Mr Noda said.
So, you’re keeping it even though it has been proven in your country (as most others) to have no effect whatsoever on the number of murders etc.? Does that make sense?  Many foreigners (and some Japanese) are surprised at the fact Japan has the death penalty, and how it is used (Amnesty International have major issues not just with the killing, but with how it is conducted – even more so than in other nations).
Another one I saw from him was discussing tax increases to deal with the aforementioned epic national debt – on January 24th 2012:
 ”The current system, if unchanged, will put an unbearable burden on future generations. We don’t have time left to postpone reforms,” Mr Noda told parliament.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in an online message after the cabinet’s vote, said Japan had “no time to spare” in reducing its debts.
  He added: “Some of you may think you are an unlucky generation which needs to support many elderly people – but those who built the current affluent society are the senior generation – your parents’ generation.”
I’m not understanding this statement. The country is massively in debt, has had 20 years of stagnation, and the youth are told to just deal with it (like they have a choice) and be appreciative of the affluent society their seniors built? How can you claim to be affluent and massively in debt? Their parents built the bubble, not affluence – perhaps the generation before that had built affluence?
Anyway, these stories aren’t at all surprising – the level of denial in Japan is what sustains it’s institutions it seems, but it was fun to see simple, basic contradictions so close together.
That said, Noda seems to just be confused when he speaks, whereas if you want to see the Shogun of great political quotes, Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has him beaten.

The Road To Shiga 2012

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Last month, the family once more hit the road to go up to Shiga in Nagano Prefecture to get a few days skiing and snowboarding in.

Compared to last year, a few things on the technical side had changed – this time we were in a Toyota Ractis since our beloved Vitz was written off by someone who just didn’t seem to understand traffic lights. The Ractis is slightly bigger, so was a bit more comfortable for all the hours on the road, but because of that, we had to buy some new snow chains. I’m not completely sure, but I think Carmate, who make the Biathlon car chains we used last year, have changed their product mix a little, since the most easily available model in their lineup was the ‘Quick n Easy‘.

One other change was that our son had outgrown his 0-12 month baby seat, so was now in a 12month – 11 year combination seat which we were a little unfamiliar with as we’d only installed it a few days prior, but it worked out very well, and he seems to love it. It’s the Aprica ‘Euro Impact Junior 01‘, and no, I don’t know who comes up with the names for these things; the ‘euro’ part though I suspect comes from the fact that it supports ECE R44.04, a European originating safety standard that all child seats now have to, or want to support.

Armed with all this, we set off from Kanagawa-ken, managing to be on the roads early, with ETC set up, a route in the navi, the kids well occupied (or asleep), and the usual rampaging DJs on FM Yokohama, we were away.

We kept to a stop every 90 mins or so, mainly for toilet breaks and such, to let the kids get out, and for additional tea breaks for the drivers – I’m apparently lucky that my wife doesn’t mind driving, so she took on the first third of the journey. Of course, as you get further up to the mountains, you eventually get to the snow line, and all the ice and fun which comes with it. We actually had to stop a few kilometres earlier than we did last year to put the chains on, and true to form and the couple of practice goes I’d had, the chains went on no problems at all – in fact, I think they were easier than the Biathlons we had last year.  If you’ve never driven with chains, especially on real mountain roads with a decent amount of snow, it is a very fun experience, providing you keep the speed down. I should say that going up a mountain always feels safer than coming down.

The hotel we chose was right at the end of the road we were on so at least we knew we couldn’t miss it. We got the booking sorted out through Snow Japan, a bit like we did last year, but for reasons I’ll explain later, I don’t actually think that route is really worth it. The hotel was the Okushiga-Kougen hotel, and we got a decent price on a family sized room, with breakfast included, and I’d read the breakfast was pretty good. So, to do the hotel review first: it *is* a good hotel – the staff were relatively efficient, the wi-fi (only in the lobby area) worked as advertised and got a decent throughput, and the carpark is right in front and fairly well sheltered and maintained, so I had less snow digging to do each morning. The breakfast was very good for a Japanese ski hotel, a decent western and Japanese buffet, with good sausages, bacon and scrambled eggs which weren’t swimming for a change. The down side is that all other meals are horrifically expensive – the dinners start at 2,500 for a childs set meal, go to a basic adult meal for 4,500en, and top out at 12,500en for a deluxe course. These prices are out of our range. What we learned are that for lunches and dinner it’s much better for quality and cost to either pop around to the Prince Hotel Shiga West, or over the road to the Hotel Grand Phenix, which oddly is an expensive place to stay, but reasonable to eat. The Italian restaurant there does a fantastic rabbit dish.

All of the Okushiga hotels are at the bottom of the slope, but let’s get something out of the way – the area is skier only – no snowboards are allowed. We chose the place though because our eldest is learning to ski, and the ski school there is excellent, reasonably priced, and even will sell you digital copies of some on piste photos of the kids for a small amount. When we were there, there were no other students. The ‘no boarder’ attitude, combined with some of the pricing means it’s pretty quiet, and the average age of people there is over 60 as far as I could tell. We simply put the eldest in ski schools in the mornings, which she loved, and then drove to Yakibitaiyama around the corner, where our youngest could play in the creche, and we could get some boarding done. I should also point out Okushiga does have a creche, but only on Saturday and Sunday, which was a minor fact they didn’t mention when we called in advance to confirm facilities.

The Okushiga Kougen hotel then worked out very well once we sorted the food sourcing out, and the onsen was clean, and the TV, though an aging CRT with a digital converter literally bolted to it, did allow us to use the audio/visual cable for the iPod so my daughter could watch her shows, which is invaluable when you’re a little bit confined for space. The in-room bath was also a little bigger than many other hotels, though still technically a unit bath/toilet room.

A notable experience for me on the snow side of things that was the first time I got to ski with my daughter, going up on the chair lift together and coming down and I have to say I was very impressed, though I think she was irritated with the grip I had on her on the chair lift, given she was quite relaxed.

When not on the slopes, we could play with the kids safely at Okushiga, though the snow is so powdery, it was difficult to make a snowman.

Coming back was as simple as going, but again, going downhill always makes me think a little bit, and we passed one person coming up who was sliding all over who apparently thought that normal road tyres on an SUV would be enough – it’s not.

As usually, we sent all of our boards and skis via Takkyubin, which is always the simplest way to do it. Perhaps next year we’ll try a roof gear holder for them.

Booking via SnowJapan used to get some decent discounts, but now I really don’t know since the prices we were quoted on the phone with hotels was the same as via their site, so aside from driving some traffic I’m not sure where the value is any more (and the SnowJapan make-over with Silverlight hotel finder was perhaps ill advised).

In all then, a massively successful trip for the whole family, and we managed to make use of all the lessons we learned last year, and learned a few for next year, as we wont be able to make another this year due to a stream of other commitments. I also got a nice ‘yuki 雪’ sticker for my old Macbook.

 

Setsubun (節分）

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So we just finished celebrating ‘setsubun’, which is traditionally the day before the first day of a new season, mainly, in modern times, before Spring, by the lunar calendar, and falling on February 2nd or 3rd. That to me sounds a little optimistic for Spring, but that’s how it is.

Perhaps the most popular aspect of this is ‘mamemaki’ (豆まき） is which is essentially the throwing of beans in homes, and at shrines and temples, to welcome good fortune and drive out evil spirits. In a home then, someone will throw beans both in and out of the house/apartment, saying “Fuku wa uchi, oni wa soto” (“Luke is inside, demons are outside”).

We did the version where someone wears a demon mask, and the family pelts them with beans until they leave the house; often this is the returning father, though we actually took turns, since wailing like a banshee and running around with a mask is quite attractive to kids! Interestingly, the Wikipedia article said this home event was not so common anymore, but it seems that most people I know with children do it, and there are plenty of simple masks and beans in the shops.

Mask and Beans

Oni mask and Beans

More Beans

More beans

As usual, there are some variations, with many of them I suspect being regional. When I read it up in my “Dictionary of Japanese Culture” book, by Setsuko Kojima and Gene A. Crane, it also mentioned some homes would hang some Japanese holly, and a sardine head on their doors to keep bad spirits out. I haven’t seen that myself to be honest, but now I’ve read it, I’ll be keeping a closer eye out. Some other people also eat beans to the number of their age, plus one, to guarantee health and luck this year, and this eating of beans largely comes from the Kansai region and the west of Japan.

In all then, it’s a fun event, a reflects the country’s agricultural, religious and historical connections, and is perhaps one of the lesser known festivals outside Japan.

I think I’ll be cleaning up dried beans for a few days to come though.

Quake preparedness – the lost page!

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I was doing a periodic clean out of Evernote (which is a generally fantastic app) when I found my notes from April 2011 which I was intending to turn into a page on the site for earthquake preparedness, and somehow, I’d forgotten about it. Anyway, it’s now been tidied up a little and posted. I’m really keen to add links and tips from people.

Nanikore’s Quake Preparedness Tips

Tokyo Toy Run 2011

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Last Sunday – December 11th – I joined in the third annual Tokyo Toy Run, where a group of bikers meet up in Tokyo and Ride out in convoy and in groups down into Kanagawa prefecture to deliver toys and other gifts to a couple of children’s homes, and then spend some time with the kids.

This year I thought I’d have some of my own drama the night before when I had to announce my 5.5 year old battery to be dead, and so I headed out to NAPS in the car at 6.30pm to pick up a new one, and give it a test run. The next morning I was up at 5.30am tying on bits of tinsel and such onto the bike, taking care again to make sure nothing was going to sit on the hotter parts of the engine but still look festive. I’d also managed to obtain a Santa suit from Don Quixote which actually fit not just me, but also go over the leather jacket and the Draggin Jeans. It’s still a mystery that many nations see Santa/Father Christmas as a jolly, large fellow, and yet most Santa suits are for people who weight 60-70Kg. Indeed. I decided to attach the white beard set to my helmet, which worked much better than I expected.

Xmas Bike 2011

Xmas Bike 2011

I met up with a couple of riders locally at 6.30, and we were running in towards the meeting space in Odaiba. It’s a beautiful urban ride in, going past the docks and cranes and factories on the expressway as the sun comes up, and see the planes taking off from Haneda airport as we go under much of it, and then over the rivers on the bridges, getting another great view. Once again, the weather was great – we’ve always been so lucky for the weather on these runs.

We all met up with the other riders at the RicoLand Carpark, and it wasn’t a bad turn out with plenty of bikers, bikes, decorations and a couple of vans to fill with gifts. We then went through a quick run through of the plan, including the one stop we’d be making en route, and the groups we’d split into from there to go on to the two children’s homes. The runs are always great, and each year it seems to get smoother getting through the ETC toll booths, the gents in the booths seem that little less freaked out at a group of (largely gaijin) bikers, many dressed as Santa, trying to get on the expressway. It also reminds me how happy I am to have invested the outrageous sum into getting ETC fitted to my bike a few years ago.

On the road as a bike convoy is always fun, we just have to be careful to make sure we’re not stopping people getting on and off the freeway – sometimes not as easy as it sounds. One point of having this many bikes in one place is that the tunnels are deafening – the only way you know your engine is on is to look at your revs.  We stopped at Daikokufuto, which is a service area in the centre of doughnut upon doughnut of roads, to meet up with a few more people, get our photos taken with a lot of very curious people who themselves were on trips – including with small dogs with santa coats…

Daikokufuto
From there we split into two groups, and again I went with the group for the Chigasaki Farm children’s home, and whilst we may have taken a wrong turn, we did get to the venue not too far behind schedule, after a run through historic Kamakura, and along route 134 along the beach which was fantastic – riding along looking at Enoshima to your left, and Mt. Fuji in the distance to your right: fantastic.

Xmas Tree

Xmas Tree

The venues, the children’s homes are really where the days start – rolling in as a group, all bikes and vans and filling up the small parking areas, then meeting the kids, playing sports and really getting to know them. As I’d been here twice before (the Toy Run last year, and a BBQ we did this last Summer) it was was great to see some familiar faces and catch up with what was going on – some were even getting jobs and going out into the world, which is great.

For once I missed the sports, but chatted with a lot of the kids, had photos taken with the smaller kids with the rest of the Santas, and once the pizza we ordered for the event arrived, sat around for a while talking, playing Uno and enjoying some of the gifts we’d brought. I should say, Chigasaki Farm made a fantastic soup for us, which, after a few hours on a bike in winter felt so much better than that pizza! A lot of the kids were playing volleyball, and throwing American footballs and just spending a good afternoon outside on a nice day – even if the resident dog did destroy a couple of the balls!

Once people had eaten the food, played a lot of games and energy levels were dropping, we all sat around one of the patio areas and played a couple of rounds of bingo, before having more photos taken with the kids, this time on the bikes (now that they’d cooled), and finally, somewhat reluctantly, got back on the bikes and headed off home as the sun was beginning to set.

It’s amazing how fast the time goes on the toy run, from that early start to getting to the kids over 120Km later for me, to doing some games and sitting and talking, to leaving feels like just a couple of hours – not essentially a whole day.

OK, so what are the benefits? Well for one, the kids get to spend a day with people they don’t usually meet and just talk and have fun – this is what we often hear from the staff and volunteers at the homes – they love the gifts and the toys, but what they like is that these often funny and a bit whacky bunch of bikers are happy to come in dressed as Santa and just talk, throw a frisbee, be chased, have reindeer tails pulled and just relax with them. I know one thing debated on the forums after the event is always that of who got the better deal, us or the kids! In the last three years I haven’t seen a single biker, even the tough military ones, who aren’t putting the smaller three- and four year old kids on their shoulders and running them around the yards, and for those of us with similar aged kids, feeling that concern that these kids will be OK. The truth is, I think most of them will be, they’re fun and smiles, they’re resilient, cheeky and witty and easy to get on with, but the places also need the odd day of distraction.

2011 has obviously been a tough year on Japan, and it’s going to be for a while to come, and it’s fair to say that for some of those outside of the mainstream society who rely on government support and volunteers, things are very tough, and its rewarding to know that it’s actually quite simple even for a relatively small group of people to pick a day, pool some money and really help out some kids who themselves are going through a lot as it is – we should all do it more often.

(NB/ There’s one more Toy Run in Yamanashi next Saturday – Dec. 17th!)

Tokyo Toy Run 2011 – December 11th!

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Just a rather late note that this year’s Tokyo Toy Run will be on December 11th – that’s next Sunday – so grab your motorbike, some gifts for the kids, and meet at 8am at the Tokyo Bay Ricoland bike shop.

If you want some background, check my posts of the 2009 event, and the 2010 events. Essentially it’s a group of bikers (usually 100+) who ride from Tokyo out to two children’s homes in Kanagawa, give out a pile of gifts and spend the day doing sports and games with the kids, so everyone wins.

Tokyo Toy Run 2011

If you have a bike then, check out the route and rules on TokyoToyRun.com and join us all next Sunday, and follow @tokyotoyrun on Twitter.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Winner!

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Well, after 28 days of solid writing, thinking, more writing, less thinking and then more writing, I was able to submit my novel to the NaNoWriMo servers, and just as Scrivener had told me, I was clocked in just under 51,000 words, so I’m a winner!

The Last Week

As you can see from the last week stats below, taken from the NaNoWriMo site I was [finally] getting ahead of the game on word count and really it was because the story was just flowing out and everything seemed to be falling into place. I added a few more secondary characters which I think added a bit more texture to some of parts of the story and helped the plot line, but still, the issue was getting to the end of the story, and so I had to simplify some of the subplots, and one arc which I’d decided in week two I was going to have to miss out never made it back in.

Writing Stats

Writing Stats

I’ve been really pleased actually with the writing rate and that I was having to decide what to take out, rather than trying to come up with new things to put in to fill space, though paradoxically, new things were creeping in just because they seemed to fit what was going on.

So what did it end up being about? Set in an alternate steam technology based version of Japan’s opening up to more external influence and trade in the mid nineteenth century, there is a stand-off between the three regions left from the recent civil war, and it tells the story of how various groups are attempting to gain technology and power in order to take on the others.

The narrative is driven by three main protagonists trying to find out who or what is is pushing events forwards following the murder of a trader outside Yokohama, but draws on rogue British delegates, Royal Societies, a splintered Japanese samurai class and just normal Japanese people trying to decide what they want now that there seems to be so many new opportunities.

One interesting thing which happened which I wasn’t expecting or intending, is that the story, characters and scenario actually lend themselves to a second story which would largely need to take place in Britain (though not in London like many steampunk novels) and Hong Kong instead of Japan.

On Winning

I have to say I felt a real sense of accomplishment upon seeing that I’d topped 50,000 words, after what had become a habit, and almost a compulsion over the last four weeks, going from feeling like it was a grind, through to a feeling of obligation, and then in the second half of the month of actually being keen to sit down and get on with writing. As you can see from some of the posts, word count does become a obsession at the beginning, I suppose because you’re left with the impression that you’re behind schedule, and then that disappears when 2,000 words a day just flow out. I’ll admit that since ‘winning’ I’ve had that sense of ‘what now’?

Working Method

Broadly speaking, the vast majority of my writing was done in one of two scenarios – either on my MacMini, at the desk on a full size keyboard, or on my aging MacBook at the dinner table, and it all seemed to work well. I definitely recommend Scrivener - even though I’ve used it for a few years for short stories and such, I really found why it’s such a good writing tool this last month, making it simple and quick to jump between writing, character info, story research all within the one app and quickly able to find things, without interrupting the flow.

That concept of flow was essential – as I learned early on, to stop to check and correct grammar and sometimes even spelling is a massive mistake and to just keep going as NaNoWriMo is about getting a novel first draft done, not the finished article.

Somehow I thought I’d have developed a ‘soundtrack’ during the writing, but it never really happened; as I look through the list of recently played tracks in iTunes it’s a selection of certain songs, and I think by hour I probably wrote mostly without music. The tracks I did listen to though were quite interesting – some were tracks I hadn’t listened to in years – and seemed to fit certain chapters of the book – I listened to Jean Michel Jarre’s “Revolutions” [1988] which fit some of the steam punk parts, and also the soundtrack to the classic “Akira” by Geinoh Yamashirogumi which has a mix of more traditional elements and modern styles.

One rather sad thing is that I still don’t have a title with my NaNoWriMo dashboard recording it as “Japan Steampunk Novel”.

So What’s Next?

My plan right now for the novel is to let it sit for a few weeks, and then start a second draft. Yes, I’m going to see this one through to some kind of ‘finished’ version, something I struggled with on my only previous attempt at a full length novel. I’m keen to add in a couple of story arcs in which never made it into this initial draft – the main one being the arms dealers supplying one of the main factions which was to be set in my home town in the UK (Grimsby) which in the timeframe of the story was ramping up as a major port. This makes one subplot (the factions within the British Government and Royal Societies) a bit clearer and shows that the main story is just another part of a larger political policy being executed.

As for NaNoWriMo, will I be doing it again next year? I honestly don’t know. It required a lot of time and and patience from the family, and November is quite a busy time of the year for us with other events, so I really don’t know, though certainly the next time I do NaNoWriMo, I wont be as worried about word count.

That said, it has been a lot of fun, and I would definitely encourage people to give it a try next year – or any month really – and just crank out 50,000 words.

NaNoWriMo 2011 Winner

NaNoWriMo 2011 Winner

A Couple of Days at Ernest House

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Every now and then you just want to get away and relax for a while. It’s easy to see ‘getting away’ in Japan as more of a chore if you’ve been through the over-priced ryoukan grinder with drill instructor hours and mediocre foods, or have opted for the very generic Prince Hotel route. However, as many have found, there are some great independent places out there, though finding them seems to be more work than it should be, so I thought I’d pass one on.

For us, even with the kids, we want to go somewhere not too far to get to, or at least, not too far and not too uninteresting to travel to, and somewhere where it’s all relaxing.  One of the places we like to go to then is a guesthouse in Shimoda called Ernest House. [location]

Ernest House

Ernest House

Ernest House

Ernest House

I heard about this place a couple of years ago on the motorbike forum GaijinRiders, and people raved about it – great location near good beaches, lots of local places to eat and drink, and a calm feeling around the place, and it’s own great restaurant.

We first went down as a family last April, and just got back from a couple of end-of-week days – we tend to go out of season. The area really is beautiful to look it, even for those familiar with some of Japan’s stunning coastline – white sand beach, plenty of waves, some rocks, all in a fairly isolated bay. It’s a surfer place to be sure, the car park housing some of the day boarders, a smattering of seemingly dilapidated shacks pock the treelines, perhaps at one time, or in season, places to eat and drink, but out of season,  they’re either shut down or weekend only.

Ernest House is a wooden guesthouse, named after the enigmatic writer Ernest Hemingway – though more after his calm writing locales, rather than the rest of his storied life I suspect! The interior has an open lounge, sofas, wooden floors, posters of Hemingway himself, and seems sure of itself – there are bookshelves of real books guests can borrow, in both English and Japanese, and not just Hemingway’s, there’s a selection from a cross section of writers.

In the lounge is a large TV (seldom used as far as we could tell) and guests are invited to borrow DVDs to watch in the lounge, or in their rooms (each now now has a large TV – when we first went it was a small CRT). There are also several acoustic guitars about the place people can strum on. The lounge and each of the rooms also have (old) Mac G4s for guest’s use, and free wifi for those who brought their own machines.

The rooms are again wooden floored and very cleanly designed – simple beds, decent toilets and bathrooms, a TV, the Mac, a fridge and some other basics. The feel of the place is one of simplicity, but they’ve got the touches right there, like the wifi, for what people want. There’s only one vending machine, and it’s tucked away.

The ambience is excellent; no announcements, people wander in and out, and the whole place just feels as relaxed as an open house. I went down to the lounge at night to reply to some e-mail, do some writing of my own, and do some reading, and it was nice to just sit on the  sofa, type away on the laptop and sip a beer, listening to the wind coming in off the sea in the trees.

The guesthouse has an adjoined restaurant for guests, which is open to the public during the day. We booked for both the dinner and the breakfast, and found both to be excellent. For dinner there were salad, fish and steak courses, before dessert and a cup of coffee. Every course was well worth the price, and they even did a smaller, slightly cheaper version of the dinner for our four year old, but it was a very adult oriented meal and she picked a little at it, but still ate enough.

The restaurant also has a pool table, and more books, so after our meal I tried to teach our eldest the basics of pool (and failed), whilst the rest read books. Despite the sound of it, it is fairly child friendly, with some childrens books and games to go at, if you didn’t bring your own. Apparently they also allow some pets.

Breakfast is something a little different at Ernest House – it’s a picnic hamper with fruit juice, cereals, a flask of coffee, some sandwiches and cake slices, with milk and yoghurt. You can choose to eat it in your room, outside at the hotel’s picnic tables, or even down by the beach. We went for the picnic tables, and it’s a very relaxed start to the day, just having a cup of coffee and an excellent sandwich outside watching the surfers go past.

For lunch, we opted for Cafe Marley near the beach, which wasn’t quite what we thought – for some reason I was expecting a ‘Bob Marley’ type feel to the place, and actually it isn’t at all, but the food was very good, if a little expensive. Previously we’d gone to Paradise Cafe, next door to Ernest House, and actually I’d probably recommend that, though there are several guest houses and restaurants down the beach road to choose from, or further inland, there are some good places to eat and drink within walking distance.

Some other things at Ernest House we didn’t do whilst there included the outdoor hot tub, which looked like fun, so maybe next time.

The beach itself is beautiful and clean, split into two by a small bridged river, with a few rocks and outcrops on both sides, which the surfers obviously avoid, but are great places for kids to explore, but take care, the tide and the waves are powerful, which is exactly why the surfers are there. Unlike Shonan and many places in Japan with the darker volcanic sand, Shimoda’s beaches are much whiter.

Beaches of Shimoda - Filtered

Beaches of Shimoda - Filtered

Beach around sunset

Beach around sunset

Each time I’ve gone, it’s been by car, or by motorbike, either down the coast road (#134/#135) or the mountain route (#414), both of which offer fantastic scenery as you drive or ride. A note though, they take time, and they’re very twisty, so whilst I like them, I can appreciate some people may not, and may wish to go via some public transport which Ernest House list on their site. There is parking for cars and bikes exclusively for Ernest House guests, so parking shouldn’t be an issue, but in peak season, it’s probably better to check in advance.

The bottom line then is that even if you’ve been in Japan for a while, and even if you’re near the beach, going down Izu to Shimoda is worth the trip, even from Tokyo, so if you are looking for somewhere to get away for a few days, give Ernest house a call.

There's something about the ocean

There's something about the ocean