In honor of the Ocean Day three-day weekend and my own hankering for some salt water and sand, here is a Tokyo beach guide written by the ever-awesome Tokyo Mango in Metropolis. Shirahama in Shimoda is nice but too far for a day trip. I've been to Enoshima a few times to try surfing and my overall impression was of a black and white ink wash painting. (I imagine it would be less so had I not gone on cloudy days. The surf instructor pointed toward an electronic message board and said "Point the nose of the board toward the 'Strong warning: high wind' sign and paddle!" Unsettling.) But the sand is always blackish.
Ocean, sand, jellyfish, seagulls - a beach is a beach, right? Sort of. Even going to the beach in Japan is a little different from home. At Enoshima, Mt. Fuji pokes out of the clouds and looms over the sea. Trashcans are few and concrete pylons are plentiful. The Japanese-y-est beach experience I had was in Kyushu. A few drops of rain started to splatter on the sun hats and shades. A chime rang, and a calm voice alerted beach goers a few times that rain was beginning to fall. It felt like the Truman Show.
Bonus song! I don't imagine you'll like this old song, "Umi sono ai," about the ocean and manhood and loneliness and love. At all. But I dare you not to feel a tiny bit moved when he hits the chorus at 1:01.
Uh, no? Just me? It was used in a pachinko commercial earlier this year. It featured a fat, blond Japanese man in a Hawaiian shirt running along the beach belting this out. Which is ironic, because if there is such a thing as the opposite of a beach, it is surely the inside of a pachinko parlor.
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