David Needham

I really didn't do much after Osaka, so I'm going to combine all of the days into one post.

After I checked out of the capsule hotel, I headed to Shin-Osaka train station and took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. I played on my Nintendo DS the whole time, so it seemed like it went pretty quickly. I tried calling Chris from Tokyo to let him know that I was coming, but there was no answer on his phone, so I kept going on my way.

I got to Chiba and got a hold of Chris. I wasn't in a hurry and had a lot of time, so I stopped and got some ramen at the shop I went to last year. This place didn't handle any cash - you bought tickets for the food you wanted in a machine out in front, then brought the ticket in to show them what you got. The ramen is great there, so I'm glad I stopped. After a couple hours on a train, I got to Minamiboso station, in Wada.

Most of my time in Wada was spent just taking it easy. I spent a lot of times in the evening watching tv or playing the DS. I spent some time online and got a lot of my photos and blog posts posted.

A few days I was in Wada I went to the beach. I'd swim for awhile, then lay on the beach and nap or eat lunch, then swim some more later. The first day I was out there I wore my sunscreen and didn't get burnt - but I didn't even get a tan even though I was in the sun for about 4 hours. The second day, I wore sunscreen on my face and ears, but that's it and this time I finally got a tan. I could feel a bit of burn on my shoulders, but that was about it. It wasn't until later that night and the next day that I could feel a little burnt all over. It wasn't bad though, and it seems like I have to get a little burnt to get a tan, so oh well.

The first day, I went to the beach nearest Chris's. It's where most of the surfers go because there are nice waves there. Half of the beach is a metallic black color while the rest is the standard greyish sand color. There were some rocks in the water and I got a little scratched up. I expected it to hurt more - being cut in saltwater, but it wasn't bad.

Here are some photos from around this beach:

The second day, I went to the "nice" beach a little way up the road past the docks. Chris let me use his bike, so I had a nice bike ride before I got there. This beach was very busy with lots of kids and families hanging out. There were even some life guards there as well as changing rooms and showers. There was no black sand here or any trash. There were large rocks breaking out of the water on each side of the beach and there were kids creeping around in these areas doing snorkeling. I got in the water and was surprised to find a huge layer of seaweed I had to wade through. Next game a layer of rocks, at least as bad as the other beach. The waves here were a lot tamer, which seemed less fun to me. Nevertheless, I had a good time there.

I didn't get any photos of this beach because it felt too awkward to take pictures with that many people around. Plus there were a lot of kids, and technically it's illegal to take photos with kids in it. Oh well.

Chris and I ate a lot of good meals there. I ate breakfast and lunch on my own most days, and we ate in a couple days, but most evenings we'd go to Tateyama or Kamagawa.

We went to the conveyor belt sushi place again. It was delicious and pretty cheap (especially compared to how much it would be in the US). The place was pretty busy, and we had to wait in line for a place to sit at the conveyor belt.

Earlier that day we went to eat at Denny's. I had a BLT sandwich. It was pretty good and the price wasn't bad. I got a mini slice of cheesecake for 150 yen, but was disappointed to find out that it was pretty tiny.

We also went to a family style pizza place. My pizza had potatoes and bacon on it (and maybe cream cheese). It was really good, but the best part about this place was the drink set. Most places in Japan charge 300 yen for a drink other than water, and refills are not included. Most family style restaurants have a drink set for less than 300 yen, and you can get as many refills as you want. They had a lot of great drinks like Calpis, Calpis Soda, Coke, Fanta Grape, Fanta Melon, various coffees, and more. My favorite drink was mixing the Calpis Soda and the Fanta Melon.

I forgot to mention, but in Kyoto we ate at another family style restaurant and I got a corn and mayo pizza. Despite how it sounds, it was actually very good too.

Another night we went to another family style restaurant and I got some sort of cheesy noodle gratin thing. It had shrimp and crab meat in it. I got a drink set again, and the melon + calpis soda combo was great as always.

On my last evening in Japan, Chris asked if I wanted to be adventurous. I said sure, so we went to a tiny little restaurant in Wada. We couldn't read the menu, so Chris asked what the special of the day was. The waitress said everything, so we told her that we would trust her to pick something for us. I guess the chef heard us talking cuz about that time he came out there. He asked Chris if meat was ok, and something else that Chris couldn't understand was ok... we told him both was fine. We got a small bowl of miso, cucumbers, a bowl of rice, and two pork dishes with vegetables that were by far the best pork I've ever had. I'm not sure what he did, but that was some of the best food I've ever had. Even better, the price was very cheap - especially for as much food as we got and as good as it was.

Last summer there was a house being built near Chris's apartment. You might remember me talking about it in my blog then. Basically I said that it took 1 day to put the scaffolding up, then 1 day to get the rest of this up. Heres a picture from last summer:

Here's what the house looks like now. A good portion of their front yard was limestone. Chris said that most Japanese people don't have lawn mowers, so I can imagine doing this saves a lot of time and hassle.

I'm not sad to be back in the states, but I wish I could have stayed in Japan longer. On the way to the airport I'd stare out the window of the train and try to soak as much of it in as I could before it was gone. I've seen some beautiful things in the US, but it can't compare to the beauty that is everywhere in Japan. I'm not sure when I'll get to go back again, as this is Chris's last year there and it would be more expensive for me to have to get a hotel every night. I'm sure I'll be going back again some day.