Seven Gods of Good Fortune in Ito, Izu Peninsula Shizuoka

I arrived at Ito by train from Atami in about 20 minutes.


Japan at the beginning of July this year was unusually chilly, and it rained or stopped that day. The friends who went to Mt. Omuro haven't been able to get to the inn yet, so the three of us were going by taxi.

When I asked to ask something at the tourist information center in front of Ito station, the guy told me the highlight of Ito.

An old inn called Tokaikan does not do business as a hotel right now, but you can visit it, or the shopping street has a hot spring of Shichifukujin (Seven Gods of Good Fortune) and a stamp rally.

Get a taxi with various maps and coupons.

This time we stayed at Tokyu Harvest Club Ito. (very different/luxurious to the one we stayed last night!)

We waited for about 30 minutes in the lobby and joined my friend.

Two sets of mother and two children and one set of mother and son.

It got noisy at once.

After check-in, go to the pool and hot springs.

At night, the restaurant in the hotel was expensive so we ate at nearby Jonathan.

The next morning, after a buffet breakfast, everyone went to Atami Castle by train.

Everyone walks to Ito Station. Walk along nice scenery riverside while it rains. I wanted to go to Tokaikan when I had time but we couldn't have time.

Check Shichifukujin when going through the shopping street. There were 6 gods, but where was the other god?. I did n’t take a photo of everything.

Ebisu, the god of prosperity and wealth in business

Juroujin (寿老人) is the god of the elderly and longevity

Hotei (布袋) is the god of fortune, the guardian of the children, patron of diviners and barmen, and also the god of popularity.

Daikokuten (大黒天)  is the god of commerce and prosperity.

Seven god teacup




Japanese bath salt. Instant hot springs at your home

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In this corner of the world (Japanese Anime Movie)

In this corner of the world is a Japanese animation movie. This animation illustrates how ordinary Japanese citizens survive in world war II era.

Suzu is a girl who likes to draw.  She grew up in a loving family and she got married to a guy she didn't know to a city of Kure, a city a few hours away by a train from her hometown Hiroshima.

The city of Kure had a war plant making warships, so this city was a target of American attacks. It gets pretty sad because food got scarce, had so many nights attacked, pretty sad, traumatic thing happened.. Please just watch in a theatre near you or in Netflix!!

Growing up in Japan, my generation got an education of "War makes people miserable" mindset. When I was the first grade, we read how elephants in a zoo had to starve to death because zookeepers couldn't give an injection to them to euthanasia because their skin is too thick. The elephants did tricks trying to get some snacks as a reward. Zookeepers were also so sad, they loved the elephants but they don't want the elephant to go free if the bomb hit the zoo.

I was surprised to see the people in the U.S. don't seem to have the same value, "War is a bad thing" when Iraq war and Afgan war happened, they seem to have more like "Yeah, do the war!" mindset.

Why? Americans got wealthy by the war, especially after the World War II.  This business model didn't always work after Vietnam, but it's still powerful.

It's really important to know war make people sad and suffering.

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