At long last...
I had forgotten how salty sea water tasted.
I finally got the will to amble my way down to the beach and wash off the trickling perspiration with a refreshing dip in the cool Japan sea. The feeling was utterly wonderful. August view of mountains, clear blue skies, laughing children brought back a sense of tranquility and gratefulness. At that very moment, I couldn't believe I live so close to a beach. I could particularly walk to and fro the sandy shore within a few minutes. On some quiet nights, I could hear the waves crashing loudly and even see foamy white clouds from behind the silhouette of pine trees from the window of my room.
It has been so long since I went swimming, if you could call what I did swimming. I merely flopped around, bobbed up and down with the current, too anxious to go in any farther than the height of my shoulders, despite the longing desire to tread in deeper. Swimming in the ocean is much different than swimming in a pool. A pool has edges where I can grip when need be, and it certainly will not carry you away when the tide comes in. But swimming in the ocean is like diving into a gaping abyss of salty water that has no corners or edges or bottoms. Well, it does, but what can you say when you can't swim very well. Nevertheless, I look forward to returning there and taking advantages of my summers here in Japan.
Mike and I had our own little display of fireworks at Kasumi beach this weekend. Although quite excited, we were rather apprehensive about the whole idea of lighting up mini explosives. I've always carried this fear of playing with fire and oil (being that I hate cooking with a pot of hot oil + damp fish). When we got used to the act that it was really okay (we started off with sparklers, you know, those hand-held ones that sparkle safely and beautifully, but has a lifespan of 10 seconds), Mike started experimenting with the more dangerous fireworks. These were the ones that shot up to the sky, popped loudly once and disappeared forever. It left the mouth of the bottle that we had used as a base burnt. o_O We would have stayed there longer had we been mosquito-free, but alas, they came and bit the heck of out of my feet and arms, cutting short of our time.
But they won't stop us next time because we still have many more sparklers to go through before summer's up! ^__^
I finally got the will to amble my way down to the beach and wash off the trickling perspiration with a refreshing dip in the cool Japan sea. The feeling was utterly wonderful. August view of mountains, clear blue skies, laughing children brought back a sense of tranquility and gratefulness. At that very moment, I couldn't believe I live so close to a beach. I could particularly walk to and fro the sandy shore within a few minutes. On some quiet nights, I could hear the waves crashing loudly and even see foamy white clouds from behind the silhouette of pine trees from the window of my room.
It has been so long since I went swimming, if you could call what I did swimming. I merely flopped around, bobbed up and down with the current, too anxious to go in any farther than the height of my shoulders, despite the longing desire to tread in deeper. Swimming in the ocean is much different than swimming in a pool. A pool has edges where I can grip when need be, and it certainly will not carry you away when the tide comes in. But swimming in the ocean is like diving into a gaping abyss of salty water that has no corners or edges or bottoms. Well, it does, but what can you say when you can't swim very well. Nevertheless, I look forward to returning there and taking advantages of my summers here in Japan.
Mike and I had our own little display of fireworks at Kasumi beach this weekend. Although quite excited, we were rather apprehensive about the whole idea of lighting up mini explosives. I've always carried this fear of playing with fire and oil (being that I hate cooking with a pot of hot oil + damp fish). When we got used to the act that it was really okay (we started off with sparklers, you know, those hand-held ones that sparkle safely and beautifully, but has a lifespan of 10 seconds), Mike started experimenting with the more dangerous fireworks. These were the ones that shot up to the sky, popped loudly once and disappeared forever. It left the mouth of the bottle that we had used as a base burnt. o_O We would have stayed there longer had we been mosquito-free, but alas, they came and bit the heck of out of my feet and arms, cutting short of our time.
But they won't stop us next time because we still have many more sparklers to go through before summer's up! ^__^