Mar 14th - Ito

Had a great nights sleep here at the Ryokan.    Woke up and was getting ready when breakfast arrived.

Of course with the above there was also rice and tea!

Finished breakfast and got the work getting all the above loaded onto the web before starting my day...

On my way of the Ryokan the general manager stopped me and we had a very nice conversation.    His english was excellent, and I later found out from his

wife that he had spent time at UC Berkeley.    He gave me some great advice as to things to see and how to get there for the day.

So armed with his advice I walked back to the Ito Station.   Along the way I found a bread/bakery shop that I could not resist buying some cookies at!

Yuuuummmy!    

Stopped by the train station and bought my tickets for tomorrow to get me from Ito back to Tokyo Station.   Also bought a 'bus pass' for the day for about $13 US

that would let me take any local bus without additional charge.    Then I bought a one way ticket down the train line about 5 stops to where my friend the GM had

directed me to see some great blossoming cherry blossom trees.    The train I needed to take was about a 40 minute way on the platform, so while I waited 

I ate a few of those great cookies and also bought some peanut powered azuki mochi from a lady selling them on the platform:

Train finally arrived and I took it down 5 stops, about a 30 minute journey.    Walked out of the station and around the neighborhood -- sure enough there were

many, many beautiful cherry blossom trees in bloom:

Grabbed a bus which took me a long ways up the hill to the base of a large mountain/crater.   There was a chairlift here (really!), just no snow!   But it was

a cold wind!    Anyway, paid for a ticket up the chairlift to see what was on top of the mountain.

At the top of the "ski lift" there was a giant inactive volcanic crater that they had paved a large cement walk way around.   Also, in the crater itself they had setup an 

archery area!    Not what I expected.    Further, some people had taken their dogs up the chairlift and were walking them around the crater!   Wow!

Had to get a snack at the bottom of the lift.  There was a store making manju (azuki bean filling inside soft waffle dough)

Also, later in the day I took this picture back towards the mountain top, which gives some 'size' perspective.

After this wonderful snack I walked across the street and went up the hill to the "Izu Cactus Park Zoo".

This was a slightly strange themed park -- featuring both a zoo element with various interesting animals as well as many

hot houses shaped like pyramids containing cactus in various forms of bloom.     I found it very interesting and, like other zoos that I

have visited in Japan (on a previous trip here) I really liked the Japanese style of zoo where you really are close and "up front" with

many of the "residents" of the zoo -- as in walking right next to uncaged kangaroo, for example!

I'd had enough of the zoo (and was worried that those porcupines would wake up!), so I headed back to the bus stop and took the bus back to Ito station.     Once there I decided to have

lunch -- it was nearly 3pm!     So I walked around "Ito town" and found many restaurants, finally picking one where I could get some simple tempura.    This was another one of those

"use the vending machine to pick your meal" places.    I actually had to ask for help as the tempera model in the outside window was what I wanted, but the machine had no pictures, so hard

for me to know which "ticket" to select.   But n the end both I and the guy running the place figured it out (even he had to look a bit, so I didn't feel too bad!)

Tempura was quite good --- shrimp, squid, fish, some type of leaf, mushroom and some type of squash.

But afterwards I still wanted something for dessert so I walked around and found a "dessert" place and bought myself a fruit, ice cream, whipped cream 

treat:

After that I started my walk back to the Ryokan/Onsen, but had to take a picture of the local "god of wealth"

Got back to Ryokan and went to both the indoor and later the outdoor onset's for a nice late afternoon soak.   I took my phone/camera with me to

take pictures of the funicular lift up to the outdoor onsen but was also lucky to find that I was the only person there so I was able to sneak a picture

or two of the actual onsen "changing" room and the onsen outdoor bath itself.

Went back to my room and eventually dinner appeared!

That's it -- time to pass out for the night!   Tomorrow is a big travel day -- train back to Tokyo, a few hours in Tokyo, some rest 

(I've booked a night at a MyStays hotel near Haneda airport for a few hours of downtime, then off to the airport and back to Hawaiii...