Kumiko booked us at a great hotel – Hotel Soki Atami. Atami is a famous hotel resort/onzen town on Izu peninsula about 45min Shinkansen ride from Tokyo. The town boome during the bubble period late 80’s as a fancy resort – easily reachable from Tokyo. It later sort of faded in the early 2000’s but is starting to see renewedinterest…

Coastline is really beautiful- resorts sprinkled along the coast

Felix and I rented some really great bikes at Merida X Base. First class service – you can rent shoes, gloves, bikes everything here and the bikes are top of the line. Very reasonable price. With this kind of rental probably not worth bringing your own bike If you ever consider touring Japan!

Stocking up on ume onigiri before the climb …

Bamboo groves on the climb towards だるま山高原展望台 (sorry can’t read this 🙃) …

great forest and nature in the mountains…

Made it to the top but unfortunately it was too hazy to see Mt Fuji today …

Fantastic ride along the coastline back …

Stopped for curry rice for lunch ….

Oyster cultures along the coastline…

Wanted to avoid one of the tunnels on our way back. Google maps showed a small bike path around. Unfortunately the paths quickly disintegrated to a jungle trail !!!

We had to abandon and turn around back ..

Made it safely back on the road again – back to the bike rental …