I am now in yamanashi prefecture but not for long this was just a quick overnight stay on my way from Tokyo to the IU Peninsula the southernmost point of shiza prefecture but what a park up this was with these gorgeous views of Fuji and as I was enjoying my morning tea these grandpas showed up with crates of pigeons and they saw me shooting so they told me to prepare my camera apparently they were participating in a nationwide pigeon race a random but cool encounter to start this trip [Music] I made it through the mountains to
the IU Peninsula just in time for sunset my plan was to go down the west coast of the peninsula so I could have Fuji views for Sunset and this place did not disappoint [Music] so I just drove down from these mountains up [Music] here well well well what do we have here Fuji was completely clouded over the top when I was driving here but it's most often clear in the mornings in Sunset and sure enough Sunset comes around and it's clearing up I'm going to see if I can get a composition with either this boat
or that boat nice and centered right in front of Fuji you can see those are the Minami Alps over there so the southern portion of the Japanese Alps so the whole reason I came to ISU in the first place is because this guy reached out to me his name is also Ryan and he lives in ISU and has been living in Japan for almost 30 years I think um and has a van of his own actually but uh lives in a home and that's where I'm staying otherwise this would be a great place to stay
for the night I uh am kind of debating it but he gave me a whole bunch of recommendations and I wouldn't have come to U otherwise but I'm really glad I did cuz oh my God it is just Gorge gorgeous so far but while I'm here I'm going to snap some piics because the van with Fuji in the background is just amazing so I have to head back uh as there are dinner plans apparently at Anaya uh which should be fun but uh got the time lapse set up not a ton of action in the
clouds right now so it's not going to be crazy but still can't pass up an opportunity for a Fuji Tim lapse he so yesterday was just a bit of a teaser of what's to come because for the next 3 days I'm going to be driving around and exploring the U Peninsula I just can't wait because it has so much to offer not only just great Fuji views views but it is one of the best places to see Fuji and I was kind of wondering why and Ryan who's the house I was staying at for the
last couple nights uh explained that because you're seeing it from sea level the scale is is just that much greater compared to I was looking into this kawaguchi Lake which is a famous spot to see Fuji from is actually at 800 M elevation so that's a 20% difference from viewing it from sea level because Fuji is 3600 m in elevation so the scale is just crazy when you're seeing it from the easu peninsula because I believe it is one of the if not the only place where you can see directly across uh to Fuji from
sea level so it is a special place but like I said that's not all it has to offer so I can't wait to explore and show you guys [Music] [Music] [Music] ah [Music] the west coast of IU is full of rugged Rocky Cliffs creating Bays with secluded beaches it's an absolutely gorgeous Drive you'll want to stop every 10 minutes to take in the views [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I'm already losing light here so uh I found this beach luckily I'm in just a uh small town in matsuzaki Fuji is behind these rocks and I might
be able to line it up which could make a cool shot I just have to probably wander down the beach so I believe this is called kumomi beach in matsuzaki as I said um so yeah I'm just going to wander down the beach a little bit to see if I can get a composition with uh Fuji there lined up be between these rocks and I think I've got it but uh I need the big guns for this one used this bad boy a lot in the last couple days just with Fuji compositions love the telephoto
this is a Sigma 100 to 400 MM get that nice compression so Fuji just looks right behind those rocks let's check it out I mean not bad but it's just it sucks that Fuji's uh clouded over on the top there I was running out of light and I still hadn't found a good Sunset spot as I frantically started pinching in and out of Google Maps to the beaches nearby I finally came across a potential winner problem is I had maybe 15 minutes of sunlight and still needed to drive and Hike there I made it just
in time to capture a bit of footage in a few photos [Music] [Music] so it's important to get uh sunlight in your eyes first thing when you wake up to help regulate your uh circadian rhythm so going to just probably take a little walk along the beach here what I love about Izu is the subtropical climate it feels like a completely different country to the northern prefectures if you want to spend all year in Japan in a van and don't want to get too cold you could fully stick to the southern areas such as ISU
and never have to worry about snow as it hardly gets into negative temps here it's currently mid December and I can have the trunk open and walk around in my bcks I mean come on so I just moved over to shahama beach which is just about 5 minutes away from where I was previously there were no bathrooms there so there are here and there was a Family Mart right across the road unfortunately the parking is quite steep even in offseason it was 1,000 yen for the entire day um there are coin showers too here if
you need them there's lots of surfers on this beach so yeah I'm just going to be chilling here and then checking out the town of shimoda which is probably the largest town in the southern part of IU Peninsula and then eventually meeting up with Ryan and Akiko tonight so that should be fun as well [Music] [Music] [Music] after getting some work done in the van I then headed into town to look around shimoda is perhaps most famously known for ending Japan's 200-year period of isolation finally opening to international trade in 1854 although this happened because
an American Fleet was sent and threatened to turn the whole town to Rubble if Japan didn't agree funnily enough shimoda celebrates this history for example Perry Road a quaint alley that has kept its historical character was named after the American officer that commanded this Fleet Commodore Perry imagery of Perry's ship can also be found all around town as well as a life-science replica you can board other than this history shimoda has a strangely nostalgic vibe to it like it's stuck in the 9s I felt like I was brought back in time as I wandered through
the [Applause] [Music] streets we didn't uh didn't get around to it last night right but uh finally in IU with Ryan and AKO honey his house his house is amazing you got to get it Ryan just showed me an even better spot than the place I was staying at the last couple nights just backs right onto the beach it's so nice wish I would have stayed here like look at this it's crazy people always ask me how I find these Park ups and generally I find them by scouring Google Maps every single day for a
place to sleep but I want to announce that I've now made a patreon and one of the items on there is a comprehensive van lifee map which includes not only Park UPS I've been to but public baths which I used to shower free or cheap workout spots swimming holes hikes and even my favorite photo spots and each comes with notes about the location the best part is that I'm constantly adding new pins as I travel around you can buy the link to the map or subscribe to my patreon and it's included in the benefits there
are of course other benefits such as wallpapers and monthly video calls and I also have my Lightroom preset for sale for dirt Jeep on there so check out the link in the description I don't make money from YouTube yet and it consumes by far the most time so this is a great way to support me if you want to keep seeing my videos consistently but I do want to say I truly appreciate all the support you guys have given me so far and I hope I can keep doing this well into the future anyway let's
get back to exploring [Music] U we checked out one more coastal location before heading Inland on the way up through the middle the peninsula you come across this massive interchange out of nowhere it seems a bit out of place for a sleepy area but it was definitely cool to shoot with a [Music] drone but that's not the objective we came for NAD da or the Seven Falls so 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 eight Falls what oh that's really [Music] cool and that's an onent down there that we're going to go check out later
it has a great view looking back up at the [Music] Falls if you know me you already know what I'm thinking this water looks very cold plung [Music] give you the day okay okay okay okay so we're aiming for this top one here hey a close okay there's another one here it's even farther so we're going to see if I can get that one here we go it bounced out [Music] [Music] [Music] after seeing all Seven Falls you can enjoy an onent at the base of the first waterfall and this is perhaps the the best
hent I've ever been [Music] to I mean old views don't get much better than this and even better once you get too hot you can cold punch in the [Music] river that pretty much wraps up my time in the E Peninsula and there's still most of the East Coast yet to see so I'll just have to be back but a huge Thanks goes out to Ryan and AO for not only giving me suggestions but also helping me with van stuff and posting me it was an absolute [Music] blast all right we're ending off the two-day
3-day trip in U thank you so much to Ryan and AKO for showing me around and hosting me thank you guys cheers it was fun thanks man it was really cool meeting you cheers cheers woo what [Music]
