Shimoda

Commodore Perry sailed his black warships into this harbour in 1854 and Japan was never the same. Now Shimoda moves at a pace Perry would not recognise — white-sand beaches doze beneath green headlands, surfers drift in clean Pacific swell, and the old treaty port feels like a fishing town that changed history by accident.

Shimoda sits at the Izu Peninsula's southern end, a scenic port between mountains and emerald sea with a climate mild enough for aloe to grow wild. Monuments to Perry stand in the park and along the harbour, Ryōsenji temple keeps the relics of his visit, and a willow-lined canal walk called Perry Road runs from the temple into town; every May the Black Ship Festival re-stages the arrival. Shirahama, the peninsula's most famous beach, curves in white sand where Tokyo comes to surf and swim, watched over by Shirahama Shrine — the oldest on Izu, with a history of some 2,400 years and a sacred tree nearly as old. A ropeway climbs Mount Nesugata for the panorama over the harbour and out to the Izu Islands. The fish market lands kinmedai, golden-eye snapper, the town's pride and the finest in Japan.