Beach

While I turn the house upside-down searching for winter clothes and wooly hats to pack for NZ, in Japan the weather keeps heating up. We've already had our first visit to the beach! It's a beach in Shiida called Hamonomiya, which means 'Beach Shrine', and there's a shrine next to it. Like almost all beaches in Japan, it has a sea wall about two storeys high to prevent tsunamis, that's it in the background, it's higher on the landward side as the sand seems to have piled up against it, making a fairly nice beach.

Only one problem at this beach - there was a kind of stream running down to the water, and it made the sand really muddy - like quicksand. It was impossible to cross it, only it was nearly impossible to tell if the patch of sand in front of you was quicksand or solid enough. I lost my jandal, and, holding Erica, I couldn't get it out again! Amy managed to get it out for me, but it broke. After that we had to get to the sea over the rocks, which were sharp with broken oyster shells. I limped along on one jandal. We only persisted because we wanted to wash off all that mud! Finally we got there.

Above: mud-streaked feet; Erica's first paddle in the ocean. Below, the girls contemplate the horizon; Erica examines a muddy finger while negotiating the rocky beach

We ended the day, as usual, in an onsen (hot spring bath). This one had real roses in the bath!