Japanese Adventure

It began as most of our adventures in Japan begin,

HERE,

waiting for a taxi to take us to the subway station.

The kids had been anticipating this day for two days now and they couldn't wait for it to begin.

We heard there was a beach in Nagoya and we were setting out to find it.  After a 45 minute express train ride that we were charged too much for because of our lack of Japanese communication skills, we arrived at out our destination, Utsumi.  But we had passed through the were middle of Japan farmland and now it looked like we were in a tiny town.  Where was the beach?  Luckily, we noticed that a few other girls getting off the train were wearing swimsuits under their clothes so we followed them on a long, hot walk.

We walked, and walked and walked and walked.

And stopped to get drinks and walked some more.

I think we walked through people's front yards.

I think we walked through people's back yards.

But, of course, we enjoyed the scenery.

And we laughed because we weren't sure if it was adventureness or stupidness that took us on this little adventure with four shorties through an unknown country where we can't speak or read the language.  

We joked about getting lost and having to use the sheet in our bag to sleep on that night because who would we ask how to get back?  And how would we ask it?  Don't get me wrong we do okay but it was still a little crazy.

Wait!  What's that in the distance?  Could it be?  Yes, it is . . . the ocean!!!  We won't be needing the sheet to sleep on, YEA!

Finally, we arrived!  And that ocean water never felt so good.

Ahh, more drinks, food.

We enjoyed that beach until we were one of the only ones left, like around 6pm because everything around here ends early.  We stayed so long they pulled up our umbrellas and took our mats.  But we kept on playing.  Crazy Americans!

The ocean was perfect.  It wasn't too deep so the kids had a great time seeing how far out they could go.

Nobody wanted to leave but unless we really did want to use the sheet in our bag to sleep on that night under the bridge, under the train then we needed to leave so we wouldn't miss the last train which left at . . . oh wait we couldn't figure that out because we didn't know how to say "last".

After finding a fabulous burger joint that served it's hamburgers on rice patties, (delicious, I highly recommend it) we somehow found our way back to the train station.

We even made it before the last train left.  Once again, YEA, we wouldn't have to use the sheet to sleep on that night.