After driving out from Tokyo, we spent our first night on our Izu roadtrip camping at the Kusamakura Camping Ground (くさまくらキャンプ場). At first glance it doesn’t look like much - it’s basically a grassy field on the corner of a suburban street, and the land would probably be otherwise used for a couple of houses.
But it just gives off some really cozy vibes. You can’t see the Jogasaki Coast from the campsite as there is a wall of bushes and trees along the coastline that blocks the view. But you can definitely hear its waves crashing (in a soothing way, mind) all night. Although it does sit along a road, it’s a quiet enough street that cars do not really pass through it at night, and so you should be able to enjoy a good night’s rest.
I don’t want to say the campsite is Ghibli-esque, because at this point that phrase is pretty overused, but it was in a way. The campsite owner, such a cheerful and friendly guy, greeted us wearing a rather large, floppy-brimmed hat and at one point sat up on a grassy hill in the corner and started playing some sort of ukulele. The name of the campsite translates to “grass pillow”, and the signage is all hand-written - plus the owner will hand you a little guide to the area, with a hand-drawn map and sketch of the campground that drew himself. Overall it’s just cute.
On the night we stayed there were only 3 groups, so we were all quite spread out, and it felt really comfortable - and you couldn’t hear the other people at all. I’m not too sure how tightly squeezed it might get in on the weekend, though.
The other great part of this campsite is that it directly sits on the trail of the Jogasaki Coast, so you can set up your tent and then head out for a walk to the Kadowaki Suspension Bridge, which is probably only a 30-minute walk away. I can imagine the sunrises along the Jogasaki Coast must be beautiful as well, but at this time of year the sun rises as early as 4:30am, so we decided to skip it.
The campground can be booked via an email form on their website. It’s quite cheap at 3,500 yen for two people and car on a weekday night, although the prices double to 6,500 yen on the weekends. This does seem quite high, but seems to be the going rate for camping in Izu generally.
They do seem to offer a shower for 500 yen, or you can visit the Izu-kogen-no-yu onsen which is only a 6 - 7 minute drive away. Conveniently there is also a Max Valu super market just across the road from the onsen so you can hit up both in one go. The onsen is actually open until midnight - however with how small the campground is, and because they have a “quiet time after 8pm” rule I wouldn’t stay out too late, lest your car returning ends up waking the other campers.
We did spot a squirrel on the power line as well. It had a weirdly demented tail so I got excited that we were spotting some sort of exotic new species but no, just a squirrel.
I also spotted a spider, which I have put at the bottom of this post so you can click away now if you don’t want to see it!
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