Steph wanted to go to the beach and we had agreed to go the night before. At this moment in time the sun was already up and the sky was blue so we thought why don't we go now? Everybody else wanted to slow or something crazy like that so Jamie and I went home to change and pick up some beach stuff and returned to Shin-Imamiya station. There we met only Steph, as everybody else chickened out.
We got on the first express train and relaxed in some nice seats and noticed how empty the train was. We started to relax and chat and made jokes about how breathy the lady train driver's voice sounded. It was like she was trying to sex it up a little too much. Some pictures were taken of the countryside.
A few stations into our trip a lady train conductor arrives and asks us for our tickets. We showed them to her and it turns out we were in the posh carriage. Apparently to stay we would have had to pay an extra $5 each. Five bucks was too rich for our blood so we were lead back through four carriages mostly devoid of people and were crammed into the "economy" carriage which was standing room only because it was so full.
We managed to wrangle some seats because some chips were spilled upon the seat. The chips were brushed off and our butts got a seats. The usually leering was done by the girls across from us. It was awful to see that they were quite young and dressed like whores. Well, whores if they lived in Canada. They were straight out of a rap video. Steph commented that she didn't understand how one could take over half an hour to check one's make up on the train. I of course just made crude jokes. It would have been gauche to take their picture.
The sky between Osaka and Wakayamashi was crystal clear and blue blue blue. Once we got close to Wakayamashi the haze started to return, but not as badly as in Osaka. The beach was outside of town so we had to transfer trains and the weather by the beach was great.
Once we got to the beach we noted how crowded it was. We had arrived on the day of the Isonoura Beach Matsuri. They had cordoned off two large swaths of beach using some rope for some beach games. One such game involved the crowd digging for something in the sand. It was neat to see. At another point in time the crowd played Bingo.
A rental beach umbrella was obtained because the sun was fierce that day. On the way into the beach we had passed by a stand selling food and renting beach toys like floats and body boards. It was Hachi(eight) Store. We didn't buy anything on the way in but Jamie and Steph went back because they were interested in renting some beach toys. Well, when they came back Jamie had a story to tell about the kindness of the staff. The girls were given some free French fries and when Jamie asked for some bandaids to replace the ratty ones covering her blisters, one of the staff members lent her some socks to prevent the bandaids from falling off. So on the way out we got a group shot of the stand.
As you can see in the previous picture the girls had rented some body boards from Hachi. It had been a while since they had gone bodyboarding some getting into the groove was a little rough at first. Eventually they were doing it like pros. They even tried to stand on the boards to surf but falling off became a nasty habit so they went back to the regular method. There were some good sized waves for bodyboarding but the surfers didn't have as much luck. You can see that body boarding is hard work as the girls laid on the beach to recuperate.
Riding the waves takes a toll on one's body so we went back to the umbrella and opened the bento boxes for some sustenance. Jamie and Steph had chosen some variety bento boxes so we had a wide range of tastes to enjoy. After the meal the girls relaxed and read a book. Funny, the covers are very similar. Oh wait, it's the same book! They had both brought the new Harry Potter to read.
We snoozed for a bit and then the girls went for an icecream. They managed to get sidetracked by a drunken Japanese guy who tried to pick them up. So they extricated themselves and after another round in the water, we returned all of our rented gear and got the deposits back and rode the train home. The train ride was interesting because we were so tired from the all nighter that blinks lasted for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. It was on the train that we noticed Jamie was getting redder and redder by the moment.
When we got home it was evident that Jamie was badly burned. She missed a day of work because of the burn but she went to work the day after that despite the pain. She still may go surfing with Steph next week, but she'll get some new sunscreen.
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