Ito

Ito is a hot spring town on the east coast of the Izu Peninsula, south of Atami and within easy reach of Tokyo. Seaside ryokan have drawn bathers here since the Edo period, and the town keeps an old-fashioned resort character, with shopping streets and steaming public baths near the harbor.

The Tokaikan, a preserved wooden bathhouse inn, shows off the carpentry of the resort's golden age. South of town, the Jogasaki Coast stacks black lava cliffs above the sea, crossed by a suspension footbridge, and the grassy cone of Mount Omuro rises inland, climbed by chairlift for a view over the peninsula.

In winter you can watch capybaras soak in their own open-air bath at the local zoo, a scene that has become nationally famous. Trains run down the coast from Atami, and Ito works as a first stop on a leisurely Izu loop. Fresh seafood, especially kinmedai snapper, anchors dinner.