Until September, I will not be going to Shizunami. Why? During official beach season (July and August), parking is not free - it is 1,000 yen ($10) per day. Since I am frugal (ie. cheapskate), I will be going to another point - Yoshida. It’s not near as big or as nice, but it will do. The tetrapods are an eyesore, but they help make some surfable waves. Unfortunately, the surfers tend to clump together. Here are a couple of pictures from this morning’s session. (Yes, it’s a Monday and I am working today - my first class is at 10:40 so I have enough time to get a quick session in before work. 
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The top picture was taken at around 6:30 and the bottom picture was taken at around 8:00. If you are wondering why the second picture is blurry, it is because it was raining cats and dogs!
Looking forward to the next session on Wednesday!
Like a regular Wednesday morning, I got up at around 5:30 am and tried to leave the house quickly. I knew that it was going to be a good day when I noticed that I could see Mt. Fuji. I haven’t seen it for quite some time, so I quickly took this photo.
I knew that the waves probably wouldn’t be very good, but at least it wasn’t raining!
When I arrived at the beach at 6:30, I saw 8 people surfing, 1 surfer carrying a surfboard and 1 smoker / wave watcher. It was a pretty typical weekday at Kashima.
The waves were not amazing, but at least they were surfable - a refreshing change from the past few sessions.
If you look closely, actually not that closely, you can see quite a few fishing boats. I don’t know if it was my imagination or not, but I swear I could smell diesel fumes!
I forgot to mention it in my post about June 18th so I will mention it now. Last week we saw a solitary jellyfish. One jellyfish isn’t much to worry about but I certainly don’t want to experience my first jellyfish sting. When it happens, I’m sure I will be posting of a badly swollen arm or leg!
Here’s a picture showing the lack of progress on the beach houses at Shizunami.
Although the wave forecast wasn’t particularly promising, I was hoping that this week’s session would be better than the last several outings. This was my 7th morning of surfing at Kashima (seventh consecutive Wednesday to be precise), so I was hoping that it would be a lucky day…
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After an exciting but unrewarding morning of surfing the remnants of Typhoon #5 last week, I was looking forward to a regular day at the surf office. As to be expected of rainy season, it was cloudy and drizzly. When I arrived at the beach, here is what I saw…
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It was a beautiful day today so I finally got around to fixing the flat tire on my mountain bike. After my morning class, I decided to check out more of the cycling road along the ocean during my 3-hour lunch break.
It was about 11 am, so I didn’t expect much activity, but I was pleasantly surprised…
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On the Victoria Day weekend, I toured the HMCS Ottawa. She is a Canadian frigate based in Esquimalt, British Columbia. She is now touring around Asia and the South Pacific on a 6-month voyage. She is over 130 meters long and the top speed is around 50 km/h (30 knots). She carries a crew of 225 people - 205 are men and 20 are women. Here is a picture of her at sea. (Obviously, I did not take this picture).
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In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Typhoon #5 passed Shizuoka. While walking to the car after my afternoon class finished, I could hear the waves breaking. (On normal days, you can’t hear the waves). I knew that a few surfers go out when there is a typhoon swell, so I decided to check it out. Parked on the road was a small van with some surf stickers on the back window. Also, there were two pairs of sandals underneath the van, a telltale sign that the people were either surfing or bodyboarding. As expected, there were two guys in the water. I suspect that they were the same two people I had seen before.
The waves were much bigger than Typhoon #4 and the wind was still quite strong - not that tempting for a novice such as myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and couldn’t take any pictures. I watched them for around 10 minutes and only saw one of them catch a wave. I did one of them take a nice tumble head over heels though.
Even though I had my gear in the car, I decided against going out. I knew that I’d be going out the next day at Kashima, my new home point.
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Did you see this picture in the news this week?
A boy in Moriyama found this two-headed turtle in the playground at his school. The turtle’s name is Treasure - Takara in Japanese. Researchers say that this wasn’t caused by pollution. I’m not sure what to think about this. What do you think - is this natural or unnatural?
A friend of mine who lives in Hamamatsu told me that there was going to be a Fish Fry in Shizunami yesterday. I was quite excited when I heard about it. I haven’t had fish fry for quite a while and was looking forward to some good eats!
I did a Google search for Shizunami Fish Fry and found this poster for the event:
What? This isn’t the kind of fish fry I was expecting. I forgot that there is another meaning of fish - fish surfboards:
My friend is a serious surfer, I should have expected that it was some kind of surfing event! I wasn’t able to go to the Shizunami Fish Fry but here is a picture of the event:
Looked fun! I wish I could have gone!
