About JP Izu

We're not a travel agency. We don't take bookings. We don't have partnerships with hotels or ryokan. We just really like Izu and want you to have a good time there.

JP Izu started as a shared Google Doc. Kenji had been writing notes about Izu trips for years — which onsen had the best water, which harbor restaurant had the freshest kinmedai, which trail had the best views at sunset. Lisa kept adding her own notes after she hiked the Amagi traverse and couldn't find reliable trail information in English. Tom contributed photos that were too good to keep on a hard drive. Eventually, the document got big enough that turning it into a website made sense.

That was in 2019. Since then, we've taken over 30 trips to Izu between us. We've soaked in every public bath on this site (and many that didn't make the cut). We've eaten at every harbor restaurant we recommend — most of them multiple times. We've hiked every trail in every season. We've stayed in everything from capsule hotels to ¥40,000-per-night ryokan. The information here comes from actual experience, not tourism board press releases or secondhand research.

The Team

Kenji Morita — Founder & Editor

Kenji grew up in Mishima, at the base of the Izu Peninsula. His grandfather used to take him to Ito Onsen every winter — they'd ride the train down, eat kinmedai at the harbor, soak in the public bath, and stay at the same ryokan his grandfather had been visiting since the 1960s. Kenji knows every back road on the peninsula because he drove them as a teenager, before he had a license that technically allowed it.

After university in Tokyo and a decade working in marketing, Kenji moved to Hawaii (long story involving a surfing trip and a decision made on a beach) and started missing Izu. A lot. He started going back twice a year, then three times, then monthly. Eventually he realized he was spending more time researching Izu than doing his actual job. JP Izu was the logical outcome.

Kenji handles the editorial direction, writes most of the onsen and fishing content, and maintains the Japan office. He still goes to Ito every winter and still eats kinmedai nitsuke at the same harbor restaurant his grandfather took him to.

Lisa Park — Co-Founder & Trail Editor

Lisa is from Seattle and came to Japan for a teaching job that was supposed to last one year. That was eight years ago. She discovered Izu on a weekend trip from Tokyo, hiked the Kawazu Waterfalls trail, and was hooked. A month later she did the Mount Amagi traverse. She got lost near the summit when fog rolled in, walked in circles for 45 minutes, developed blisters that took a week to heal, and declared it the best hike she'd ever done.

Lisa has since hiked every trail in this guide multiple times, in every season. She maintains current condition reports, updates access information, and writes the trails content. She's also our photography editor — she picks the shots that make it onto the site and rejects the ones that don't meet her standards (which are high).

When she's not hiking or editing, Lisa teaches English part-time and studies for her Japanese landscape gardening certification. She lives in Shizuoka City, 45 minutes from Izu by train.

Tom Brennan — Photographer & Contributor

Tom is a professional photographer based in Honolulu. He specializes in sunrise and seascape photography, which is how he ended up in Izu — he heard about the sunrise views from Dogashima and booked a trip to check them out. He stayed a week, shot over 3,000 photos, and came back with images that convinced us the site needed a visual upgrade.

Tom now contributes photography from his regular Izu trips — about four per year, timed for optimal light conditions. He's particularly obsessed with the Jogasaki Coast at dawn and the Dogashima cliffs at sunset. His photos have been featured in several travel publications and one very nice calendar that we sell to fund our server costs.

Tom also writes the coastal drives section because, in his words, "I drive every road on this peninsula looking for viewpoints, so I might as well write about them."

What We Believe

Travel writing should be honest. If a place is touristy, we'll say so. If a restaurant is overpriced, we'll say so. If a trail is harder than the guidebooks suggest, we'll definitely say so. We're not trying to sell you Izu — we're trying to help you experience it well.

We don't take free stays or sponsored trips. Everything on this site was paid for by us, at normal prices, with no special treatment. When we recommend a ryokan, it's because we stayed there incognito and liked it. When we say a restaurant is good, it's because we ate there with our own money.

We're a tiny team. Three people, working on this in spare time. We don't have an office. Our "meetings" happen over ramen in Shizuoka or video calls between Hawaii and Japan. We make mistakes sometimes — prices change, places close, trails get rerouted. If you spot something out of date, let us know and we'll fix it.

How We Work

Every article on this site is researched in person. We visit, we experience, we take notes, we take photos, and then we write. An article typically takes 2-3 trips to complete. The onsen guide involved visits to over 20 bathhouses before we narrowed it to the five we recommend. The fishing guide required early mornings at six different harbors.

We update articles seasonally. Prices are checked and updated every January. Trail conditions are updated after each hike. Restaurant recommendations are verified on every visit — places that decline in quality get removed.

The site runs on a simple model: we provide free, honest travel information. We sell a downloadable Izu itinerary PDF for $15 (some people want a printable guide). That's it. No ads, no affiliate links, no sponsored content. We like it this way.

Our Editorial Process

Every recommendation on this site comes from personal experience. We don't write about places we haven't visited, restaurants we haven't eaten at, or trails we haven't hiked. When we say a bathhouse has excellent water, it's because we've soaked in it. When we say a harbor restaurant serves fresh kinmedai, it's because we've watched the boats come in with our own eyes.

We pay for everything ourselves. No press trips, no comped meals, no sponsored stays. This independence matters to us. When a ryokan knows we're coming, the service improves. The experience isn't authentic. So we visit anonymously, pay the same prices you would, and write about what we actually experienced.

We update content regularly. Prices are verified annually. Restaurant recommendations are re-verified on every visit. If a place we recommended declines in quality, we remove it. The guides on this site reflect our most recent trips, not memories from years ago.

We make mistakes sometimes. A restaurant changes hands. A bus schedule shifts. A trail gets rerouted after a landslide. When readers point out errors, we fix them and note the correction. If you spot something out of date, please let us know.

Why Izu?

People ask us why we focus on Izu instead of covering all of Japan. The answer is simple: depth over breadth. Japan has endless amazing destinations, but we believe travelers are better served by detailed, specific guides to one place than by shallow overviews of many.

Izu deserves more attention than it gets. It's accessible from Tokyo, affordable compared to better-known destinations, and offers a combination of natural beauty, cultural depth, and excellent food that's hard to match. We want more people to discover it — not so many that it gets ruined, but enough that the local businesses we love can thrive.

Plus, honestly, we just love the place. The steam rising from the river in Ito on a winter morning. The sound of waves below the outdoor bath at Atagawa. The first sight of the Pacific from the Jogasaki cliffs. These are the moments that keep us coming back, and they're the moments we want to share.

Contact

Questions about Izu? Found a great spot we should know about? Want to correct something on the site? Send us a message. We're a tiny team, so replies take 3-5 days, but we read everything and we genuinely appreciate hearing from readers.

For media inquiries, partnership proposals, or anything business-related: aloha@jptenkiizu.com

Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Do you take sponsored trips or free stays? No. Never. We pay for everything ourselves and visit anonymously. If a place knows we're "travel writers," the service improves and the experience isn't authentic. We want to have the same experience our readers will have.

How do you make money? Right now, we barely do. We sell a downloadable Izu itinerary PDF for $15. That's our only revenue stream. We don't run ads, we don't use affiliate links, and we don't have sponsorship deals. Kenji funds most of the operating costs from his savings. This isn't a great business model, but it keeps our recommendations honest.

Can I write for JP Izu? We don't have a regular contributor program, but we're open to guest contributions from people with genuine Izu expertise. If you've lived in Izu, worked in the tourism industry there, or have specialized knowledge (birdwatching, diving, cycling routes), send us a pitch. We pay a small fee for published pieces.

Are you planning to cover other parts of Japan? Not at this time. We believe in depth over breadth. Izu has enough content to keep us busy for years, and we'd rather do one region exceptionally well than many regions superficially.

How often do you visit Izu? Between the three of us, someone is in Izu about once a month. Kenji goes most frequently — he has family in the area and visits quarterly at minimum. Lisa hikes the trails seasonally. Tom visits four times a year for photography.

Can we meet up when I'm in Izu? We get this question sometimes and we appreciate the offer, but we generally don't meet readers in person. We're usually working when we're in Izu — researching, photographing, taking notes — and our schedules are packed. Plus, part of what makes our recommendations reliable is that we experience places as regular visitors, not as VIPs being shown around.

Our Promise to Readers

We promise that everything on this site is written from firsthand experience. We promise that our recommendations are never influenced by commercial relationships. We promise to update information when it changes. We promise to be honest about downsides and limitations. And we promise to always put the traveler first — not the tourism board, not the hotel industry, not our own convenience.

If we ever compromise on these promises, we expect you to call us out. Hold us accountable. The trust of our readers is the only thing that makes this site worth maintaining.