Things to do in Atami: a day trip from Tokyo, hour by hour

Atami is the easiest seaside escape from Tokyo: under an hour on the shinkansen, a hot-spring town on a bay, with shrines older than the shoguns in the hills behind it and the whole Izu coast running south. You can see a good deal of it in a day if you plan around two things, the hills and the trains. This is the day we'd give a friend, hour by hour, with what to skip if you're short of time and what changes if you stay the night.

Getting there

From Tokyo Station the Tokaido Shinkansen reaches Atami in about 40 to 50 minutes. The JR Tokaido line takes about an hour and forty-five minutes and costs less, and the Odoriko limited express sits in between. Atami Station is at the top of the town. Everything below it runs downhill to the sea, which is lovely in the morning and steep on the way back, so plan to come up by bus or taxi at the end of the day.

Morning: two shrines

Start at Kinomiya Shrine, one stop up the line or a twenty-minute walk. Come early, before the crowds, for the great camphor: more than 2,000 years old, a national natural monument, and said to add a year to your life if you walk round it once. The shrine has made itself beautiful for visitors without losing its calm.

Then cross town to Izusan Shrine. From Hashiriyu, a hot spring that runs out of a cave at the foot of the hill, 837 stone steps climb through the forest to the shrine. You can take a bus most of the way and walk only the top, but if your legs allow it, the climb is the point: the bay opens wider below you with every flight. Izusan is where Minamoto no Yoritomo prayed before he founded Japan's first shogunate, and the view over the water to Hatsushima is one of the best in town.

Midday: the old town

Come down to the centre for lunch. The two covered arcades below the station, Heiwa-dori and Nakamise, sell himono (sun-dried fish), onsen manju and Atami's famous puddings, and the side streets hide sushi counters where the fish came in that morning. After lunch, walk down to Kiunkaku, a villa of 1919 that became a ryokan loved by Tanizaki, Shiga and Dazai, and is now open to visitors (it closes on Wednesdays). Its rooms are a short course in how Japan's wealthy lived a century ago, Japanese and Western under one roof.

Afternoon: art, or an island

Choose one. The MOA Museum of Art sits high above the station, with Ogata Kōrin's National Treasure screen of red and white plum blossoms, shown for a few weeks around plum season, and a great hall whose windows frame the bay. Or take the ferry to Hatsushima, about half an hour across the water, for a walk round a small island of fishermen's lanes, a bowl of the morning's seafood, and the best view back at Atami's hills.

If you'd rather slow down, walk the promenade along Sun Beach instead. At its end stands the statue of Kan'ichi and Omiya from The Golden Demon, the novel that made Atami's shore famous.

Late afternoon: the springs

Atami is a hot-spring town first and everything else second. Before your train, take an hour at a day-use onsen; many ryokan open their baths to day visitors in the afternoon, and there are public bathhouses in the old town. If you've never bathed in an onsen before, our first-timer's guide explains the etiquette. The free footbath outside the station is there for the last ten minutes before your train.

Evening, if you stay

The best of Atami comes after the day-trippers leave. Sun Beach is lit soft blue after dark, the lanterns come on along the Itokawa stream, and on about fifteen nights a year there are fireworks over the bay. Trains back to Tokyo run late, but on fireworks nights they're packed for an hour after the finale, which is one more reason to stay.

Explore Atami with a host

If you'd like someone to plan the day around you, our guests do it as part of a stay. Your host walks the old town with you on the Retro Atami walk, takes you onsen hopping with the etiquette explained first, or books the sushi counter that doesn't take calls from strangers, in English or Japanese. The rest of our days out reach Hakone and the Izu coast.

And if one day isn't enough, the house is on the hill above the bay, fifteen to twenty minutes from the station by car, with a free pickup. Read where to stay in Atami.

If you only have half a day

Kinomiya in the morning, lunch in the arcades, an hour at a day-use onsen, and the shinkansen home. Save Izusan and Hatsushima for next time.