Shimoda: Vol. 3.1 "Ohama!" or "Joseph Goes to the Beach"

Ahoy, Matey!
Joseph jumps aboard a Black Ship, the Susquehanna.
If you can't find Joseph, you might need to click on it to enlarge.

After a fitful night of sleep stressing over what I thought would be another cloudy tomorrow, I woke up early to blue sky through the curtains. Sweet Hallelujah!

In a moment of panic, Joseph runs for the lifeboats.
Women and children, shmimmen and shmildren.

After downing another Yoshoku A Set for breakfast, we hurried down to the train station to catch the 8:20 bus. We had a few minutes to wait, so I let Joseph play in the boat in the meantime.

Come down, Joseph!

Joseph was finally coaxed out when I told him he could man the cannons for a while. He's so easily amused.

We took the #4 bus to Kisami, then, after asking for directions, walked about 10 to 15 minutes over to the beach. It was worth it.

Joseph gets right to work on his tan.

Our first stop was the main section of the beach, kind of off to the side. It was nice and all, but when I tried to go swimming, one of the SHIPS guys came and told me that area was for surfing. Eeeh? There weren't even any surfers around. Not wanting to be kept from the water, and not wanting to swim with the hordes, I poked around a little and decided that the little nook around the rock was the place for us.

360-degree view of the calmer section of Ohama Beach.

Not wanting to miss a second of sun time, Joseph's back down on the towel again as soon as it's laid out.
Quit hogging the towel, man! I want to lay out too!

Fresh from the water. Well, I was. Joseph's not much of a swimmer.

In the interest of getting some other less boring photos to show you folks, I meandered down the main part of the beach. There wasn't much interesting there either, but here you go. At least it's not pictures of me and Joseph.

SHIPS
As opposed to CHIPS.

A private hotel beach at the far end.

Joseph likes our part better. Me too, Jo.


What a great idea to bring a kiddie pool for the kiddies!


Soooo Big!

Joseph evens out.

Finally, after 4 hours or so on the beach I started to worry about getting burned and my stomach was starting to nag at me, so we packed up and headed to the warm showers (for 300 yen). I hated to leave, since that would be it, but I also didn't want red shoulders for the trek home. In the end, I only got a couple small spots of sunburn, and they were good by the next day. Gotta love that 50 SPF.

Joseph gets ready to tuck into a big cheeseburger with avocado.
Hold your horses there, Joseph. Who's paying for that?

The Paradise Cafe where we had lunch. It was ... meh. But nice beachy ambience, and there's a pool or jacuzzi or something on the back deck.

That's right, Joseph, here's where we wait for the bus back.

Joseph gets excited on the ride home because I told him he could push the stop button.

Woah! Not yet Joseph!
Little did he know, our stop was the station, so we didn't even need to push the button...

And so our trip to the beach sadly came to an end. Looking at these pictures now, I wish I could be there again, instead of cooped up in my little house with the curtains drawn, trying to avoid the hot sun. Another day might have been the ticket, but that's not how it all worked out.

Next up: What I did after the beach.