Even without knowing exactly where we live, you can see that most of eastern Japan was expecting some larger than average waves.

When we arrived at 5:30 am, the parking lot was already half full.  Although Yoshida is a “secret” point – an awful lot of people know about it!

Here is what we saw when we arrived:

A closeup of the middle part of the beach:

Yep, lots of surfers jockeying for optimal positions.

This was Kazumi’s first time to go to Yoshida and wanted to do some bodyboarding but she forgot her board leash so she became the official sports photography for today’s session.  (Don’t worry – she had other things to do as well.  We always keep our beach chairs in the van, so she was able to enjoy some suntanning as well).

In this picture, my friend and I are checking out the surf:

If you look closely, the left bottom part of my deckpad is missing.  Somehow it torn off when I was surfing at Tatadohama on Friday.  (Don’t really need it – but it looks kinda stupid!)

Here are a couple shots of yours truly in action:

We continued to surf until the crowds picked up and the wind came or is it the other way around?  Anyways, it was a refreshing change to surf in big waves.  Looking forward to the next typhoon swell. 

P.S. this is my 100th post to this blog

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.

On Wednesday morning, I arrived at the beach at about 6:15 am. There were a few cars, but not crazy like a few weeks before. The wind was strong and the waves were big – they reminded me of my visits to Hamamatsu. My friend and I briefly talked about checking out Sagarako, but we decided to give Kashima a go. It wasn’t a very successful session – caught a few waves, but nothing to write home about. (Mom, if you are reading this – hello!)

Once again, I didn’t have the camera, so I couldn’t take any pictures. Here’s a site from one of the surf shops, but it is misleading.

Looking forward a day of nice waves MINUS the typhoon!

In the foreground you can see my powerful “NO Value Star” computer. In case you are wondering, I didn’t write that – it was like that when I got it. I then decided to get a better picture from outside…

This picture was taken on the ramp between the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Fewer obstructions, and a much better picture of Mt. Fuji.

Feeling inspired and energetic, I walked down to the beach, hoping to get some nice pictures of the waves.

About 500 meters down the beach, I found these 2 surfers catching a few waves. I had a sneaky suspicion that there were surfable waves here when the conditions were right. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my board in the van today – the bag was starting to smell ripe so it’s in the apartment now.

I continued to walk down the beach and snapped this shot of Mt. Fuji and the surf.

Looking forward to tomorrow and catching the end of Typhoon No. 4!

We drove for about 5 minutes to Sagara, an industrial seaport.  I had been there before, but I had never surfed there before.  I was put off by the rather large, rather official-looking sign in Japanese with “No Surfing” “No Jet skiing” “Danger” and some other things that I couldn’t read.  (The sign is quite faded and has some difficult kanjis).

When we arrived, there was a solitary longboarder in the water.  However, it didn’t look as menacing as Kashima.  The wind was still strong and it was still raining quite heavy.  We quickly got in the water and enjoying ourselves.

I am quite lucky about weather.  The rain stopped and sun tried to make an appearance.  Here are a few pictures that I took at around 10 am.  I wanted to take a picture of the sign but it was blocked by a couple of vans.

When I visited this point before, it was completely flat – barely a ripple.  Apparently, this point only has waves when there is a typhoon swell.  Of course, the locals know this well and when we were leaving, there were about 30 or so surfers and a bodyboarder in the water.

A nice morning at the beach!

An hour later, I was in the parking lot at my unofficial new local point, Kashima.  Here’s what I saw:

You can’t really tell from the pictures, but the waves were quite big.  I guess that it was overhead or maybe even bigger.  Not too many people were in the water, but I thought I would go out for a paddle and try to catch a wave or two.  My friend hadn’t shown up yet, but I was going out anyways.

I had my wetsuit half-way on when my friend arrived.  He suggested that we try a different point just down the road…