Shimoda Festival + Snorkelling

shimoda august festival shimoda obon festival From Ito, we headed to Shimoda 下田 the next day where there happened to be a festival called 下田太鼓祭り which takes places every August 14th and 15th. Cool girls and dudes in shirts that look like tattoos parade trees and wooden carts with large dolls around, ending in some very short but entertaining fireworks at night.

A guy mumbled, "Arigato, Shimoda!" as he watched the fireworks exploding in the air to make a happy face.
Shimoda summer festival Shimoda obon festival
in front of Ryosenji 了仙寺

Despite the weather forecast of rain these 3 days,
it barely rained at all except for a couple of drops.
perry road
Nice Italian food & awesome view at パスタと雑貨 on the very atmospheric but short Perry Road ペリーロード.
Feels like Amsterdam in Japan! Lots of mosquitoes though so bring bug spray!
perry road pasta perry road night
perry road shimoda shimoda snorkelling

funny rock along the coast
Shimoda park
funny statue at Shimoda Park
We walked past Perry Road towards the beach by 下田海浜ホテル. There are shops by the station selling tubes (900 yen), snorkels (under 3000 yen) and fins (around 3000 yen).

Not as many fish here but a lot of kelp and pink coral. There are many rocks close to the surface. There were some people hanging out here but not nearly as many as other beaches.

You can walk along the shore towards Shimoda Park 下田公園 past an awful aquarium where they keep dolphins and sea turtles in tiny enclosures.
shimoda izu