Fun in The Sun & Dinner with my Japanese Friends

 I was told by a friend that they are breaking a 300 year old record for heat. It's been close to 100 degrees the past few weeks. Japan is suppose to have this heat wave till Dec.....wow.......I am thanking God for some relief because every since the typhoon came through Wed the temperature has been perfect :-)
Teresa, Deb, Sue came and picked me up at the train station and we headed to Oarai to jump in the Pacific Ocean. I can't wait I have not been to the ocean in Japan before.  It's a beautiful day so spending it at the ocean will be relaxing and fun.. The name of the beach is Sun Beach.
 On the way to to the ocean Teresa went on an express highway and had to pay a toll to be on it.  I was in no way thinking it would cost so much to travel on this toll highway.  When the girls gave Teresa some money to pay they had put $20 down so she could have it to pay.  When we pulled up to pay the toll, I saw the sign show up saying it was $17.50 I just could not believe the price, I totally had sticker shock.........It took us one hour to drive to the beach. If you didn't take the toll road it would have taken at least 2 hours one way.

We are finally at the ocean and the beach has very few people on it. Before children went back to school the beach would be so crowded you could barely find a place to put down your chairs and blanket.  The beach was basically empty we had the entire beach to ourselves.  Wow this is great no crowds, nice breeze, sunshine.

We found just the spot we were looking for and set up camp.......loving every minute of this trip to the beach.

Once into the water we all got 1/2 way out to where the waves were and Deb spotted a big stingray.  Well I can't swim and once I saw that it scared the crap out of me. You never seen anybody move as fast as me, I'm sure I was hilarious trying to run in water which is almost impossible without falling down. I couldn't wait to get out of there.  Well the other girls stayed in the water and just moved farther down from the stingray.  YIKES I went and sat on the beach for a while thinking do I really want to go back in the ocean?

 After a while Teresa came out of the water and told me to come on back in its ok. I went back into the water even though I was scared.  The temperature of the water had cooled down alot due to the typhoon that had come through Wed.  Girls told me that all summer the water has been baby bath warm....... awww it's not that way now but after a while it felt great.  Wish I had a tube like them so when the big waves came I could jump and ride the waves which looked like so much fun....Aw yeah the water has gold dust in it, at least that's the only way I can describe what I'm seeing.  Tried to get a picture but it was impossible. Never seen water that had such beauty and sparkle to it.

Fun in the sun playing in the Pacific Ocean is a blast. Thanks to Teresa who can drive on the wrong side of the road on a busy highway where cars are moving fast on the express way. Thanks to Deb and Sue for sharing their lunches with me.....I am having the time of my life being back here with my friends and enjoying the scenery and adventures Japan holds for me.

Its time for lunch so we are all sitting in our chairs enjoying the beauty of the ocean the peace and tranquility I feel is awesome.  There is a nice breeze that feels so good. Eating the lunch the girls had made and watching a fishing boat out in the water.

We had some of those delicious grapes that cost $10 for a bunch of them. They are just as good as I thought they would be. YUMMO........

Grapes

Watched a few men looking for clams in the ocean, must be a hobby or maybe they are getting their dinner. There was also a guy fishing from the beach don't know if he had any luck on catching any fish?  Lots of people surfing catching the great waves that is being created today.  So relaxing just taking in all the scenery and chatting with the girls.

Men Clamming

Can U guess which feet belongs to what person?

Girls just wanna have FUN...........

Wanted to go shell collecting so we all walked the beach hunting for shells, Teresa was the first to find a sand dollar yeah......we all found some shells and since i didn't find any sand dollars Deb and Sue gave me theirs.  :-)  I have shells to bring home from Japan yeah........

Looking for shells I heard very loud sounds overhead in the sky.  I looked up and could hardly see anything because of the sun hitting me in the eyes. It was military jets flying in uniform style awesome like getting to watch a Air show..........wow.....they came by several times and you knew when they were there the noise wow. I could hardly get a picture of them before they were out of sight.

Most Japanese do not really like the sun on their skins they want to protect it. This girl was using her umbrella to protect her from the sun's hot rays while she hunted for shells.  

They also have canopy's they sit under to keep the sun off of them.  The beautiful breeze and just being at the ocean is nice without having the sun beating down on you.  Sleep, relax, read a book lots of things to do.

Walking down the beach there were big cement rocks lined up on the beach. Don't understand why there are there but I'm sure there is a reason.

I went back to sit in the chairs and when I arrived the guy that was clamming showed me his clams he had found.  Wow he had found alot in a few hours.

The girls played in the water some more before we leave to head back to Utsunomiyia. I on the other hand sat in the chairs and held a towel over my head letting the wind hold it there.  I was getting sun burned an it was beginning to hurt.  No more sun for me if I plan on going back tomorrow.

Sitting on the beach watching them play in the water, I saw a huge ocean liner coming in to dock in the distance. The ship kept coming until it looked like it was going to dock on the beach. I don't know how the ship came inland that far but somehow it managed. It docked on a platform that turned the entire ship around and headed it back out to the ocean. WOW

We are heading home and so we are going to have to pay the toll of 17.50 again to be on the toll highway.  Together with both tolls a sum of $35.00 but it sure does get you there quicker.

On the way home we saw a horrible accident. A car was turned upside down and a person was through the windshield with the car on top of them.  There were police but no ambulances; no one was rushing around to get them out of the car. I would presume this accident took their life.  Thank you God for protecting us as we journey through Japan.

Dinner with Nobu and Taka

I'm back at the hotel and getting ready to go meet Nobuko and Taka.  I'm so excited to get to see them both.  I was told to walk to the 7~11 and they would meet me there. I stood there for a minute and I seen Taka walking towards me. I hardly recognized him he has lost allot of weight.  I hugged him and we took off chatting with each other as he took me to our destination to meet Nobuka. We made our way to a place called Fudan Cafe which was a nice place!  When we walked in I was looking around for Nobuko. I heard her say my name and turned around and went to her and hugged her tightly.  I really am so, so, happy to see her. :-) 

Started off with a bottle of red wine :-) Let's all get HAPPY NOW… LOL

Taka getting some wine

The waitress poured us each a glass of wine, the conversations started rolling then. I didn't understand allot of what they were saying but that's alright.  They had questions to ask me and I had questions to ask them.  LOL  Nobuko's colleague  was there and her name was Aya......... I really like her. I had seen her the last time I was here in April. Dinner was ordered and served wow they ordered allot of food and it was all yoshi......(o she) Good.

Aya with all the great food spread out on the table

I gave Taka a gift from Marlon and I and also gave Nobuko a gift for their great hospitality the last time we were here.
Nobuko said she will always treasure the gift from us.

 

Taka appreciated the t-shirt from Columbus Ohio our home town.  Taka is pretty tall and it's hard for him to find clothes to fit him they are generally to short.  This t~shirt was long enough so he is happy and that makes me happy. :-) Taka looks like he's feeling no pain about now, after having wine he had some whisky; can you tell?

 Have to add they got me a dessert that was out of this world~ Chestnuts in a little pie with cream and chestnut flavor icing. 

Our dinner has ended and we Nobuko will take me back to hotel.  I so enjoyed every minute spent with Nobuko, Taka and Aya.  Thanks for a special evening with some great people whom I will never forget.