Beaches, scams, and (surpirse) more trains

Trip Start Jul 06, 2009
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11
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Trip End Jul 20, 2009


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Flag of Japan  , Chubu,
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Today we woke up around 8 to catch a train to the beach in Fukui.  I believe it's called sunset beach or something like that.  It was one of the first small towns we've been to.  The streets were nearly deserted as we wandered westward between the crowded houses.  Standing guard on every corner are mirrors for seeing around the narrow hairpin turns that zigzag through the neighborhoods.  
At the beach we paid 600 yen a piece to for showers and a place to keep our stuff out of the sand and sun.  We then ran frantically down to the water, partly out of the desire to swim, party out of the desire not to melt the soles of our feet.  Much the amusement of the beach's crowds (one old man missing most of his teeth), we played baseball standing waist-deep in the ocean, flailing after line drives and swinging wildly at the wind-tossed pitches.
When it came time for lunch, the young dude who so graciously watched after our stuff for the small fee we paid earlier pointed us to the next tent Sunset beach
Sunset beach
 .  We thought lunch was included in the 600 yen we had paid earlier, but apparently it was not.  We ended up paying an additional 600 yen for meager (at best) portions of fried rice.
Our wallets lighter and our newly scammed tails tucked between our legs, we decided to head out to the pier that protruded from the beach several hundred yards into the ocean.  
The first incredible feature appeared about 100 yards into the pier.  Along the right side of the walkway were piled huge, geometric shapes of concrete.  They were stacked several deep for the length of the pier.  
At the end of the pier we found a small lighthouse.  Being that it was incredibly windy, we were way out in the bay, and there were storm clouds amassing on the horizon, we did the only sensible thing: grabbed ahold of the fully-exposed ladder and climbed to the top of the lighthouse. On top of the lighthouse the wind grew even stronger and ripped at our clothes like a child trying desperately to remain in a toy store.  Thanks to our incredible athletic ability and the remarkable scarcity of Japanese cops, we made it back down the lighthouse without incident.
You may well have guessed our final impulsive, juvenile adventure for the day.  After a scholarly and thorough inspection of depth, temperature, condition, and tide, we hurled ourselves into the ocean.
We left the beach around 2 p.m. and have been on trains ever since.  I am writing this at 11:30.  ouch.
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