201503 Tokyo-Izu Peninsula Road Trip Day 7

Izu Peninsula Seafood Lunch

We wanted to try Izu Peninsula seafood as the area was well known for its rich and varied seafood. I came across our seafood lunch restaurant while watching an Izu Peninsula travel program on Japan Hour. Japan Hour is a long running TV program in Singapore, introducing Japan’s culture, food and sights on a weekly basis. I had gotten many places of interest and food ideas from this show for my Japan travel.

 

Aokisazaeten (青木さざえ店)

Address: 894-53, Minato, Minamiizu-cho, Kamo-gun
Business hours from 8:30 to 18:00 (weekdays)

Aokisazaeten has 2 sections – one where customers could BBQ their selected Izu Peninsula seafood and another for customers who preferred to order food from a menu. We were lazy and didn’t feel like “working” for our food. So we ordered from the menu to share instead.

Our lunch at Aokisazaeten

We ordered a plate of grilled clams and a grilled Izu lobster. The grilled clams were juicy and appetising. I liked that they did not remove the lobster tomalley as that was the best part. The Izu lobster flesh was sweet and cooked just nice.

Since we were having Izu Lobster, we definitely needed to have lobster sashimi too! Sweet and succulent flesh dipped in some soya sauce and wasabi. After we were done eating the lobster sashimi, the chef brought the lobster head back to the kitchen and made into 2 bowls of delicious lobster head miso soup.

We also ordered a mixed seafood sashimi platter with 8 types of Izu Peninsula seafood. Everything was fresh and delicious. Of course, we needed to eat Splendid Kinmedai (金目鯛) also known as Alfonsino or Golden Eye Snapper and chose the stewed Kinmedai washoku set to share. The stewed Kinmedai flesh was sweet and smooth and we ate up everything including the eyeballs!

Yes, we went all out with that Izu Peninsula Seafood lunch. If you read the previous 2 days of our Izu Peninsula road trip, you would know that we had been having simple fares. I don’t remember how much we paid for our lunch but I don’t recall it being too expensive and it was definitely worth it.

 

Yumigahama Beach

Full from our Izu Peninsula seafood lunch, we took a stroll to Yumigahama beach, a short walk from our lunch location. Yumigahama beach had a unique bow shape and known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Japan. There was no crowd at the beach as we were there on a weekday and in early Spring when the weather was still cool.

 

Cape Irozaki

Cape Irozaki sat on the southern most point of Izu Peninsula, overlooking into the Pacific Ocean. As with other parts of Izu Peninsula coast, the view here was amazing as well with different typography.

At Cape Irozaki, one could join boat cruises to view the cape and cliffs from the sea. We didn’t do the Irozaki sightseeing cruise as we were going to do the Dogashima Cave Cruise later that day.

Along the path and from Cape Irozaki, we sighted many Wind Turbines harnessing energy from the windy environment over the hills. There was a little shrine, Iro Shrine, at Cape Irozaki where one could pray and also write wishes on the wishing tablets.

Standing at Cape Irozaki high elevation, we saw the earth’s curvature seperating the ocean and the sky. We were in awe of the nature and crashing waves around us. It was just so wonderful to be surrounded by Mother Nature at her best.

Originally, the plan after Cape Irozaki was to visit Hagachizaki Monkey Bay plus a stopover at Matsuzaki known for their famous Namako wall, with its distinctive white grid pattern on a black slate. Instead, we decided to head straight to Dogashima for the bay cruise and where we would stay for the night.

Next: Dogashima

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