| Shimoda: Japan's gateway to the World |
 People who first travel to the Tokyo region might find difficult to believe that merely 100 km from the megalopolis lie some of the most beautiful beaches in Japan. The Izu Peninsula (Izu Hanto) is located south-west from Tokyo and it has a lot to offer in terms of scenic mountain and coastal landscapes, paradise beaches and traditional holiday resorts such as ryokan (traditional Japanese inns) and onsen (hot springs). Obviously, this makes it a destination of choice for the Tokyoite during weekends and spring or summer breaks. Apart from these considerations, the Izu peninsula has counted very little in the unfolding of Japanese history is until quite recently. When Izu finally did come into play through Shimoda, one of its most southern cities, it changed the whole country and its people forever. The events that took place there in 1854 are nothing less than Japan's first opening of the outside world after more than 200 years of Sakoku policy of isolationism. It also provoked the subsequent fall of the millenarian military regime of the Shogun, and the uncanny return of the Emperor as ruler of the country during the Meiji restoration (1868).
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