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Finally, we are spending the night at Tatadohama.  Earlier in the week, the forecast had been for rain, but the rain is going to miss this part of Japan.  Going to spend the weekend at our favourite beach in Japan!

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We decided to go to Tatadohama.  It is in the middle of the Ubon holidays, so we didn’t know what the traffic and the crowds would be like.  We left our house at around 11:30 pm and arrived at around 2:30 am.  As expected, the parking lot was almost full - we got the last parking spot - lucky!  It was a good spot near the edge of the paved parking lot across from the beach.  We tried to get a few hours of sleep…

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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.

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On Saturday, we made our second visit of the year to…

We left at around 3 am, but decided to take the route along the ocean instead of driving through the mountains. It is an extra 20 kilometers but it certainly is an easier drive - especially in the early hours of the morning.

The forecast called for a 30% chance of rain, but it turned out to be mostly cloudy. I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my head and face. I will wear my surf hat next time.

How were the waves? At 6 am, the waves were pretty good, but as the tide went out, the waves went with them. Here’s a picture of me playing in the soup at the end of the session…

Last night I was quite tired and didn’t feel too motivated to make the long drive to the beach.  Although classes don’t start until next week, I was tired after spending all day making handouts for the first week of classes.  The weather report predicted overcast weather and a 30% chance of rain and on top of that, the wave forecast didn’t look so promising.  To make a long story short, here are some pictures:  (I think you will figure out what I did today)

That’s right.  I went to Tatadohama.  Went by local roads - left at around 3:30 am and was in the water just after 6 am.

How was the surf?

If you look closely, you can see a big grin on my face!

Was the water cold?  You betcha! I estimate that about half of the people out there this morning were wearing boots.  I stayed in the water for around 2 hours and that was enough for me - for some reason, I seem to lose a lot of body heat through the top of my head.

Was the beach crowded?  At 6 am, there were 10 or so surfers in the water.  This is what it looked like just before 9 am.  (Just for the record, Kazumi took the two pictures of me, and the picture below was stolen from this website.

This is a picture from Tuesday (3/18) at Omaezaki.

Not a very high quality picture, but it was inspiring enough for me to dig out the surf gear. I finally got in contact my friend in Hamamatsu and decided to meet up yesterday. The water wasn’t so cold - just wore my suit and boots - didn’t need gloves and the hood. Had a good time, but unfortunately the beach is so far from the parking lot that I didn’t have the energy to go back to the car to get my cellphone to take some pictures. Maybe next time.

This is a picture from a few days ago from Tatadohama. I think we’ll be going there soon!