A Few Days Away (at the Beach!)

After conquering Mt. Fuji and the following feast at Gotemba Kogen, we made our way west to Shizunami ('Quiet Waves'). This is a popular swimming, hang out, and pick-up beach exactly 120km from home. It was a great chance to sizzle in the sun while catching up on half-finished books by day, and sleep in A/C silence at night, as daytime highs were 34 deg. C and the evenings about the same!

We loosely packed Tracy's 660cc jeep and headed out early Wednesday:























Then drove on the Tomei Highway at extra-legal speeds to Makinohara Plateau, pausing to enjoy the view of rolling tea fields and Mt. Fuji:
















And spent two days (8am to 4pm) at the Kamome ('turtle') Beach House, as seen here:
















And two nights in the luxurious Hamayuu ('beach hot water') hotel. Here is a picture of our (7.5-jou) room; $210 for two nights. The shared toilet is down the hall, the bath is downstairs, and the tiny TV had no sound at all. Luckily, it was only 50 meters from the beach and completely silent at night. We agreed we could easily live here!
















For dinner we walked to yakiniku ('bbq meat') and curry restaurants nearby. Here I am reloading the grill the Kanemaru ('round coin') restaurant:
















Finally we had had enough sun(burn) and decided to spend Friday exploring the coastline further West taking pictures. Here is Tracy in Sagara:























We have lots of shots to sort through from the drive, and we hope to put together an album soon. The weekend promises cloudy (but not cooler) weather, so we may have time to catch up on that project and others. Stay tuned!