Destination - Izu Atagawa Onsen

Atagawa Onsen is a seaside hot spring resort town on the east coast of Izu peninsula in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Emi and I recently spent 3 days in Atagawa and these are some of the pictures I took while we were there.

Watching the sunrise from our hotel room​

After breakfast Emi took a train to Shimoda (south of Atagawa) to visit a museum (photography isn't her thing) and I grabed my gear and walked to the far end of town and started taking pictures.

Atagawa coast line​

The entrance to the road on the left side was blocked off and had "do not enter" signs posted. I figured access was blocked to vehicles not pedestrians so I followed it for as far as I could. Later I saw a couple of joggers on the same road. Maybe we're all trespassers or maybe we're not.

This is as far as I followed the road. From here I started working my way back to the entrance point.

It's beautiful out here.

When I was taking this picture a man suddenly appeared (seemingly out of nowhere) and said “I see we share the same hobby of photography”. There I was with my camera on a tripod and there he was with only an iPhone in his hand. I smiled and said “it looks like you're packing a bit lightly”. He smiled and said he was into astrophotography and all his gear was back in his hotel room. It turned out that he was an American originally from Buffalo NY, who had recently retired from a company in Tokyo and was now living in Yokohama (small world). He also explained that this isolated area of Atagawa was a well known dark spot good for astrophotography. He’d done his “serious” photography the night before. We had a friendly and interesting conversation for about 20 minutes and then parted ways.

The road back to town.

Scenes from the other end of town.

I'm using a tripod to take some long exposures.

A view of the coast in front of the ocean front hotels.

Concrete jetty.

Izu Atagawa Onsen Hotel "Cetus Royal" (center of the picture)
Our room was on the 6th floor, ride side corner
Free happy hour starts at 3:00pm 😊

Using a tripod and an ND filter I watch the waves and try to get the right exposure time for the best composition. It's like playing a game.

There is a road that follows the coast from Atagawa to the Shirotagawa river. Very few cars use this road because there is a main road further inland. Everytime I visit Atagawa I take the time to walk this road; it's good for the soul.

Getting close to the Shirotagawa river.

The Izukyuko train line crosses the the Shirotagawa river. I was doing a 30 second long exposure of the river just to see what it would look like when unexpectedly a train crossed the bridge. If I had know that a train was coming I wouldn't have done such a long exposure. There's no second chance unless I waited an hour for the next train to come; I didn't want to wait.

Walking back to Atagawa and stopping here and there to take pictures.

Following the coastal road back.

The view from our hotel room (looking to the left)​

The view from our hotel room (looking to the right)​

The Atagawa river runs through the center of town.

Last morning and it's another beautiful sunrise.

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and headed home by train. Our three days in paradise were over but I bet well be back again someday in the future. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots!