Welcome to Jimmy's Izu Blog
Thanks for visiting.
I’m an American living in Ito on the Izu Peninsula. I love this place. I love the new Izu – the one developed by the Izukyu Railroad Corporation around 1960 – and I love the old Izu, with a history going back thousands of years. I live, work and volunteer in the community. I know lots of hidden places that tourists don’t see. I love the history and how locals have figured out how to survive and thrive in this rugged, volcanic cluster of islands that slammed into the Japanese mainland tens of thousands of years ago.
Please read my entries about Izu. Excuse the mistakes (or point them out). Comment, ask questions, let me know what else you’d like to know. Most of all, enjoy!
The Izu Peninsula’s Mt. Omuro is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Japan’s Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.
Everything about Japanese culture can be traced back to its rural villages. Japanese language, behavior, rituals, and diet can be traced back to a small village tucked away in a remote mountain valley....
Itō has been inhabited since the Jōmon period - roughly 13,000-300 B.C. This era coincides with the Stone Age. The hunter-gatherer Jōmon people are believed to have entered Japan via the Japan Sea and...
Soga Monogatari (The Soga Story) is one of Kabuki theater's three most famous plays. The play is an interpretation of events that began here in Izu during the 12th century.
Today is Setsubun in Japan. It is one of several very old traditions imported from Chinese culture and based on the lunar calendar. In the West, spring is associated with the vernal equinox (March 21),...