Hot Spring Trip (Dec. 11-14, 2022)
There are several islands near Tokyo, called “Izu Islands“, that are accessible by large passenger ships, high-speed jet ferries, or short flights.
I have already visited two of the Izu Islands (Oshima and Miyakejima) within one year, and both of them were unique and different. I couldn’t wait to visit another one. (Of course, my goal is to visit all seven of them!)
So, this time I persuaded my family to visit Hachijojima with me. Hachijojima is the furthest among all of them. If I take a passenger ship like before, it will take 11-12 hours one way, too long and tiring, so this time I chose to take an hour flight instead.
Hachijojima is actually quite a big island, have two volcanic mountains at north and south, the town/populated area is at the middle between the two mountains, so the main roads surrounding the island look exactly like an “8”!
Hachijojima is only an hour flight from Tokyo area, but full of nature. It is popular for hiking, fishing and diving in summer, onsen hotsprings in winter. In fact, this island alone already has several natural hotsprings, which is why I chose to visit here in the winter!
Okay, enough introduction. We arrived on a Sunday, the bus line around the airport was off on Sundays! Also, even if there were buses, it would be one bus per hour, so we just took a taxi to our guesthouse.
Actually, our guesthouse was so clean and nice. I guess it was off-season, we even got a room with 3 beds while there were only 2 of us. Our room also included private bathroom, a tiny kitchen & fridge, while the common area (sitting room) also had kitchen and everything.
However, it required some walk to the nearest bus stop. It was cold & windy & sometimes rainy, but the kind of weather that we had hoped for. Anyway, there is a very good bargain that I recommend, which is JPY 1000 for unlimited bus & onsen pass, except that there are not so many buses in the Island, so you must check the bus schedules carefully. Also, all the hot springs have different day-offs, typically once a week (e.g. every Monday), so you should check in advance.
Since we arrived by noon flight, it was already late afternoon when we took the bus. We heard an unfortunate news that the major attraction — Sueyoshi Hot Spring was broken since just the day before! It was unbelievable, we were just one day late! It was broken due to aging, so there was no foresee when it would be fixed… We had no choice but to hurry towards Uramiga-taki Waterfall area, because it seemed to have the most attractions around.
It took a bit walk but the quiet nature was so refreshing. Also, there were different plants due to the warm moisty environment, I really liked them. The round stones are one of the signature of Hachijojima. Locals had been building walls, roads, graves with round stones since ancient time, they are well-reserved.
Although it was getting dark, I really like the hidden stairways and route leading to the beautiful waterfall. It was like a hidden garden or a little heaven, so untouched by humans. The waterfall was not big, but you can cross right under the waterfall, so it was a really interesting view, and one of my favorite places in this island.
Just a few steps away from the entrance of the waterfall, we already could find the Uramiga-taki Hot Spring. It is an unmanned free natural hotspring, only a small changing room and open cold water shower next to it. You must wear swimsuit to get in, as it is for both male and female, anybody can come in and see you. However, just like all the remote areas in Japan, we felt totally safe. In fact, the hotspring was so amazing, we took tons of photos while enjoying it… Later, a young father and baby girl joined us. They were probably locals.
We had to catch the last bus back (around 6:30PM?), so we couldn’t stay longer or walk further to other hotsprings, we had to hurry head back in the dark street, but it was actually quite peaceful.
We were grateful that the bus stop has roof like a little hut, can block the wind and rain, because it started to rain at night, and we had to wait like half an hour for the bus…
It was too cold and rainy to walk around, so we just walked straight back to the guesthouse. Our dinner was just foods that we brought, like this instant cup curry rice, but adding slice cheese into it, cheesy curry rice actually made a great recovery dinner for this cold rainy night. Of course, hot hot shower…
Next morning, we took a bus in the morning to Site of Hattori Residence to watch the traditional dance show. They only had one show per day at 10AM, so we arrived early to wait. While waiting, we could enjoy their garden with traditional round stone walls. The stage was really simple, but there was a big sea turtle　(the only one I got to see in this trip!) and some huge sea shells. A few elder ladies and an elder man did the dancing and singing. It was not exciting, but you can enjoy the traditional culture there…
Since the next bus took time, we walked towards the next bus stop. We found a local stores, yeah!! We bought a lunchbox (bento) and some fishmade snack. It was yummy! I always like buying lunchbox from local stores than large chain supermarkets, because the ones sold in local stores are often freshly homemade by local ladies, taste much better!
We heard that Kashitate Mukaizato Hot Spring was the most popular hotspring in the island, because it was the closest from town, many locals go there daily. The day was supposed to be a dayoff for this hotspring, but we heard in the bus that it was open because the most famous Sueyoshi Hot Spring was broken, so we quickly changed our destination.
Kashitate Mukaizato Hot Spring was old but beautiful. It was noon, but it was empty. It was really relaxing. (We must not take photos if there were somebody inside!)
We thought about taking the bus to port, where there should be a lot of shops and restaurants, but I rather enjoy the precious nature and quietness of this island, than shopping and eating, and it was an incredible sunny day, so I decided to return to where I liked the most — Uramiga-taki Waterfall.
The day was much brighter than the day before, and we took a different route to the waterfall, so the view was different.
We had more time to walk further down towards the shore. We even passed by beautiful stone walls and round stone graves on the way. We arrived the free Foot Bath Kirameki and cliff around sunset time. The view was so beautiful. I love the landscape and layers made by volcano over million of years…
We even had a drip at Nakanogo Hot Spring before heading back. We picked up the groceries that we previously bought & stored in the shop, again took the last bus back to our guesthouse. Again, it was raining at night. Perhaps islands rain a lot.
We had better dinner that night thank to the local supermarket! These are “Shima sushi“, a unique cuisine common in the Izu Islands, also grilled squid and seasoned seaweed. Everything came from the sea!
Next morning, I opened the curtain to see the garden of the guesthouse, which looked quite different from other places in Japan. That’s why I like visiting islands!
The next day was rainy again, but we had already booked two electric bicycles from a car rental shop days ago, we had a mission to complete! We must ride around the whole Hachijozima! (I do that for all the Izu Islands that I had visited.) On our 30min walk to the car rental shop, we passed by a hotel that we almost booked. It was a gorgeous building, but so old that it looked like a ghosthouse from the outside! (However, we read the reviews that the inside was modified, so really new inside.)
The weather report said that it would rain at AM, but become sunny at PM. However, I was worried about the batteries, so decided to ride anti-clockwise to the northern, more remote areas first, as I expected the southern areas seem more populated.
I still don’t know if it was the right decision. As we rode towards the northern, more hilly places, it started raining heavily. The weather condition was so bad, we could hardly see any scenery. There was a farm at the north. If we were lucky, we might be able to see some cows up close. But it was raining heavily, of course we couldn’t see any cows. What a pity.
We did manage to find some major attractions — Furusato-mura and Ozato Tamaishi Wall. They were again round stone walls and some traditional house, quite interesting to see.
As we rode south, we rode on some bridge and cross a tunnel. It gradually became sunny. We could finally see some new views. We even saw some nearby island and the cliff that we went the day before from afar. The color of the sea was so beautiful under the sun!
Unfortunately, we accidently took a shorter route, and missed one of the attractions, Nanbara-senjojiki Coast, that I wanted to visit, but well, there was no going back…
We did managed to see other attractions. For instance, these walls with dragons were so quite impressive, and perfect to visit by bicycles! Also, I never get tired of the sea view and the tropical forest!
We were finally back to the car rental shop. This was the route that we rode around Hachijojima. It was around 41km!
This was our last dinner before leaving the island, so we decided that we must eat outside to celebrate! We found a seafood restaurant near our guesthouse, so we ordered a lot of seafoods! This congee was very tasty because of this fish inside. It was a strange-looking hardshell fish called “turtle hand”. It does look like turtle hand…
We stopped by supermarket on the way back, where we found some ice-cream made by the farm in Hachijojima! We really wanted to try, but we were already too full…
The last day we had an evening flight back, so we decided to take a walk in Hachijo Botanical Park in the morning. It was not at all disappointing. It was big, quiet and unique. The park was full of green mosses on the way, and there were many ancient tropical trees, so it looked like a natural forest, unlike many city parks.
The park also had a small zoo including local animals called “Kyon“, which looked like deers. The worker even let us feed them. They were so adorable, had such kind eyes… Also, there was greenhouse.
Finally, our trip came to an end. We took a rest at the spacious sitting room of our guesthouse, and took a taxi back to the airport. There was only one souvenir shop and one restaurant inside this small airport. We had udon for dinner.
There were still some attractions in Hachijojima that we didn’t have time to visit, because they require trekking (e.g. Pot Hole in Mt. Mihara, Karataki Waterfall and Io-numa Pond) Hopefully next time…
