Weekend on the coast

After 24 hours solid rain, we decided to get in the car and drive to the peninsular about 150km south west of Tokyo. Once off the motorway, the journey takes you past the usual DIY and drive in restaurants, along with the not so usual pachinco outlets and paddy fields and then through, round and under a number of distinctive lumpy hills, covered in lush green tropical rainforest. At the end, we encountered a stretch of road that literally spiraled until we reached sea level and then on to the coast. And what a coast! Gloriously white sandy beaches, pretty coves where the rainforest pours down into the sea. Some with flat, cool water at the perfect temperature and others with larger waves, maximised by surfers bobbing about like seals. We tried a bit of both, breaking for lunch at a roadside cafe where we we ate roasted fish, sashimi and noodles, looking out to sea through the open doorway.

For me, it was a perfect heat. Not too hot and a cool breeze. Im so good these days with my sunblock and seasoning my limbs gradually. Not so for my beach accomplice. 'You look like an american' he quipped at my sunhat, turning down my offer of sun factor. This morning, he looks like a roasted tomato.