This Is Japan

in #life10 years ago

Explore everyday life in Japan

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As summer draws to a close the number of beachgoers has dwindled. The water in the Sea of Japan is still warm, but the bronzed, tattooed Japanese gangsters with their late eighties/early nineties style Japanese mullets and their large tents, colorful coolers, trampoline floats, and jet skies have all but disappeared; as have the thin, beautiful girls in colorful bikinis these men have come to pick up. The children in inner tubes splashing around in the water with their parents, squealing with joy, or digging in the sand as the water washes over their creations have gone back to school. The dilapidated beach houses selling cups of shaved ice, plates of sautéed soba noodles, Hawaiian-style loco-moco, and beer are mostly boarded up and closed for the season.


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What is left are mostly empty beaches, speckled with the boats of fishermen. Lines of concrete tetrapods, piled up to make wave breakers, sit silently in the water. A spattering of older men cast fishing poles from nearby concrete piers. An occasional couple hoping to enjoy a romantic evening stroll shares a drink and watches the sunset. In the distance, a ferry and a score of shrimp trawlers can be seen on the horizon, as can the outline of a mountain ridge from a nearby island.


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I've found beach season on the western coast of Japan to be very short, only about four to six weeks long. April 18th, which is a national holiday known as Sea or Beach Day, tends to mark the opening of the season, and the coming of jellyfish at the end of August tends to mark the close. Outside of these dates, if you are swimming and barbecuing at the beach, people tend to think you are a little strange.



Image Credits: The images in this post were taken by me on an iPhone 6.

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thats japan??? wow

It is. The Japanese coast has a lot of variation. It can be really wild like Big Sur, and it can be really developed. Japan is a beautiful place!

Yep, not typically what comes to mind when you think of Japan, but it's a beautiful country when you go a ways outside the big cities. Sadly I don't get to the beach that often (last time I went was years ago) as it's quite a long trip from where I live in the urban sprawl of Tokyo, and there always seem to be other places that grab my attention when I want to do a day trip somewhere.

Awwww. Stuck in the urban sprawl. Going to the beach for the day doesn't sound so appealing when you have to drive an hour or more to get there. Carrying all of your beach stuff for an hour on a train doesn't sound like fun either. At that point, I think you have to make a weekend out of it. Can you rent houses on the beach for a weekend in Japan like you can in the States? I wonder.

Yeah that pretty much sums it up. There are artificial beaches around Tokyo Bay, but given the water quality there I'd fear for my health if I tried to go swimming. Rental beach houses, hmm, you might be onto something there...

Thank you for the images :)

Any time! Please keep checking in!

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