We have been looking forward to returning to Tatadohama for several weeks now. Several years ago, we went to the summer fireworks festival at Shirahama (a popular beach nearby) and loved it. We wanted to see the fireworks again this year but unfortunately I had to proctor a reading exam at the university in the afternoon. The traffic in Izu is heavy on weekends but on a 3-day weekend, it would be probably a very frustrating drive on a Saturday afternoon. (It takes 2.5 - 3 hours in the middle of the night, so it probably take at least 5 or 6 hours). We decided to pass on the fireworks festival (keeping my fingers crossed for next year) and leave just after midnight and sleep in the car when we got to the beach.
We arrived at 3:15 am, managed to find a parking spot and quickly went to sleep. The sunrise is early these days, so I was unable to sleep for very long. I was up and about by 4:30 am and was in the water by 4:45 am. As you can probably imagine, I wasn’t the only one out there. There were 5 or 6 surfers already in the water but with each passing minute, more and more people entered the water. Most of the people seemed to be riding longboards.
