Whenever my wife wants to go on vacation she has a long list of things she wants to do and see like an onsen(hot spring bath), a zoo or aquarium, good gift shops, seafood, and on and on. Me, I just want freaking battle robots you can drive!
But more on that later.
Not too far from Tokyo is the Izu Peninsula, an area known for it's many vacation spots like Atami.
This past January we went on vacation to a place called Izu-Kogen. My wife chose it because it wasn't too far from home and there is an amusement park there called Izu Granpal Park. When I looked it up I noticed there is a dormant volcano you can climb too, so I was sold. I found an interesting hotel with an onsen and we were off a week later.
Along the way we took the Izu Skyline which you can read about here. When we arrived at our hotel we were a bit concerned though.
It was tucked away in a residential area with nothing nearby, but we would find out that's how many of Izu-Kogen hotels are. They are tucked away amongst vacation homes and trees, ya know, for a vacation.
Anyway, our hotel, ISOLA, was awesome. It had a personal onsen,
rooms with somewhat of a view,
and the rooftop lounge area which is what sold me.
I could lay down and stare at the volcano we wanted to climb, Mt. Omuro, in the distance.
The Mrs. had her onsen, I had my serene rooftop, and then it was time for the kids, enter Izu Granpal Park.
When the sun set we headed a few miles up the road to a local amusement park because it was billed as an illumination attraction.
Admission is $16ea. for adults and $10ea for children.
As soon as you enter the park you are greeted by the massive illumination area.
It's an enchanting foot path maze in the center of the park.
Music and zip lines overhead provide for additional stimuli if the lights weren't enough.
It is an actual maze of lights you walk through with dead ends and circles.
At the bottom of the maze is a large LED screen that must be about 50 feet wide and 15 feet tall. I almost felt like I was at a rave.
After about 30 minutes of walking and taking everything in we came to the last portion of the maze, crystal world..... with an alligator??
Pretty cool timing for us, being mineral dealers! We could really appreciate this area.
I forgot to mention, the displays change colors and turn on and off as you walk along.
When we reached this display my wife told me it was a sign she needed a new ring!
After about 45 minutes we reached the end of the illumination maze.
It was time for dinner and what a coincidence, the maze ends in front of the Pirate's restaurant.
The food is nothing to write home about here. Very basic, but cheap around $10 per entree.
The atmosphere is nice for kids though. My son enjoyed his non-alcohol cocktail.
While my wife and daughter dressed up as pirates. I'm not sure they would make good pirates though with they way they hold their swords....
After dinner we went to inspect some of the rides just behind the restaurant. This would be the left side of the park if you were coming in from the entrance. Then I spotted them.
Mecha you could actually drive and battle others with!
In all my years in Japan I have never seen these before. They are a laser tag type robot. Each robot has a laser and missiles to attack with. Missiles have a cool down period while lasers can fire non stop.
I got my wife and daughter to fight me and off we went.
After about 2 minutes the game was finished. Despite my wife and daughter teaming up against me I was still victorious!
The game costs $3 per person and made me feel like a kid again. Highly recommended if you visit.
Next to the robot battle was the shooting gallery and floating human soccer balls? Not sure what too call them. My wife and daughter tried those while my son and I cleaned up on the shooting gallery.
From there we headed over to the right side of the park that had more rides like gas powered go carts, small rollercoasters and these cool, free, climbing walls.
It was around closing time at this point so we wrapped up our fun and headed to the exit, which is through the gift shop of course. My wife loaded up on gifts for friends and family and we called it a night. Between the entrance fee, dinner, rides and gifts we spent about $250. Not bad for 4 people.
The next morning I woke up early to watch the sunrise from the roof.
It was at this time I really felt like I was on vacation. Now work, no kids to take care of, just me, a cup of coffee and the sun rising over Oshima island.
Then it was time to head up to climb the dormant volcano, Mt. Omuro! First a stop at the local shrine so my wife could do her thing.
When we arrived at Mt. Omuro we hadn't realized that it was quite windy outside. So when we pulled up there were attendants with signs saying the lift up the mountain was closed! Even so, we parked and went into the gift shops.
We took the wind as an omen, both to leave and return again someday.
We took the coastal road home and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all there is to see in this part of Izu. What struck me is how spread out everything is compared to Tokyo. It felt very comfortable and really like a vacation area. I could understand why there are so many vacation homes and hotels in the area. I would definitely like to visit again with more time to explore the area. Until then, there's work to do and other places to explore in Japan!
Thanks for reading!
