Summer Vacation 2015, Shimoda Beach, Izu

We took a four nights and five days to escape the city for a bit and play at the beach in Shimoda. We have been to Shimoda now several years, always staying in a little beach hotel across from the beach. However, with three small kids we have outgrown the hotel room and thought a beach house would be more fun for the kids and easier to have meals and such. We found a nice place on air bnb and rented the car and headed down to the beach. We did not have the best weather and got rained on a bit, but it was so nice to be away from the daily grind and routine in Tokyo. Our pastor and his family joined us for two nights and we enjoyed sweet fellowship with them. Then we had two nights just as a family of five, and the parents found themselves falling asleep on the couch by 9:30 both nights. Three children under the age of 6 will do that to you! The drive there and back was beautiful as you spent half of the time driving on the coast. It reminded us of the Japanese version of Highway 1. We enjoyed great food, with lots of BBQ and then pasta and pizza from the hotel we stayed at in years past. For the most part, the trip was uneventful except for J Man not really liking his car seat. As you can see from the pictures we had a great time. We did leave Little Anpanman, the K Man's favorite animal. We bought him a new one but he does not care for it as much as his other one. This make mama more sad than it does him. We searched everywhere for it before we left and simply could not find it. Maybe the owner will find it eventually and let us know. Oh well. Such is life. Enjoy the photos of our summer vacation, 2015. The beach, fellowship, good food, sand sledding...yes, there is such a thing and we found it...it does not get much better than this for vacation.