Beautiful Lighthouses and Yummy Fish Burgers (Shimoda) – Yuru Camp Backpacking Part 8

It’s been a while, and stuff got real busy for me the past few months. But I’m finally done with university, some odds and ends with music have been wrapped up, and now I have lots of free time. So I’ll finish up last years blogging very soon.

Those of you Yuru Camp fans that enjoy reading these, rejoice! I’m going back to Japan in a few days from now. I’ll be in Tokyo for a bit first, then going around some season 1 locations with a friend, spending a bit of time in Nara at a techno festival, then I’ll have two weeks to visit all the season 3 locations. I’m a bit behind at episode 7 at the moment, but I’ve been loving it so far. Watch this space!

Shimoda Town

After waking up and munching on some leftover kombini food, we had planned to grab some of the bikes provided by the hostel to take us to the next Yuru Camp spot. But they were all gone! Not surprising since they were free, but it meant we had to source our bikes from a different location instead.

There were a few places in town so we decided to check them out. It was a good opportunity to check out Shimoda itself too. All the main shops were in and around the station. There was a funny one called “expensive” right opposite. Wish I had a look inside.

We also grabbed a snack at the local Lawson. Kath got some iced macha and melonpan. Yum.

After a bit more walking around and weighing up our options, we decided on hiring some electric bikes from a place inside the station. A nice upgrade! It was our first time ever on e-bikes though, so we had a cautious pedal around the nearby parking lot to get used to it.

After dialling in the directions into my phone, it was time to go to the lighthouse!

Cape Tsumekizaki Lighthouse

After Rin meets up with the others in Shimoda at the end of season 2 and eat some yummy fish burgers in town, they all go together to the lighthouse. The burger place was closed, so we timed it that we could check it out after we dropped off our bikes when we were done with them. So it was the lighthouse first for us.

The e-bikes were super fun to zip around on, and made the journey up and down the rolling hills a piece of cake. On the way, there was a preschool nearby that had just released their kids for home time, and a group of them were waddling past. Us as we were cycling. I nodded a friendly hello at one of them, and to my surprise, the kid stopped dead in his tracks, turned towards me, and did a full 90 degree bow. It caught me off guard.

We parked our bikes off to the side at the car park, and took in the beautiful view.

Behind us there was this little cafe/shop, and we poked our heads through the entrance in search for a drink. A really nice old lady was manning the shop, and a small group of older people were sat down all having a chat. They were all really friendly. After hydrating ourselves, we headed down towards the beach. On the way I snapped this shot of the footpath.

There was a small party of campers pitched up on the beach. What a spot!

We continued along the beach and climbed up a small hill.

And then we turned to the left, and there was the lighthouse!

We did our best effort to replicate the gravity-defying group photo that the girls took.

Backtracking a bit there is this big silver heart, because there’s some rumour about the place that it will bring luck to your relationship if you visit with your girl/boyfriend. Kath and I are both single.

And backtrack a little further there’s a little path down the opposite side of the cliff to reach the cool rock formation the girls also check out.

After poking around a bit we headed back to the car park to hop back on our bikes, but before we left Kath had a tinkle on a little piano set up in front of the gorgeous view.

We cruised back up and down the hills towards Shimoda again.

Madogahama Kaiyu Park

On the way back, we made a stop at a park that Rin has a little look around while she’s in the area.

There’s a big anchor! Or maybe Rin is just small 🙂

Looking out into the bay you can see a small island with a torii gate on it.

The fish burger restaurant was like right next to the park, but the time on our bikes was running out so we had to go and return them before walking back up.

Ra-maru Hamburger Cafe

I had been looking forward to this for the entire trip. We headed over to the outdoor mall kinda area where the cafe was based, and hunted around a bit for it.

Until eventually we found it.

We ordered two of the same burgers that they all order in the anime, and it was so so good. You could tell the fish was super duper fresh.

In the anime, the girls sit on the far table closest to the window, but it was taken when we got there.

That shelf on the right had lots of yuru camp related stuff on it!

And there was a section from the manga printed out from the same part where they visit the cafe!

After finishing our burgers we went for a quick walk back around the park nearby, and took the opportunity to dip our feet in the scalding hot foot baths.

I sat at the end of the stream where the water wasn’t so warm 🙂

There was a tourist centre in that mall area and I went in to look at the yuru camp merch, and almost ended up buying some o_o I did take a picture of the character cutouts of Rin and Nadeshiko though.