Jogasaki Coast

When I think of Izu, one of the first things that comes to mind (other than Mt Omuro) is the Jogasaki Coast. This is a hiking trail that stretches for 9km along the eastern coast of Izu. The terrain was actually created by lava flowing from an eruption from Mt Omuro around 4000 years ago.

The Jogasaki Coast is accessible via bus and train (there is a train station even named after it - Jogasaki-Kaigan). However since we came by car we just opted to walk a small stretch of it, from our campsite at Kusamakura up to the Kodawaki Suspension Bridge and back. I’d almost be sad or have a sense of FOMO that we didn’t get to hike more of it, but we got to enjoy some pretty interesting sights (i.e. birds) along the way so I came away from the walk feeling pretty fulfilled.

The first up was a black kite or “tobi” perching majestically on a rock. I was rather excited just to see this guy but more was yet to come.

Next up was a pigeon. From the naked eye I couldn’t quite tell what it was, and it was only when I zoomed in with my telephoto lens that I realised it was just these guys. I suppose the domesticated pigeons we see in cities today originated from rock doves which traditionally lived on cliffs like this so it would make sense that you would see them here (although it seems weird, since I normally see them in a city context).

So, continuing my walk is where things get exciting, as I spotted a tobi and crow fighting each other. For some reason it’s always crows that pick fights with tobi, and yet the tobi seems to come out on top.

Back to the hiking part of this blog - there’s also the replica of a fisherman’s watchpost out on the water. Unfortunately you can no longer enter it (only view it from a distance) but fishermen used to stay in this hut to wait for schools of fish to appear, and then send a signal to other fisherman, probably out on the water.

Speaking of fishermen, there was a man out fishing on the rocks on the water - can’t even imagine how he got there.

From the coast you can also see out to the island of Oshima, which technically is part of Izu, and is also home to an active volcano called Mount Mihara (neat, I will have to go check it out one day).

And then we made it to the famous Kadowaki Suspension Bridge.

Well, it’s just a bridge really - although I suppose it’s a little scary to see out over the water below. Next to the bridge is the Kadowakisaki Lighthouse.

From the top of the lighthouse, you can see Mt Omuro.

Back down at the bottom, I did a bit more bird-watching. For some reason my husband doesn’t seem to mind me doing this which I am very grateful for (surely it’s boring watching me take photos).

There were a lot of swallows or swifts of some sort swooping overhead, which unfortunately I can never ID, so just involves me Googling to figure out what are usually sighted in the area. I don’t know the rules of birding (well, if there are any rules) but in my own rulebook I figure I can count this as having “seen” one.

It seems to be the Pacific swift, which I also had the pleasure of spotting recently on my hike up Mt Asama. I can faintly see the white patch its supposed to have on its back, as well!

Down by the water below, I could also see plenty of gulls of a sort skimming the tops of the waves. The ones commonly seen in Japan are Black-tailed gulls, rather cutely known as ウミネコ or “sea cats”. They look quite similar to the Silver gulls that I saw in Sydney growing up (or as we would just call them “seagulls”) but they’re a different species (aren’t birds cool).

Quite helpfully, you can see they have the black tips on their tails which makes it easy to ID them - so I assumed all the birds down by the water must be the same.

But on closer inspection, this one looks rather different.

And so I think I managed to also spot a Streaked shearwater, which as the name suggests likes to skim the water.

I spotted yet another blue rock thrush here as well.

I used to get quite excited when I saw these guys, but I’ve been seeing them more and more often that it’s becoming kind of normal!

Aside from the birds, the Jogasaki Coast is a very scenic place and I can understand why it draws crowds. Luckily even for a weekend the amount of people was fairly reasonable - I suppose most people will have started to head home by now (I think it was around 4 or 5pm by this time).

Usually in the trees you can hear plenty of birds tittering and rustling about, but never quite see them. So we got quite lucky on our walk back that a small flock of them were being active just on the branches ahead of us.

I got quite excited to have spotted something new, although it turned out to be the long-tailed tit, which I had already spotted them on a previous garden walk in Tokyo. Still, it was good to get a clearer picture!