Yesterday afternoon we took a ride out to the beach. There had been a high wave warning the previous day and while it was no longer in effect, the waves were still pretty impressive. There was a group of surfers taking advantage of the conditions, and I took advantage of them to get some pretty cool pictures.
The first pic is of the highway that runs along the beach. We have to cross under it to get to the beach itself, and I always think it looks kind of cool even though it's pretty much a monstrosity.
Today we slept in and lounged around for the first half of the day, then headed off to the local para-gliding center. I've put some pics up of this place before when Chieko and I went there about a year or so ago. It costs about $10 to ride the gondola up, and at the top there is a random collection of things, including a playground, skate park, restaurant, and camp ground with little chalets for rent. The highlight for us though is watching the para-gliders run off the side of the mountain and glide away. That, and the beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and ocean. You can get a good idea of how close we are to the water here.
I was telling Alexis about a book I read in which the author comments on how in Japan, the mountains seem to just rise straight out of the ground, and in these pics you can get a sense of it. It's probably due in large part to human manipulation of the land, but in many cases the ground is very flat and level right up to the base of the mountains. There really aren't any foothills to speak of here; it's either flat, or it's a mountain.
We dropped Alexis off at the airport this evening, and are winding down the night here under the kotatsu, sipping some umeshyu (plum liquor) while watching the Yomiuri Giants lose the Japenese baseball championship (a good thing). Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.
3 comments:
uncle ray can probably tell you exactly how the mountains of japan developed that way.
xo
hi casey!
hi devin!
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