Izu, Izu, Izu (Part II)

Having finally arrived at Atami, we briefly celebrated and snapped a photo or two. Then we ran like madwomen (again) down to Atami Sun Beach to meet Alex and Keith. The beach was pretty busy, but when we finally found them, we ran as fast as we could. I was waving my arms and yelling, and Rumiko was running and yelling, "Where, where, I don't see them!!".

Sometimes I wish I had someone snapping random photos of me...that would have been a good one. Rumiko and I running across the hot sand; bags bouncing on our backs, dresses fluttering and coming up to almost inappropriate heights, Rumi yelling, me violently pointing...



Once we got to them, we said the fastest hello ever, and ran straight into the water. The four of us hung out in the water for a while, swam, played with a beach ball, and got audio dame'd for retrieving the beach ball from the no-swimming area. (Story goes like this... Keith threw the ball to Rumi. Rumi missed (don't know if that was a lack of catch or throw). Nice girl gave the ball to Rumi. Rumi wasn't paying attention. Ball swims faster than Rumi. Alex rescues the ball, cutting his finger in the process. Audio dame. End of story.) Finally, stick thin and starving, we went for a late lunch. Some yummy seafood and the discovery of 'Wiener Coffee' (still aren't quite sure what it is) later, we jumped on the train for Shimoda.



The train ride was long, but we enjoyed each other's company and Rumi and I retold our adventures. When we got to Shimoda, we picked up some ice cream (yes, I know, we eat that a lot) and went to find our Ryokan (inn). It was an adorable little home-run inn. It had a natural-spring-fed onsen bathing room with taps and a bucket (hello, shower). There was a western-style toilet and a Japanese-style toilet, a common sink area, and our rooms. Our rooms were adorable! Mine & Rumiko's had a low table, a gorgeous mirror cabinet with small drawers, towels, ryokan yukatta, and a small TV for 100Yen / hour.



Once we got settled, we set out for (guess what?) food. There was surprisingly few places to be found, but we found an Izakaya-style restaurant. We had to wait a half an hour, but we used that to explore the little shops in the area and lining the street. Dinner was delicious, albeit a bit slow...we had sashimi and pizza and meat and vegetables of all kinds. It was late when we left, and since our Ryokan had an 11pm curfew, we stopped at the Family Mart for some snacks for later. When we got back, we hung out for a bit, then decided to try the natural onsen. Natural = Hot. We drained some of the water and added cold, but it was still scalding hot. I got my feet in. Alex got half of one leg in. Keith got some of his legs in. Rumi got in up to her waist (very slowly), but I don't know how she did it! I kept pouring cold water on and around her...hehe. We finally gave up on experiencing this particular onsen, but it was definitely interesting.


Natural fed onsen - HOT HOT HOT!!

We hung out for a while longer, eating our snacks and talking. However, having not slept the night before (at all), I was pretty exhausted. At first, I felt fine, but then I'm pretty sure I just fell over and looked like death until Rumi pulled me to bed. I slept like the dead. When I woke up in the morning, I felt incredibly strange. It was like I had been dead and just popped back into the world and was suddenly aware again. We were up just afer 8:30, and ready to head out by 9am, out into Day 2...

Tropical Island Paradise (Part II)

I woke up feeling marvellous. While I enjoyed the great outdoors in Miyajima, I have to admit that a real bed beats all. We discovered a marvellous little restaurant that had great meals (& steak) for super reasonable price. We boarded the ferry... it was paradise already. As we moved out of the harbor, I couldn't get over the deep, dark blue of the ocean, and the pale blue shades of the sky. The shades and hues of blue that I could see were infinite and indescribable. Gorgeous.

We arrived on Zanami island, and found our way to renting 50cc mopeds, then took off to explore the island! I cannot do the beauty of the scenery, or the feeling of freedom justice in words, but I'll try to describe it a bit!

The sun was hot - super sweaty hot. We put sunscreen on every couple hours, but it just melted off right away. Even the breeze was warm. The mountain roads wound back and forth, on cliff edges and through trees. From the edges, we could see ocean, sky, and small islands for miles and miles. The blues and greens were unlike anything man-made, and beyond what a photograph can capture. Riding on the little moped, with the hot sun on my skin and the wind in my hair, surrounded by the most incredible beauty, I felt freedom like I've never felt; joy like I would burst; and as content as I could ever imagine feeling.



Alex and I were moving faster, so we eventually split up into two groups. We made our way up the mountain, on the windy roads. The roads were not that steep, but on our little mopeds, all we could do was open 'em wide and...... chug along slowly. But that gave us lots of time to enjoy the scenery. We came around one bend and saw the most beautiful panoramic view - I hit my brakes, and called to Alex to stop for pictures. I decided to turn my bike around, so I leaned over and turned the front wheel, hit the gas and...drove right into the drainage chute beside the road. Alex found it amusing. I thought of my Dad - and realized that I really should listen to him more often. I could just picture him shaking his head at me and laughing and saying, "Stephanie Ellen, you do everything too fast!" Hehe. He's right. But I wasn't hurt and quickly dragged my bike out to take some pictures. I'll stop trying to describe our tropical paradise, and let the pictures speak for themselves...
















After our short two hours was up, Alex and I returned the mopeds, and headed for the beach. We chose a part of the beach that had few people, and wasn't very sandy - instead, it was covered in coral and shell bits! They were all broken and rounded from rolling around in the ocean for so long. We spent the rest of our Zamami time laying in the water, collecting pretty shells, and being washed back and forth with the waves. We had no cares, no problems...just shells, ocean swells, and freedom. I've blogged about some happy places and moments of joy before...but none of them came close to the contentedness I felt on Zamami.





All too soon, we had to head for the ferry - Alex and I made it with only a minute to spare. We met up with Keith and Thomas again, and spent the ferry ride relaxing, napping, and talking on the top deck of the ferry. The ferry ride was much too short, except that we were starving (skipped lunch), and craving steak and ice cream. After a shower and some supper, we explored Kokusaidori a bit more, then headed back to the hostel. We hung out, played some guitar, and had a jolly old time.

Thomas and Keith fell asleep, but Alex and I decided to have an adventure at 1am. We grabbed the guitar, and snuck out of the hostel....sort of quietly, and with some laughter. We spent the next 5 super fun hours hanging out - infinite awesome memories, and a general good time. After a (sort of quiet) sneaking back in, and a few hours of sleep, we were up and to the airport...back to Osaka! But that wasn't the end of the weekend's adventures.

Oh yes - I forgot the ATM saga. I forgot to get money from the ATM before we left Osaka....and I could not find an ATM in Okinawa that would give me money! It was very strange - the Family Mart ATMs wouln't service my card (even though I know I've used my card at Family Mart's before) - and neither would other ATMs! Fortunately for me, Alex had brought extra money, and lent me money for the weekend. Basically, by the end of the weekend, he practically owned me and my empty wallet. Once back in Osaka, I was finally able to find at ATM that worked, and repayed my debt. Extra thanks to Alex....the weekend would have been much less fun if he hadn't rescued me!

Tropical Paradise (Okinawa Part I)

I love planes. You could put me on a plane and just fly me in a circle and I would be thrilled. But - put a tropical island on the other end of that flight...and you get my weekend vacation.

I slept in - it was marvellous. I rarely sleep in, really. Then I met Keith and Alex at Osaka Station for some ice cream, before heading to Kansai Airport. We got some more icecream (mmm Black Sesame), met up with Thomas, and boarded the plane... Keith, Alex and I were in one row, and Thomas was a bit further up in the plane. The 2 hour flight passed quickly...at one point, the left window was completely dark, and the right window seemed perfectly light. I turned my head left-and-right-and-left-and-right until my neck started to hurt. Thomas captured a beautiful picture of the approaching night...

Then there the spoon episode. Alex decided to see if flicking me with a spoon would hurt. It did. A lot. Imprint-of-a-spoon-on-my-arm-a-lot. This was followed by me trying to flick him back and inflict an equal amount of pain, and him flicking himself with the same intent. Needless to say, this entertained us for a portion of the flight. But I did have an imprint of a spoon on my arm.

We arrived in Naha, Okinawa at around 9pm. The bus we thought we were going to take didn't exist, so we took a taxi. Keith had made reservations at the City Front Harumi Hostel, so we checked in and found our rooms. Ojisan (as we came to call him; meaning Grandpa or a respectful title for an older man) was very friendly and helpful in getting us settled and oriented in Naha.



The guys shared a room, and I (being a female and all) was in a different room. My room was shared with an older lady and a younger Down's Syndrome lady. They were very friendly and I had a short conversation with them before meeting the guys to go find some dinner. This proved more difficult than we thought, as most places were closed. But we wandered the busy highway a bit and found a family-style restaurant for some good eats. By that time, it was late, and we hit the bunkbeds for some sleep.

The next morning, I woke up feeling wonderful. I did enjoy my night at Miyajima, but I have to admit that sleeping in a real bed does top the great outdoors. The older lady in my room gave me some pretty little flowers, which I promptly put in my hair - they made me feel very tropical. We picked up some breakfast at the convenience store, and waited for our bus. A taxi driver offered to drive us up to our destination, for 1000Yen each. The bus was going to be about 900Yen each, so we took him up on his offer. And I'm so glad we did...

He was hilarious. He talked (loudly and animatedly) in broken English, for the majority of the ride. He told us about his family, and his 104 year old Mother and 108 year old Father (apparently the oldest couple in Japan), his large family, and his capabilities. He informed us that he had 8 licenses (later it was 9), and could build houses, drive cranes, scuba drive, drive motorbikes.... an all-around handy guy to know. When we asked him questions, he often paused and then went off on a tangent about something completely unrelated. My questions, he just ignored (I think he just didn't hear me...). We spent most of the trip giggling and keeping him talking - to our great amusement. When we disembarked the taxi, I asked him for a picture - he was definitely a character to remember!



When we got to our destination (a bit early), we explored a bit. We saw a sign for a steakhouse, and went 'a wandering to see if we could find it (which we couldn't).

Our destination? Snorkelling! We dressed in wetsuits and flippers and snorkelling gear, and crammed into a mini-minivan (not a Canadian sized mini-van), for a hot drive to the beach. When I say hot, I do not mean warm. I mean hot, hot, HOT! Sweat-dripping-down-your-face hot. We got stuck in traffic for a bit, and I had a short nap - that was all I could do; I couldn't move, and I was much too hot. But we finally arrived! It was a fun adventure, following our guide around the reef and the cave. We were even given some fish food and got to feed them!



After our snorkelling adventure, we decided that it was essential to find the steakhouse. It turned out to be a Movie House Steakhouse! The exterior and interior were decorated with movie posters of all genres. It was great fun to wander and look at the posters, and the steak was delicious!




In finding the steak house, we had found a small resort area, and explored it after lunch. Feeling extra tropical, I added to my hair bouquet some larger (okay, huge) flowers that I had found.



We wandered up the highway, trying to find a nice beach. We didn't find a beach, but we did find ice cream!



It was hot (did I mention that?), so we finally went back to the sort-of beach near the steakhouse. We tiptoed our way our towards the water, through the warm puddles, sharp shells, and broken coral. Getting to the water was difficult enough. Swimming in it proved even harder.

The water wasn't very shallow, but it was filled with all kinds of sea anemones and cucumbers and other mysterious sea creatures. We tiptoed and floated our way to slightly deeper water, and decided (for safety reasons) not to try and go further. I laid out like a starfish and floated...the blue sky and the clouds, the warm salty water...it was definitely a tropical paradise. Until I tried to stop floating, and stepped on a sea anemone. Ouch. But my foot didn't go numb and my head didn't explode, so I figured I would survive. After quite a while, we realized that the tide was coming in...right towards our shoes. So we started heading back - Thomas got back first, and discovered that Keith's hiking boots were floating, and my sandal had lost it's hubby. That made for an interesting trip back to the sand - tip toeing and jumping up when I stepped on sharp points. But we made it. I ventured to a beach house and purchased a new set of flipflops, and we headed for the bus top. A taxi stopped again and offered us the same deal. Unfortunately, this driver was not near as entertaining as the last one, and we mostly kept the conversation to ourselves.

After a cool shower to rid ourselves of the sweat, sand, and salt of the day, hung out for a few minutes in the hostel's common room. Alex played the guitar a bit (as he did anytime we were around the common room), and we enjoyed the AC for a bit. I borrowed a needle from Ojisan to remove the leftover sea anemone from my still-painful foot. The piece left in me was actually quite large and painful to get out, and brought a lot of blood with it! Ojisan's wife (Obasan) gave me a bit of cleaner and a bandaid to fix it up, and we took off for another evening of adventure...to Kokusaidori - Naha's international street.

We explored the shops, had some Okinawan-style Udon, and found a guitar shop (which entertained Alex for quite a while). Alex and I shared some dragonfruit and passionfruit - neither of which I had ever eaten (yummy!). There may have been some ice cream in there too...hehe.



Temples & Shrines all over Japan are often guarded by Shishi - lionlike protectors that are said to have magical powers to ward off evil. They guard in pairs; one female, one male; one open-mouthed, one closed; one symbolizing the beginning of time, the other the end. We also found them all over Okinawa - and they are a popular tourist souvenir. Every souvenir shop has them in all kinds of colors and styles, some funny, some scary. My favorite shop was filled with these - in every shape, size, and color - but they were handmade. (The other shops were mass manufactured.) The man who made them was selling them, and was midway through painting one when we were there. I bought two gorgeous statues - quite large, actually - for only $40! I was thrilled (still am) with my purchase... a reasonable price, authentically culturally Japanese, and not made in China!

When the street and shops started to close down, we visited a Canadian-run place for some snacks and a drink. We also tried Okinawa's snake wine.


It tasted surprisingly good, but it was still a little strange to drink... after some laughs and relaxation, we headed back to the hostel for the night.

More Pictures...
A Friend's Flckr Pictures...

Part Two coming soon...

Rainy Beach Day

Saturday morning I met Keith and Alex at Osaka Station; Matt joined us a few minutes later. While at DisneySea last weekend, a random decision was made (within a matter of moments) to visit the beach this weekend. So we did.

I was hoping we could visit Suma - a famous beach near Kobe, in Hyogo prefecture. I looked it up online, and discovered that it 'opens' on July 1st. In Canada, beaches don't really close (do they? I've never encountered a 'closed beach'); so I was a little confused. I asked a few questions of my coworkers, and came to the conclusion that 'closed' probably just meant that the food stands and shops in the area weren't open. But, unwilling to take the chance and not get to swim, we opted to visit Wakayama - the beach I went to previously. The train ride was quite long, but the four of us passed the time quickly with deep discussions about war, world affairs, and current issues. (No, I'm not kidding. We actually did.)

When we finally got to the beach (after I missed the stop and we had to go back one), I again felt so far from the city (probably because we were) and free of all troubles. Or at least most of them. It was overcast and rainy, and a bit chilly - but that certainly didn't stop us from swimming and hanging out in the water for quite a while. We were the only people in the water without surf boards and wetsuits. Needless to say, we got a few strange looks and the occasional side glance. We took a break for a beer and chatted to a woman for a while. She wanted to know where we were from, etc. She suggested a place to get food and seemed to want to take us there, but we were heading back into the water. In the water, Alex formed a brief friendship with a surfer 'dude'... he was watching us and creeping closer to our group. Alex waved, and the guy threw up a 'hang ten'. He was older than most of the surfers and had long hair and a long thin moustache. We laughed about it, then continued our conversation - with the occasional awkward laugh when he seemed to move closer.

After our second swim, we stopped for a snack before jumping on the train back to Osaka. Getting off in Namba, we met up with Rumiko - a new coop student from UVic. I was excited to meet her - although I enjoy all of my friends and spending time with them, the majority of them are male ... I definitely wouldn't trade any of my guy friends, but it's always nice to have another girl to hang out with!

We wandered around Namba for a bit in the light rain, and had some dinner - Okonomiyaki of course, for the benefit of the new coops. Then we spent the night out - Club Pure style. Two words to describe the night: fun & ridiculous. Next post!

Beach Baby

Sidenote: It's hot. It's raining outside. But it's hot and sticky. Humid. How humid? This morning, when I left my dorm room and stepped into the hall from my lightly AC'd room - my glasses fogged up. I couldn't see. No, I'm not exaggerating. Imagine stepping out of your bedroom to go to the bathroom and having your glasses fog up. Insanity.

I've learned that I am a beach and water type of girl. I need it. I crave it. Especially here - the beaches are so beautiful and the ocean so tempting that when I see it from the train, I am pretty sure I might die of city suffocation if I don't get on a beach reasonably soon. The other day, I went to the beach.

I have a new friend in Osaka - James. I met James on a train, on the way home from work. He's teaching English in Japan and has been here for a year and nine months or so - living in several places in Japan. He's 6'3" and from the Texas ghetto. So we got to talking, and had a beer. And he introduced me to this incredible deep fried cheese things . . . which I am currently craving. Anyways, James and I went to the beach. (Sidenote: He surfs, and promised that he would teach me how! How awesome is that?! I've always wanted to try surfing.) I was so excited to be at the beach...when we climbed up the stairs from the parking lot and could see the beach, I couldn't help it - I took off running, right into the water. It was incredible.

The beach was wide and long, backed by a concrete and rock wall, with mountains behind it and to the side. The sand was clean and light, warm on my feet, but not too hot. There was nothing obstructing the ocean view. The water just swept back and forth up the beach, then travelled straight into the horizon, forever - neverending. (Just like Saskatchewan). The water was super salty (as oceans often are) and warm. Once we went swimming, I just floated...I spread my arms and legs like a starfish, and floated. The sun was hot on my face, I could taste salt on my lips, and I felt as light as a feather. It was heaven in the water.



We had a lot of fun at the beach - built a sandcastle, met a guy 45 year old guy named Danno (turns out that he lives close to me and goes to my gym), and got a little bit sunburnt.



Later in the afternoon, after some sand art, James went and hid in the shade, and I went back swimming and floating. The thought of leaving the beautiful beach, the warm water, the hot sun, and the soft sand to return to the crowded, noisy, polluted city almost made me want to just start swimming out into the neverending waves. But instead, I enjoyed the moment and floated... just floated.

It was a marvellous trip to the beach, and I plan on going again soon - and learning how to surf!

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However, pre-2nd-beach-trip, I am going to Tokyo Disney Sea! I leave today after work, take the 10 hour night bus ride (It's a good thing I love bus trips), and will be spending the weekend in Tokyo! Besides being a beach girl, I am a rollercoaster-and-scary-ride-girl; through and through. I'm ridiculously excited. Here's a peek... I'll let you know how it went on Monday! :)



PS - Thanks to Suzanne for the 'Beach Baby' title! :)