A Day at the Beach

The weather was overcast all day, but it didn't rain much, so I attempted the trip to the beach. Put a swimsuit on under my clothes, grabbed a towel, sunscreen and my camera and headed for Nakatajima Sand Dunes. I didn't know exactly where I was going, but I headed to downtown Hamamatsu and found a sign pointing to the dunes and just followed the yellow brick road all the way to the end of land. When I got there I was greeted with this little sign...




Oh, well it is still a beach, and I would walk along the surf. It was pretty warm and I got tired quickly, so I sat and watched the waves roll in. It was pretty evident why they don't want people to swim there - the surf is really rough. But it didn't stop these kids. They seemed to know the area pretty well.





I took some arty photos. Like this one...





and this one...





and this one.





Then I tried to sneak up on the fishermen and take their photos without ticking them off.



Then I walked back to the starting point. It was starting to get a little cooler, and the sounds of the waves was very hypnotic. So I just sat there and sat there. After a significant amount of blank-mind time, I started to notice the people on the beach. There numbers had swelled. And then the coolest thing happened. The leader of a group of kids opened up this cooler-like contraption and started hand each kid a baby turtle.




She drew a line in the sand and all the kids lined up behind it. And on her word they released them. We all stood there and watched as 50 baby Loggerhead sea turtles made a beeline for the ocean.



There was much cooing as they worked their way to their new home, and then as the waves hit them and tossed them back at us there was lots of gasps and laughs. The babies just righted themselves and headed back to the water. When the last one made it in, you could see all these little random black heads poking out of the water here and there. It made me so happy I got a little teary. Then the whole thing happened again with another bunch of kids.






After that I walked back to the shops and had a little cool refreshing drink. As I walked back to the car I came across some interesting little statues in the park.



And then this Dutch Windmill?



and then this musical mens room. Really tinkly (no pun intended), music box type music was coming from the restroom. The song was "Sing, Sing A Song". I couldn't decide if it was unnerving or hysterically funny. I decided it was both.



I then just decided to see what was down the road. I found some better spots to hit the beach on next time, and some cool walking paths, and a little group of "Love Hotels" and one of them was named "Tomato Paradise". What? I'm not even sure I want to know why it has that name. And why does it have cat designs all over the place? Or maybe I don't want to know that either. But I had to stop and take photos of course.





I took a different route home, which is a big deal for me. I was able to just go here and there and learn a little more about the city, and get more comfortable driving out of my normal territory.

All in all a pretty cool day.