Utsumi Beach!

Our little plot of beach was claimed by the two Canadians...

It rained heavily the night before our originally planned beach day. The thunder kept me awake, and the rain outside sounded seriously theatrical. We postponed our beach trip by one day, but from the resulting intense sun and cloudless sky, you would have never guessed what kind of storm had passed through just one day before!

Stingray in the water!

We took the train about an hour out of Nagoya to Utsumi, a town renowned for its popular beaches and summer beach fireworks. We spent hours lazing on the sand under the relentless sun, hoping for a little color, and playing in the water among jellyfish and other sea life! S got stung by one of these sneaky jellyfish close to shore, which scared us off for a little bit. We spent more time sitting in the shallows than wading far out, after that! However, we also spotted a little stingray in the shallow water! A crowd of Japanese boys was gawking at it, and we stood at a timid distance, marveling at how it could be so cute while being such a danger! We also wondered at how many small children were playing in these creature-infested waters...

Striking a Tyra Banks pose in the warm water

After we couldn't take any more of the heat, we girls wandered off along the boardwalk in search of shade and sugar. We found relief under large umbrellas where ice cream, slushies and shaved ice were on offer. My mango "soft cream," as they call soft-serve ice cream, really hit the spot! The boys, in the meantime, were busy scouting out potential dates on the beach, where they made a few new friends. To say the least, our group has a variety of interests and priorities while we are all here in Japan...

It was a great day, which we finished off by grabbing some grub at Moss Burger — somehow skipping out on their famous rice burgers, because they weren't prominent enough on the menu! — to mixed reviews. We didn't find out about the fireworks until about a week later, but since it cost about $20 to take the train to Utsumi and back, we decided the single trip alone was worth it for the great summer memories!

A really loved that visor, which normally only older women
wear!