Jogasaki is a stretch of particularly rugged coastline along the east side of the Izu Peninsula. It features a 10km long hiking track through the bushes with the sea crashing on the rocks down below. It's quite beautiful. I don't know much about how hiking tracks are graded in degree of difficulty, but I'd take a stab and say this one was medium. Not too difficult for a 5 months pregnant woman carrying a toddler (part of the way; admittedly Craig did most of the carrying) in the heat and humidity while wearing shoes that weren't very appropriate for the job, but a decent challenge nonetheless. Quite a lot of up-and-down, with rocky steps in many places. We worked out that we walked about 4km of track and both of us were weary at the end of it. If I was to do it again I'd definitely wear runners with socks, as my slip-on casual shoes didn't really cut it. (No doubt hiking boots would be even better, but it's not so difficult that hiking boots are a must.)
We took the train to Izu Kogen station and walked down to the hiking trail. Apparently there is also a bus service from the station, but according to the timetable we found buses run infrequently, at least at that time of day (late morning). It's quite a long walk through the somewhat hilly streets of Izu Kogen from the station, although the area is pleasant and appears to be the stomping ground of rich Japanese people who go there for weekend getaways. Could be wrong about that, but there were lots of shiny cars and nice, large, widely spaced apart houses around, and what else would shiny cars and nice, large, widely spaced apart houses be doing in Japan? There are a number of little shops and cafe/restaurants in the area where you can get something to eat as well. The waitress at the place we stopped for lunch even spoke a smattering of English!
Anyway, we followed our noses down the streets to the coast and joined the track at one of the several entry points along the way. The closer you get to the track the more signs pointing you in the right direction you will find. At one end of the track there is a famous suspension bridge but we worked out that we were too far to make it so we went in the other direction. For the most part we had the track to ourselves, with the occasional smile and softly murmured konnichiwa to people coming the other way. One of the highlights was finding squirrels running around in some trees directly above us (forgive us being Australian and thinking squirrels are a novelty). After we'd had enough walking we decided to take a short cut back to the train station along a straight concrete path lining a canal that evidently took the town's run-off water to the sea.
If you're into nature rather than temples, museums and gadgets it's an excellent way to spend a day checking out Japan. I'd be quite happy to do the trip again around April or May next year when the weather is sunny but not so hot and sticky. With a little preparation it's well worth the trip.
***** ***** *****
How to get to Jogasaki Coast from Numazu: Take the Tokaido line train to Atami, and from Atami take the Izukyu line train to Izu Kogen. You can then either walk to the coast (20-30 minutes) or take a bus (10 minutes). Apparently.
