Surf, sand and sushi: Shimoda

If you want to see the Japanese at play, head for Shimoda, says Jim Keeble.

London has Brighton, New York has the Hamptons, Tokyo has ... Shimoda. While this seaside town has yet to make it onto the jet-set map, it's quietly becoming the place where Japan's rock stars, actors and politicians go to hide away, less than three hours' drive from the capital.

After a hectic few days in Tokyo, living 47 floors up in the space-age Park Hyatt hotel, I find myself in need of some tranquillity. The morning train I catch from Shinjuku station carries excited old couples in white gloves, excited young couples looking like the Japanese Posh and Becks, and excited families with buckets and spades looking like excited families with buckets and spades.

It turns into a beautiful journey, snaking 110 miles south from Tokyo down the Izu peninsula. The track hugs hillsides covered with orange and lemon groves - reminiscent of the slopes around San Remo - and passes small seaside towns tumbling towards the Pacific, most of them built around hot springs, or onsen, that bubble and belch like happy, unruly children.

I get off one stop before Shimoda, at Rendaiji, one of the oldest onsen in Japan, dating back over a thousand years. It's an upmarket little place of traditional wooden thatched homes, and several luxury guesthouses, all boasting their own hot-spring baths.

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