Lost in Japan...: Beach Party, 'Japanese Style', at Zushi!!

It started with an open invitation from Yumi, one of the girls Steve works with, to share a day at the beach, with her surfing friends. The party was at Zushi, located at the head of the Miura Peninsula, in the last weekend of July. The city of Zushi was established in 1954, as the 384^th city in Japan. It covers an area of about 17.5 square kilometers, and has a population of approximately 60,000. Located southwest of Tokyo, its neighboring cities include Kamakura (ancient capital of Japan in the late 12^th century) and Yokohama (famous for its international harbor). It has long been a popular suburban area of Tokyo (about 50 minutes’ ride by train), and is famous for being a residential area of many cultural figures, including the current governor of Tokyo Mr. Shintaro Ishihara.

Zushi Beach is a popular site for wind surfers and family vacationers all year round. Due to its proximity to Tokyo, about 400,000 people annually come to enjoy the sun and beautiful waters.

Naturally we had to catch a variety of trains, very crowded trains, to get there. Once at Zushi we navigated around the streets to find our way to the beach. With the temperature remaining in the mid thirties for so long now, you can imagine, the beach was a very crowded place. The entire length of the beach was crowded with the normal temporary eating places, umbrellas, hordes of people and a multitude of activities in progress.

We moved along the beach and found our 'beach party' at the far end. This was good because it was not crowded at all and was the ideal place to try out some of the water activities on offer from Yumi and her friends. As it was outside of the designated swimming area we were regularly hustled out of the area but very quickly found our way back.

Throughout the day we all enjoyed lovely long swims, plenty of food and friendly conversation. We could not have been made more welcome. Our friend, young Steve, couldn't help himself and got into the swing well and truly. He was probably compensating for the fact that his windsurfing was not quite as successful as Steve's.

Sophie and Harriet had a ball playing in the shallows and the black sand. Soph dug holes, built castles and shared the day with a few Japanese children. They got along very well and in spite of the usual language difficulties managed to play happily with each other. One altercation over a plastic turtle was the only problem.

Harriet, as usual, was treated like a celebrity by all adults and was entertained constantly. 'Kowaii' is a term we have become very familiar with. She worked hard on her surfing skills and, much to the horror of many, continued to enjoy her 'sand eating' habit. No ill effects have been observed to date. She even quite enjoyed chewing on her surfboard!!

While I was on 'nanny duty' Bek managed to squeeze in a bit of time on a stand up paddle board, and Steve enjoyed some windsurfing as well as the stand up boards.

The water was crowded with windsurfers, surfboards, yachts, jetskies, remote controlled vehicles and gazillions of people. People on the beach played volleyball, soccer, sunbaked, played instruments and sang, buried each other in the sand and just enjoyed their weekend relaxation to the max!!