海だ！海ーーーーwhat are you, a dog?

sorry for the only slightly obscure manga reference. which none of you get. anyway! i decided to tick off another place from my "to go to while in japan" list, and thank god for five day long breaks from school yo. for my first solo big adventure that required actual (minimal) planning, i chose kujukuri beach, which is in chiba prefecture, and is known for being the second longest beach in japan.

while i dislike swimming (bathing suits), i really do like the beach, and always had loads of fun there with friends, so i was really looking forward to this trip! it wasn't TOO far away, only 2-3 hours via train/bus/walking, so i figured it would be a good starting point for bigger/further away adventures.

thursday morning came, and i woke up slightly later than planned, but hey, kujukuri wasn't going anywhere, so i got all packed up (letter writing stuff, glass tube for sand collection, bags for shells, and a towel for chilling) and jacketed (you can never tell with japan's weather yo), and then...my bra broke. you know, the REALLY good one that you know you can always count on because it fits you well and you're really close? the wire snapped, and i was SAD. not the best start to my day, but i persevered (GAMBARIMASHITA).

made it to my chosen beach town, oami, without too much trouble. everyone i asked for help from was extremely nice, and even wrote down directions for me :]

this is rural oami from the bus window on my way to the beach bus stop

finally made it there! beach go time yo <3








basically i sat on the blanket and watched the waves, took loads of pictures, collected SO MANY SNAIL SHELLS (that place was a goldmine. found a sand dollar too! IKR?), ate my lunch of onigiri and korokke/spicy chicken from the konbini, and amused myself by playing in the water (slash getting attacked by waves) and doing the "catch me if you can" game.

and older japanese couple saw me doing it and tried too. it was super cute seeing this little old grandma running away squealing when the wave came closer than she expected. i had a bounty of shells, so i walked over to them (probs scared the shit out of them with my "random gaijin wants to talk to you omg what do you do??" moment) and after chatting a bit about my japan situation, offered the lady the seashell (海のお土産ですって) and in return she gave me two sweet sugary candies that tasted like maple syrup. noms. after that they left with 気をつけて帰ってね！(go home safely), and i decided to head back too.

buuuut as i was walking towards the bus stop i saw a bus round the corner and head away in the direction i wanted to go, but i was too far away to run to stop it. and of course, like i thought, it was the last bus for an hour. i drank some coffee while i watched the sun start to set (despite it only being FOUR PM JEEBUS JAPAN), and went to a small corner store nearby to buy pineapple purin and some chocolate. which i demolished while i waited for the bus.

anywho. so then i'm back at home station safe and sound, and realize it would be super fun to leave a trail of sea shells throughout the town on my way home, and see if people would take them. so i left one by the escalator, one by the ticket counter, one on a mailbox by the high school, and about three to four along the walls. i was giggling to myself the whole time :D lolz forever. though i hope i didn't scare some poor japanese person who's seen that uzumaki movie. freaky shit yo.

all in all, despite a runny nose/sore throat from playing in the water/being outside in the cold, i had an amazing time. it was so nice being outside of tokyo, and when i look back, i can see that some of the best japan moments i've had so far are when i'm NOT in the city. no doubt, i like the city experience of shopping and tasty food and loads of opportunities, but nikko, karuizawa, kujukuri: those have been my best days so far. maybe it's just because i like exploring new places, but in truth i think it's because i'm really not a city girl. i prefer being surrounded by mountains and lakes and lots of trees that change beautifully during the seasons. and chilling, chilling with friends is good, especially when you don't have to spend money to do it (although i did for the beach. holy jeebus travelling takes a lot out of your wallet, but it was totally worth it).

tomorrow is my host niece's shichi-go-san七五三の日, so we're going to celebrate by getting her all dolled up in a kimono and then blessed at a temple, then delish food. oooh and i bought her a big totoro plushy as a present :] cannot wait! will try to post about that too! you know, if i don't get lazy again. but i always have my dear roomie to whip me into blogging shape <3