Beach on Nanikore

Empty Beach in Golden Week

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 12:07:14 +0000

During Golden Week I thought I’d stop off and get some photos of people sea fishing off the beach and some of the jetties where the Hayakawa meets the Pacific Coast, so I packed up my cameras on to the bike, a flask of tea, and off I went.

(Golden Week is a collection of national holidays here in Japan, and is usually ~ 3days, but this year, with the new Emperor, we ended up with a metric pile of them.)

Unfortunately I had missed the memo which must have said that all the people I often see on that beach had to take the day off. Still, it was an interesting bit of coastline to take a look at, despite the emptiness, so lets see how much I can squeeze out of it!

I got off the main toll road which runs down and above the coast, and rode through some local streets, trying to find a road which looked like it would end appropriately near the beach itself. I found one by essentially following the dog walkers, re-enforcing one of those things about life - dog walkers always seem to know the best places. This particular road ended with a ramp and some steps down to the sand under the aforementioned toll road overhead, near some quite reasonably designed toilets and a barrier I expect is deployed in the busier summer months to stop people just driving on through to the ocean.

No, I did not take the Tracer down onto the sand. Therein lies disaster and tears.

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So this was when I realised that the place was pretty much empty. I’d been hoping to watch the beach fishermen and women, and get some kind of insight into the hobby of beach fishing, but there was just a solitary enthusiast on the end of a pier, and he looked like he was ready to take a break anyway. He was perhaps disheartened that he too didn’t get the memo either.

Tetrapods

This particular stretch of beach had a couple of types of coastlines defence too - tetrapods or similar. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but there are a lot of them around the place, but then Japan is an archipelago on the side of a vast ocean so defending the coastline is likely high on the agenda. It also creates construction jobs, and I’m sure friends of the government have liked that too.

I expect there is something oddly satisfying about these huge concrete blocks and the regularity of their shapes which appeals to your average bureaucrat.

Empty Beach .. but Always Someone

If there’s one thing I know from nearly a decade near this ocean, it is that there is always someone around the beach. There was the solitary fisherman, but then a trickle of people, some walking dogs, some seemingly just come to look at the ocean for a few minutes to take in the sights, sounds and smell and then head back to whatever they were doing. One older gent in his jogging outfit walked down the peer, drank his can of chuuhai (rice wine and in this case, lemon), and continued walking down the beach.

Wall Art

One thing I did get to see, amongst the damaged warning signs, mild amounts of rubbish (both washed up and dropped), was some interesting wall art. Along one wall we had some grafitti, and on another was a mural seemingly painted by a local school in the Summer of 2011, just months after the massive tsunami which devastated a large section of the north east coast of Honshu island. It seems odd it’s in the area under the road, rather that in the sea-facing side, but it is there, half hidden behind tetrapods.

More About The Waves

Another nod towards the waves which lap the coastline is a mural near the pier warning about high waves complete with a rendition of Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, just to get the point across. Whilst the surf was relatively quiet whilst I was there, it’s easy to imagine the odd rogue wave coming in, potentially knocking people in who weren’t paying attention.

Not a Life Boat

Whilst I was wandering, and drinking my tea, I noticed there was actually another ramp which I’d missed, and at the top was a small boat. For a moment I thought this was some kind of life-saving launch, a bit like the coast guard or RNLI we have in the UK, but when I got to the top it was obvious this was some kind of damaged and abandoned boat, which is a shame as it looked like it’d be a good size for the bay, and that ramp looked like there was some run rolling potential, but alas no. I do wonder if it was intended to launch from there at some point.

Maybe Another Day

I have to believe come the summer proper, this place will be much busier as it has those big ramps and a fair sized toilet facility, so maybe in a few months I’ll come back and bring my bikini. Having often seen people here before, I think I just picked the wrong day in the midst of the 10 days of national holidays to celebrate Golden Week and Reiwa, and reminds me that sometimes you’re just not in the right place at the right time!

Shimoda and the Hosono Highlands

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 17:38:16 +0000

There’s a little known requirement that you have to go on a full day out on your motorbike within a week of getting it.

Actually, that’s not true. But it should be true.

To do my part then, I decided to take a day off and ride down the Pacific coastal roads to the southern end of the Izu peninsula, to Shimoda.

I love coastal roads; just riding along, with the vast ocean on one side - hopefully with a sturdy looking metal barrier between you and the cliff down to that ocean - and a rising mountain on the other.

If this sounds good to you, then welcome, and come on down to Routes 134 & 135 on Japan’s Pacific coast.

The day started at around 7am, I’d gotten all my layers on, and warmed the bike up a little too, and then made sure I had a hot flask of tea in my backpack. The sky was a perfect blue, with almost no cloud, bright sunshine, and most importantly at that time - no ice or dampness on the road.

Since I was exploring the new Yamaha as well as the road, I decided to give one of the ‘other’ riding modes a shot - it has A, B and Standard. I’d only been using standard up until now, but decided to give ‘B’ a try as this is intended as the smoother, power-reduced rain mode. I thought that would give a nice gentle start to the day. Indeed it is exactly what that suggests - it’s smooth - it really is a wonderful mode to start the day on. It still pulls, there’s still the torque, but it’s like it’s massaging you into the ride.

The coastal road I take is a toll road, it’s true, but raised up, you get to look down on to the beach and the rivers flowing into the ocean as the sunrise hits the beach and you get to see the sun on the side of Fuji-san, all snow capped, before looking left again at the handful of surfers and fishing enthusiasts casting out from the beach. Part way along this straight section is the Seisho Bypass Service Area (SA). It’s often a big meeting spot for motorcycle groups, but as I approached it I didn’t see a single bike unfortunately, so I passed it by this time. When I’m riding alone, if I see some people in there, I’ll sometimes stop off for a chat and exchange route ideas and good stopping points - but not today!

There was something of a cross-wind on the road, but unlike the old Honda, this was much less tiring (and chilling) thanks to just the small amount of fairing and screen on the Tracer, and the bike held its speed more consistently.

Once you get a little past Hayakawa at the west end of the road, the twisties start kicking in, rising and falling around the cliff edges, switching from cliff cutout roads, to short bridge sections seamlessly. It’s fun. Again, there’s a choice of free roads with a little more traffic, or toll roads, with a little more flow. Be aware some of these toll roads are not ETC/NEXCO ones, you need to stop and pay, a bit like the Izu Skyline.

The road takes you down past coastal towns like Manazuru, Atami and Ito, but as I rode along I saw a couple of small signs for some place called ‘Hosono Highlands’, which sounded interesting, so I turned up an already narrow road, up into the hills, where the road gave way to a narrow, barely paved forest track, past some camping and cabin areas, before popping out into a clearing with what looked like some brand new parking spaces - the Hosono Highlands!

I parked up, and was having a nice cup of two when a couple of cars pulled up coming the other way, and out jumped eight retired people, who made a bee-line for the bike and we spoke for about ten minutes about why we were all here - they had planned to come up, to see the highlands, whereas I was there almost by accident. We also discussed whether Japan still makes good motorbikes (they do), whether English is difficult to learn (it is), and after a swift toilet break, they jumped back in their cars and left. One of the drivers had commented the road extended further up in to the the mountain, past a golf course, to the wind turbines I could see higher up.

It looked like a nice road, so after pondering the view, I decided to go up a bit further. For about a kilometre it a was fun, cracked road surface, steep inclines and corners, with autumnal leaf-fall and branch debris here and there, so it took some concentration.

Anyhow, I came around a corner into a shady wooded area and saw what looked like a run-off stream actively flowing across the road. Not so unusual in the hills around here, but only when I was too close to it did I realise from the reflections that it was actually solid ice.

Pants.

All I could do was make no change to my speed or direction and hope I was balanced enough to get over. Fortunately it seemed I was, though for a second or two I could feel the ice passing under the tyres, but my momentum carried me over. I decided to get off and take a look at how this thing had duped me, and sure enough the water had frozen in rivulets rather than as a flat sheet, and was well over a centimeter thick even at its thinnest point. I decided then it was better to GPS mark the road, and come back to do it in the Spring, rather than have less luck further up!

Fortunately, those leaves and such at the side of the road had virtually no ice on them, and so it was quite simple to walk the bike back down that way, bypassing the frozen stream. It was disappointing, but that road will make a nice addition to a future day out on warmer days.

Back down to the coast road, and more great views and soon another small road, this time down to a beach, which, given that it was about 5degC., was pretty much deserted. However, given the blue skies and sunshine, if you didn’t know that, you could think from a photograph it was a wonderful Summers day.

It’s called Sotoura Beach, and when the weather gets a little warmer, has quite a good crowd down there. On this day though, it was just me, and some fisherman repairing nets in the small harbour nearby.

(Note that in a few photos my bike looks like it is on sand - it isn’t - I walked out to check the area and found it was actually an old asphalt car park with a very thin layer of sand and gravel on it.)

After another cup of tea just looking at that blue ocean, I pushed on just a few more kilometres to my lunch spot, the appropriately named Cafe Mellow

[As this post is a little long, I won’t fully recount the trip back, which was yet more happy riding, avoiding some bad drivers, and getting to test the headlights out. I’ll also see if I can get a short road video together for it. After 350Km that day, I have to say, I’m really pleased with the Tracer for sure. ]

Shonan Beach In Winter

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 10:54:32 +0000

There’s something just very relaxing about coastlines and sunrises or sunsets, even as Winter moves in. After almost 5 years of living near the Japan’s Shonan Pacific coast, I just don’t seem to get bored of cycling down here, walking around and taking some pictures (yes, almost the same picture) again and again. I’m not alone either, year round people are cycling the beach track, surfing a little, even playing beach volleyball, and I just don’t think it gets any more relaxed than this.

Unlike the Summers which are busy with tourists, the Winter tends to just be local people and those dedicated outdoors people looking to get some time in on the waves for surfing, wind-surfing or other outdoors activities, even if that’s just walking off breakfast lunch or dinner at one of the local places to eat. Good times.

Some photos - September 2012

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 07:28:41 +0000

It’s been a while since I stuck a small gallery up on here, so I took a few random photos from the library to put up. They’re from a few places, mainly the Shonan coast here in Japan and a recent trip to Guam where I took a few photos from the beaches and from some attractions around the place.

Chigasaki Hanabi 2010

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:13:19 +0000

Every summer, places the length and breadth of Japan celebrate summer with festivals and fireworks displays ( 花火). Since we moved out of Tokyo, we’ve been going to the Chigasaki hanabi at their South Beach, and this year was as fantastic as before. Despite the thousands of people, there was a mix of people on dates, families, parties of friends, but as ever, behaviour was good, the venue (essentially the beach!) was well organised, and we sat back to watch a fantastic (almost) hour of big fireworks.

I put a few more pictures up on the Flickr! page. Since I’m no longer a Pro member, I guess those pictures will disappear at some point.

Chigasaki Hanabi 2009

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:22:59 +0000

Sometimes you remember why you live where you live. For me, Saturday night was one of those nights. We went as a family to meet up with some friends who live just down the road in Chigasaki (apparently the soul of Southern All Stars) and headed down to South Beach and watch the free hanabi (fireworks).

It was such a fantastic evening. We turned up around 5.30pm and got ourselves a decent spot on the sand. Actually, we benefitted from the insight of a friend of a friend who surfed the beach who warned us how far the tide would come up the beach during the display and made sure we were a few more metres higher up. Needless to say at several times during the evening, people a few places in front of us had to jump up and grab their things as an errant wave lapped high - it really was that close to the water.

The whole thing was very relaxed, almost intimate, as everyone watched an excellent ninety minute display, drank beer and just generally relaxed on towels and mats. The fireworks just seemed so close as you can sort-of see in the picture I shakily took with my camera-phone. I was actually trying to video some of it at the time, so I might try to get something edited up on Vimeo.

Generally it was just a fantastic evening, good people, some witty banter from the MC whilst we were waiting for smoke to clear: “Ladies and gentlemen, whilst we wait, please look at and enjoy the beautiful full moon here in Chigasaki tonight.” I would definitely say it’s worth the trip out, but bear in mind the whole road system is pretty busy most of the summer there, and cars struggled to get anywhere for quite a time afterwards, especially with all the people walking back to the station.

Anyway - awesome night. Roll on next year!

Typhoon Beach Party

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 14:22:07 +0000

It rained. It really rained.

As I mentioned a while ago, last Saturday was the Kamakura Beach Party. Unfortunately, a typhoon rolled into town and swept the beach. However, if anyone thinks this may have brought the whole thing to a standstill, they’d be wrong. The music played, the lights in the beach huts stayed on and the rum and cokes had just enough coke in them that you couldn’t taste it.

Let’s face it, if people are going to make their way down to the beach in a typhoon, they’re pretty serious about having a party, and that was definitely felt - the rain added to fun, as we dodged the leaks in the roof, and the bands made sure all their gear was dry. Over 150 people turned up, and I for one had a great time. Make-a-Wish Japan also made some money and when you can have a good time, and make some money for children so they can have a good time, then that’s a pretty decent day out in my opinion.

I can’t wait for next year, but maybe then, I’ll move out of that comfy deck chair I was in a little more often…

Kamakura Beach Party 2004

Sat, 14 Aug 2004 11:55:51 +0000

Just a quick advanced post to those who are interested in going to the 2004 Kamakura Beach Party on August 28th (Saturday). I’ve been speaking to event organiser Brent o’Leary a lot over the last few days, and the flyers are now ready, and pretty much all the information is on the website.

The Kamakura Beach Party is an annual charity event, with all proceeds going to Make-a-Wish Japan and also just happens to be a great live event down on the beach. So get your t-shirt/bikini/umbrella and get down there.

Tickets are available on the door (men: 3500yen, ladies 2,500yen).

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Rudolf — 2004-08-16

Alright, looks nice, the flyer does. Can you send me a few copies?