Today marks three weeks in Japan for me. I can’t believe it has been that long, and I can’t believe it has only been that long. I feel like I’ve barely started to scratch the surface of things to do just in my local suburb, or city, and I can’t think how I’m going to get enough done in a year to be satisfied that I got to see enough of Japan.
Sam and I went to the beach today. Cooked ourselves up some bacon and eggs for breakfast, then grabbed our bikes and pedalled in the general direction of the sea. Got there without too much stuffing about, and found that there was a bice bike path all the way along the beachside stretching to the east and to the west. We went for a quick swim, retrieved our bikes from on top of the cliff above the beach where we had left them, and headed east, towards Akashi city.
We cycled for about an hour and a half east all up, stopping at various points to take photos, go for another quick swim at a more populated beach, and for me to get my first declaration of love from a complete stranger. It was a bit creepy actually. I went up a little embankment to take a photo over the beach, and there was an old man with no teeth sitting in the shade listening to the radio and smoking. He wanted me to sit down, so I sat for a moment to say hello, and then he kept trying to ask me in broken English if I had a boyfriend and eventually telling me I was beautiful and that he loved me. Seriously, I was sunburned, salty-haired, wearing a crappy old half-damp t-shirt and a dirty skirt with wet bum marks on it. H wasn’t fooling anyone. He wanted to take photos with me, and kept grabbing my hand to shake it. I was trying to escape, but then Sam came up and wanted to take photos as well so I had to keep sitting for a little while. It was all OK, but I was glad to get out of that situation. I do have a photo with him, (I’m surprised I managed to smile even semi-convincingly for it! I had just managed to convince him to let go of my hand). 
We turned around when we ran out of bike path. Obviously, beach barbequeing isn’t specific to Australia – there were hundreds of families out in force with their own grillers that they had lugged all the way to the beach. Where we stopped to turn around, there was lots of smoke in the air, and lots of delicious cooking smells, but itwas too hot for us to really crave hot food. Pedalled our way back west to where
we had gotten onto the beach, then pedalled a little more to try to find a different way to get off the bike track that may be a little closer to our house. Ended up finding a shrine instead, with a lovely tori gate standing up overlooking the ocean. Had a quiet sit for a little while to catch out breath, and started to realise how sunburnt we were! One last swim in a rocky bay, and then we headed back home for a cool shower and a lot of moisturising. I put on three layers of sunscreen, but still ended up with really burned arms and shoulders . Sam has a kick-ass sandal burn on his feet, and a nice burn up the back of his legs and on his back. But it was so worth it – it was a lovely day.
Went to Nakau for dinner (the donburi place), and had my gyudon again. It’s so delicious! And we hit up Max Value (our supermarket) on the way home for some puddings for dessert. Mycheesecake pudding was awesome, and Sam’s double pudding was… interesting. Tonight, we sat in the cool and rubbed lotion into ourselves while watching more Doctor Who in the hope of not being too red for work tomorrow.
Food highlight of the day: My cheesecake pudding was really excellent – will be difficult to resist that next time I am on the hunt for pudding.
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