Yes, it's my first four maps with a certain Chrome messenger bag in the background for scale! Gee, can you tell which one was my first attempt? In all honesty though, there's nothing in Parkside of note... I'm just about finished with my fifth, triangle-shaped rendition of the Castro/Church/Duboce Triangle neighborhoods. It's pretty epic compared to these four, but I'm planning a much bigger one for SOMA. Stay tuned!
Right, back to Miyazaki.
Flickr photoset of the trip
The week ended on a very good note as first term final exams were happening at Mori JHS and my responsibilities took me instead to Mori Central Primary School where I went swimming for two hours and was a human climbing toy, ate lunch and finally played kick baseball before going home two hours earlier than normal. Score. So I was pumped for Saturday, but knowing Oita JETs not trying to get my hopes up too much as far too many of them think we're still in high school and form viscious cliques as if to prove it. Actually, the people who went were the more mature set that I get on with quite well.
After picking up Lindsey in Hita and Lisa in Tsukumi we arrived at Sumie Beach just around 2PM. We passed Sumie during the second day of the Spring charity ride and I've been wanting to return since then. It really is everything I had hoped it would be while whizzing by at 40kph with my ankles on fire--low waves, clean sand, clear waters, good food, good drink, good swimming and good people. Goodness gracious.
Though it became apparent quickly that nobody really owned the beach and we could have pitched tents on it for free, I (yes, I, as in me, as it the only guy not lazy and who can speak passable Japanese) rented an astoundingly good cabin nearby large enough to sleep seven of the twelve that came. The others were couples that brought their tents anyways and they slept out back on the lawn. These places are so amazing I dream of owning a similar place someday. It's the perfect setup for one person or a couple: triangular wedge design with ample skylighting, a small deck, living room, kitchen with a loft above it and a balcony off that. Small, modern, efficient...perfect.
In America, some people fear their neighbors, particularly foreign ones. Our neighbors and us mutually embraced each other, if only for one night. Out of the string of five cabins we were dead center with Japanese Air Force families on leave to our left and a primary school's PTA to our right. Both parties had the most adorable kids you can imagine and we were all tolerant of each others activities, especially the soccer--not their game, ours! Things started to get nuts when I proposed a 6-man keep away game between us and the PTA tents and underestimated the effects of beer and fatty foods on people's dexterity and speed. After kicking the ball lightly into the PTA area for the third time and apologizing for the third time one of the mothers, who was cutting up watermelon at the time, pulled out her big honking knife and made a run at us with that look of abject madness in her eyes. Instead of killing and burying us all in a shallow grave though she just ended up giving us some watermelon. How sweet!
Ostensibly we came to Sumie to celebrate the 4th of July (belatedly, mind you, since it was the 5th) so you know there had to be fireworks. Legal in Japan until 10:30PM every night, we flaunted even these lax rules and did them at 11PM. Oooooooh, bad people are we! When we got bored with fireworks we piled the rest into a bucket to light all at once, but the effect was less than we'd hoped for. After returning to the cabin and playing some drinking games folks were getting wasted and/or falling asleep, but a few of the ladies decided to go for a midnight skinny dip at the beach. That didn't last long--some kind of phosphorescent tiny fish was stinging them mildly they said.
After packing up in the morning we all returned to the beach for more soccer, frisbee, nut chucking and swimming. I applied copious amounts of sunblock and still got burned across my entire chest, stomach and back. That's the last time I trust this Japanese "Sunkiller" brand sunscreen. Gotta admit it's got the coolest damn name though.
There will be another Miyazaki trip in September, all things going well. Unfortunately many of the faces that made this trip so memorable will be gone back home or to different parts of Japan, but perhaps the incoming JETs will pick up the slack and make it worthwhile. Only time will tell.
--Matt
Posts
1 comment:
Pretty pictures! And I am quite saddened to hear the bucket o' fireworks didn't live up to your expectations. I vaguely remember us having a similar experience last weekend.
Post a Comment