Trip To Atami Part 1: Tourist Stuff
This weekend we were lucky enough to be part of a language exchange to Atami, a small city in Shizuoka Prefecture, about an hour from Japan by bullet train. The name Atami literally translates to "Hot Ocean", a reference to the many hot springs (onsen) that are scattered throughout the town. There's about 40,000 people living in Atami, and a lot of rich Japanese own holiday homes out here. After you've seen some of my photos you'll realize why. This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen,
The first place we visited when we arrived in Atami was a museum that used to be someone's house a long time ago. Stepping into it was like stepping into every Western stereotype of the traditional Japanese home; tatami mats, paper doors, nice clean wood and so on. Apparently it was some guy's house, and when he died it became a ryokan (Japanese B&B), before being turned into a museum. It's kinda odd because it's supposed to be a mix of Japanese tradition and a English Tudor house.
As you can see, it was a really lovely place. Infact, the only real problem with it was that it was not built for six foot tourists to visit. However my really-low-door detector has been finely honed over the last month and I think I got through the whole place without head butting something ferociously. Maybe Zidane should visit Japan sometime.
This house had pretty much anything a tourist could want. The garden was amazing, there were various presentations and maps around the place with a few interesting facts and so on.
After the ryokan, we headed towards the shoreline of Atami. Sadly this is Japan and as a result most of the beach has been plastered in concrete, but it was still nice being able to breathe air that hadn't been through three motorbikes before reaching me.
The third photo here was taken from The Top Of Atami, an incredibly posh restaurant on the 16th floor of a tower block near the coast. It should be noted that Atami is famous for it's fantastic seafood, and having tried it whilst under the influence of altitude sickness I can confirm the reason it's famous for this is because the salmon we ate had probably been caught about thirty seconds before we ate it.
I'd like to end this post with a few more photos. The rest are available via the Flickr link below.
More photos are available on Flickr.
In the next update, I teach about 100 kids how to sing Heads, Shoulders Knees And Toes, I embarrass myself by trying the traditional drumming of Atami, and I manage to take a few photos of Mt. Fuji. Stay tuned!
I wish I lived there. Except without the tourists, maps and presentations. Can you imagine living anywhere better than a a place with a name like “Hot Ocean”? (I suppose “Warm Springs” might give it a run for its money.)
Duckers: A lot of people retire there - maybe after your international, decade-spanning music career you could settle down in a old folk’s home in Atami! (The retirement homes in Japan are really nice and don’t just remind everyone of death.)
I lived there for almost 4 years…It was perhaps the best and years of my life. I live in Las Vegas now and I find myself always daydreaming of my time spent in Atami. There is a pretty upbeat younger scene there as well. A great group of people for certain both young and old.
T