Izu

Izu (伊豆市 Izu-shi) is a city in Shizuoka. People often use the word "Izu" to refer to the entire Izu Peninsula, located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture.

Shuzenji (修善寺) is a major hot spring town. Officially, it merged with other towns in 2004 to form Izu, but the area is still more commonly called Shuzenji.

Understand
In 2007, Shuzenji celebrated the 1200th anniversary of its founding. The original town was built around Shuzen-ji Temple, from which it gains its name. It is a pleasant little town with many hot spring hotels overlooking the river.

There are two official tourist information sites (both are Japanese-only with integrated Google Translate):
 * merged city's official site and
 * info site for Shuzenji onsen area.

Get in
is the last station on a ride through a broad valley on the Izuhakone Railway Sunzu Line, connecting to Mishima on the Tokaido Shinkansen and the JR Tokaido Main Line. From Mishima, it takes about 35 minutes and costs ¥510. A trip from Tokyo on the Hikari or Kodama Shinkansen takes 1&frac12;-2 hours (¥4,830; with Japan Rail Pass you only have to pay the ¥510 for the Izuhakone Railway segment). From Tokyo, there is also a twice-daily (departing 09:00 and 12:00, returning 12:35 and 15:39) Odoriko limited express, completing the trip in about 2 hours for ¥4,510.

Shuzenji can also be reached by Tokai Bus from other places on the Izu Peninsula.

Get around
The old town center of Shuzenji can be reached by bus from Shuzenji Station in about 10 minutes, departing roughly every 15 minutes.

Buy
Shuzenji's numerous gift shops feature fresh wasabi (and all manner of wasabi flavored foods), black rice, and locally made bamboo products such as baskets and kitchen utensils

Eat
Opposite to the Sora Togetsusou Kinryu hotel is the Nayuta bar with a laidback atmosphere and it is decorated with a large collection of miniature toys. They serve different foods, from ramen to their own version of takoyaki. The bar owner is a fan of Santana.

Sleep
There are many hot spring hotels in town.



Go next

 * Izunokuni
 * Nishiizu
 * Matsuzaki
 * Minamiizu
 * Shimoda
 * Higashiizu
 * Kawazu
 * Ito
 * Mishima