deuceの旅行: Shirahama (白浜)

Shirahama is a beach located at the southeast part of the Izu peninsula in Shizuoka prefecture. It's known for its white sand as the name implies (白 - white, 浜 - beach/seashore). It was my wife who found this beach in the web while searching for white sand beaches near the greater Tokyo Metropolitan area. So after some research and preparation, we were off to beat the summer heat.

We went to Shirahama using local trains and not the combination of express trains and the Shinkansen bullet train (新幹線). The latter way is free when using special passes that our friends bought when they also went to Izu. They were scheduled to go all over the Izu peninsula, but my wife and I didn't plan to go somewhere else, so a train/bus pass wouldn't benefit us. Regardless, details of the pass they used are found in the links section at the end of this post for those who are interested.

Since we had some errands before our trip, we started from Fujisawa station (藤沢駅) of the JR Tokaido line (JR東海道本線) bound for Atami (熱海). From there, we transferred to the Ito line (伊東線) that connects directly to the Izu Kyuko line (伊豆急行線) going to Izukyu Shimoda (伊豆急下田). Total cost for this was 2,850円/pax and it took us almost 3 hours. Our timing was also a little lucky because we got one of the better looking trains going there and got to sit in front.

From Izukyu Shimoda station (伊豆急下田駅), we took a bus that cost us 290円 each going to our hotel. The bus station was just beside the train station, and we took the bus going to Shirahama beach (白浜海岸), Bus No. 9.

We checked-in at a small hotel called Pasto Elegante (天空の小さなホテルパストエレガンテ) that we found from various Japanese hotel booking websites like Jalan and Rakuten travel. We wanted a nice looking hotel that offered an ocean view and we got a double room here for 37,200円 for 2 nights, breakfasts included (the rate was actually 9,300円 per person per night - the Japanese way - so it wasn't really a "per room" rate). Summer and Golden Week are their peak seasons, so other than those two, I think they offer good rates.

We weren't disappointed, and even though the hotel was small, it had a nice terrace that offered a relaxing view, we had the ocean view room that we wanted, and they also have 2 private open air baths (露天風呂) that you can reserve for 40 minutes (it's free for all from 11:20pm - 8:00am the next day, you just have to get the sign that the bath is currently in use). We only got to try the one with the view of Shirahama. The other one offered a view of Oshima island (大島).

Pasto Elegante's terrace

Shirahama-view open air bath

From our window

The hotel was 10 minutes away from the beach and though the sun was scorching hot, we didn't mind because of the relaxing views all around. However, one thing to take note of is the walkway from the hotel to the main road, which was a steep and rocky trail.

We expected a lot of people at the beach, and our expectations were really met. The beach was somewhat divided into two, the surfing area and the bathing area, though this wasn't strictly implemented. The water and sand was good, my wife even thought it was better than Patong beach. We rented a parasol (パラソル) and body board (ボディボード) for 1,000円 and 500円 respectively from one of the roadside shops. They were also the ones that set-up the parasol.

On the far end side of the beach was a torii (鳥居) - a Shinto shrine archway, which, I think, was one of the more popular parts of the beach. We took some pictures there when we were just walking along the beach, but we also returned just before sunset to have one more picture, as my wife wanted a shot along the beach, and I thought that scene represented Shirahama.

That ain't me, just somebody enjoying the view.

Walking further away from the beach and the hotel, we found some more shops, some restaurants and the Shirahama shrine (白浜神社). We didn't go in the shrine and just took pictures outside because there were people praying and we didn't want to disturb them.