This Monday and Tuesday of Golden Week in Japan, we stayed in Ito, in Izu. Its not actually very far from our home in Mishima, but as this virus is still affecting Japan quite badly, we decided to stay in the prefecture. We stayed in the Ito Station Hotel, which has hot spring water in every room, so its like a private onsen, but with just a normal bath. Also, the rooms are really badly designed with the baths next to the bedrooms and with paper thin walls, so I don't recommend it if your a light sleeper. Otherwise, its a pretty decent place, cheap and right in the middle of town near the station. There's no breakfast, but some nice cafes nearby. The first day we went to Mt. Omuro and the Izu Cactus Park. Mt. Omuro has a ropeway to get to the top. No hiking course of any sort, but it was crazy busy, so we skipped that, instead, opting to strolling around the cactus park, which is more a small zoo, rather than a cactus park. Some of the animals seemed to have a decent space to roam, but others were pretty restricted and abused, The animals all seemed to be sedated, although the announcement said that they had just been fed, so they were lethargic. Interesting place to go though and with an online discount available, its decent value. You can wander round among the animals without cages. For example with the kangaroos and many birds. I went over ten years ago, and it doesn't seem to have changed a bit from then. Pretty interesting, but you need a bit of a thick skin to ignore the sometimes miserable conditions.
