The Beach in Wakayama

Yesterday I had a day off, and with the weather so hot lately, a few of us were itching to spend a day at the beach. Apparently there aren't any good beaches in Osaka, so we took a train to Wakayama, about 50 miles down the coast of Japan. Not only was the beach itself gorgeous and a great way to relax, but it was fun to check out Wakayama, which is much, much smaller than Osaka. It was a cute little coastal city, and it sort of seemed to me that it probably hasn't changed much since the 80s and 90s. I'm glad I got to see a different side of Japan, but let's just say I'm glad I live in Osaka.

On the train to Wakayama, we sat in a car where the chairs faced the windows to the side

We had about twenty minutes to wander around between our train and the bus we took to the beach

On the bus!

Literally every sign in Japan has cartoon people (or animals)

Chicago? Whaaaa? "We deliver deliciousness to your home quickly." I wonder what the food here was like, but alas, we just rode past it on the bus

Bethany couldn't contain her excitement as we approached the beach

Goal of the day: get my white, pasty torso some color to match my tan face and forearms. I look like two different people's body parts have been attached to each other. 

Kakigori = Japanese shaved ice. Basically what they have instead of snow cones

Kakigori selfie! I went with "Blue Hawaii" flavor

After a good three-ish hours at the beach we decided to walk back toward the town, and on the way found this tiny island

There was a little history about it but all in Japanese, I'll have to ask a fluent friend to translate

AHHHHHH. Pic doesn't do it justice, this thing was huuuuuge

We climbed up to a great view of the area

We continued on into the town in search of a restaurant

Success! That sign says "Re su to ra n." The menu was all in Japanese, so we took our server outside the front to point at the dishes we wanted from the display case.

After a day at the beach, I definitely wanted some seafood. I did not realize my  plate came with all this other stuff, including a bowl of white rice that I gave to Bethany.

The soup had some sort of little fish with their eyes still intact. I tried a few bites but it was a little too weird for me.

The fried rice I wouldn't have ordered if I knew my other dish came with so much extra food

From there we walked through a residential area toward a train station

In case you didn't know, errbody in Japan uses bikes, y'all

On the train on the way home. We may have missed a stop and looped around back to where we started, and then had to get off, switch trains, and start all over again. But eventually, we made it home.

I had a few of these on the way home.  I vaguely remember these koala cookie things from like twenty years ago, but they're still a thing in Japan and they're pretty delicious. These ones are chocolate with banana inside

And of course I got strawberry flavored ones too

I have to ask my family if they remember these too, I swear I ate this all the time when I was a tyke

I thought I would show you all one of my favorite Japanese snacks, onigiri! This one is "me yo ne e zu shi i chi ki n," or mayonnaise sea chicken, aka tuna!

You start by pulling the tab from the top down and around the center of it

Then you pull the plastic from the sides. The wrapper is tucked between the rice and the seaweed, so be careful or you'll pull your rice out with the wrapper

Now you're ready to eat it!

Yuuuummmmmm. And it's only 100 yen! You can find these at convenience stores and grocery stores, but they also have them in a vending machine at work, so it's a good snack to have between shows when you don't have time to go eat a meal

And of course, I throw my wrapper away with other plastic trash. Every trash can in Japan has separate plastic and burnable trash cans, as well as recycling bins.

The other day, a few awesome people from Kaigandori set up a grill to have a BBQ in the park. I could only come for an hour before work, but I brought these to grill and eat for lunch

Mmm, gross. How am I still single, amirite?

Just a pic of a train station on my way to work one morning. I usually bike to the ferry, but I left my bike at work the night before to go to the matsuri festival, so I took the train that morning

A pretty street in the Umeda area of downtown Osaka one evening