Beaches and Holds

Well it’s been another week of hard science with soft x-rays, oh physics puns you will always amuse me. Either way it was definitely a good opportunity for some downtime, and where better to have some downtime than the beach? Nowhere that's where. Arnaud, Sam and myself had been invited to join some of the Hyogo based Jet’s and friends at Matsuekaigan beach near Akashi.

Mmm beaches but they do just reminded me of home. Living up a mountain is cool and all but I miss the scent of the seaside, although admittedly I don’t miss the shrill cry of those pesky seagulls. Unfortunately the day did not start off to well. Not only was the weather forecast rubbish but I managed to over sleep meaning I wouldn’t make it to Himeji in time to meet the group heading to the beach. Curse you shinki bus and your rubbish weekend service.

It turned out alright in the end. It seemed I was not the only one languishing in bed that morning Sam had also slept in. Along with Arnaud we headed to Matsuekaigan as a trio. The rain was beating down up the mountain but by the time we’d reached Aioi it seemed to be clearing up. It was practically tropical by the time we reached Akashi.

Whilst we were on the train I couldn’t help notice haw many “ギャル”（gyaru or gal)　there were about.　I’d been doing a bit of reading around on Japanese fashions, mainly out of curiosity and this one seemed to be particularly popular right now. I guess once you know about something it’s amazing how much you notice it. Either way this is obviously female predominant and involves a heavy tan, fake or real, and bleached hair. Essentially just the kinds of girls you’d see on a standard night out in the pool.

Back to the beach. As we stepped off the train the wonderful salty aroma of the seaside infused my nostrils. Ah it smelled like home, I really couldn’t wait. We basically just followed our noses, and some rather conveniently placed tiles, to reach the beach. It seemed pretty nice, the beach was very clean and the sea looked gorgeous, a far cry from the New Bo of my memory.

At the beach we played the age ol game of hunt the gaijins, seeing as foreigners only make up 1.5% of Japans population it isn’t hard to spot a large group. And what a fun group they were. It would seem the predominant nationality was Australian or American. In particular people from Arizona and Adelaide as these are sister cities of Himeji. What this does mean is that a vast majority of the people from Himeji are more used to hearing English spoken with an Australian accent than American. Never a bad thing.

We met loads of new people so naturally I've forgotten nearly everyones name. One person who stuck to my mind was Greg, an Australian fella who was a great laugh. In fact it turned out he knew a lot of Scousers back home in Adelaide and  in illustrating the archetypal scouse women to Sam pretty much described Nan when she’s on a warpath, which didn’t half make me giggle.

Also immediately springing to mind was Chihiro a local, and good friend of Arnauds. I think at first she didn’t have a clue what I was saying and I had fun with my new favourite game, guess where I’m from. England is nearly always the last place most Japanese people guess. I just don’t fit into what they consider to be an English accent. Of course as soon as I start with the whole “Mary Poppins” style English they get it straight away.

This actually sparked for me what was a very interesting conversation about what makes an English accent. Apparently Chihiro had been told by her English teacher, a man named Mr. Razor from Worcester, that she should speak English with a British accent because it was more respectable. For one the notion that British accents are refined is ridiculous, especially coming from someone living  so close to Dudley. Secondly is there really such a thing as a British accent? I don’t think so we are the land of accents. I spent at least an hour trying to explain this. I think she might get it now I’ve introduced her to the wonders of Teeside tintin.

The whole day was a great laugh. The weather was wonderful and I had a great swim in the sea, it was pretty warm compared to anything off the coast of the UK. After chowing down on some overpriced and under octopussed takoyaki I whipped out the disc I’d brought along with me and had a good chuck about with Arnaud and some of the other guys. One in fact tried to explain to me that there was a real sport called “serious Frisbee or something” and it had rules and everything. I’ll put my hand up I was a dickhead and let him struggle trying to explain it to me for a few minutes. I couldn’t help myself it was too funny.

Sadly just as things seemed to be getting into full swing myself and Sam had to depart. As always our time out is restricted by the need to get home in time for the last bus, which is at 8:20pm. Seriously Shinki bus sort it out I actually want to have a good time on the weekends I’m free. We said our goodbyes and look forward to eseing everyone again, since practically everyone was a teacher I’m guessing they’ll have plenty of free time over summer.

Back up the mountain and one pot noodle later Sam and me headed over to Brian’s, another workmate, flat. He’d invited us over for some board gaming, geeky I know but hey we all work at a synchrotron what do you expect. Stereotyping, me? Nevah. Anyway I finally understood why Sam’s rent was so much more than my own, his place is like 5 times the size of my flat. The whole apartment block is crazy though, there seems to be no fixed layout, in fact Brian’s flat two doors down was completely different.

Inside the flat we had to be very quiet. Brian has a wonderful new baby boy named Jazz and he was currently asleep, I understand this was a rather rare occurrence unless he was in a car. The game we would be playing that night was called “Settlers of Catan”. No Cluedo for us then? I got the impression that Brian and Sam were both heavily into bored games as they reeled of a list of games I’d never heard of.

This one was based on a hexagonal grid and the goal of the game was to score ten points. Sounds fairly straightforward and actually it was. I guess this was a nice introduction as it is one of the less esoteric hex based games. It was a nice evening with Strados providing sublime comic relief by asking some truly ridiculous questions “could I build a village in the sea?”. Great guy.

The following day the weather took another dip, just can’t get the hang of 梅雨 “the rainy season”. So good time for some indoor activities I’d say. And what indoor activities are more fun the bouldering. So the plan was to set off for Kakogawa to go to the Heimat bouldering centre again. I set my alarm this time I wasn’t oversleeping again. I’d also bought what I’d thought where oats at the local shop in a vein attempt to make porridge. Turns out it was barley. My first attempt didn’t go so great but I’ve subsequently managed to make porridge out of it, takes nearly an hour though.

We arrived in Kakogawa around 12:30pm and set off first for something to eat. Not before wandering through the local high street however where we sighted some wonderful examples of Engrish. Kakogawa seems like a really pretty town, even if it was tipping it down, though I don’t think it’s very big.

Now for the dreaded question. “Where would you like to eat.” Ugh I hate making decisions about food but unusually I did have something in mind. I was actually really up for some sushi for some reason. At first it seemed like we were out of luck. We couldn’t see a sushi place anywhere and it seemed like we’d have to go for a chain of some sort. It was then that I saw quite a few people going in and out of a little building with a fish on it’s sign. Time to investigate Batman.

Success it was a sushi place. It ticked all the boxes as well. It was clean, didn’t smell of fish and was pretty busy, all the criterion of a good sushi-ya.  The seating was traditional Japanese style, very low to the floor, and there was a counter where you could watch the chefs preparing your sushi. It was a very cool place the chefs were all really friendly and excited to be photographed. Interestingly the first half of this places name is “danta” which I think referred to the fact they played a drum as people entered.

We went with the 790yen “定食“　(set meal). Arnaud told us this was generally the way to go if unsure as its good value and will likely include some of the restaurants specialties. It didn’t disappoint after a short wait we received a nice square plate full of nigiri and maki. It was a nice selection with some Tuna, Salmon, eel, squid, octopus, and scallop amongst others. Very tasty though I think it could of done with a bit more wasabi but I guess I just like spicy. It was great value for money and nice to get a good meal in, I was really suffering from eating only junk food yesterday.

We moved onto the climbing gym and had a good boulder for a few hours. The helmet gym is really cool place, great atmosphere. Everyone is very chatty with many shouts of “Ganba” (go for it) and “Oshi” (close) for encouragement. About half way through this incredibly slight girl came in. She didn’t look like much but my god she was amazing, you really can’t judge people by appearances. Some people just move on the wall so well, I really need to improve my footwork I think, it shows so much when I try and match some of Arnaud’s moves, he is just flat out stronger than I am.

Thoroughly knackered we went next door to investigate the nearby game arcade. The previous night Brian had mentioned an arcade game that involves piloting a giant robot. The game is housed inside a capsule and has rather in depth joystick and pedal based controls. Sam was rather taken by the idea and keen to check one out. As luck would have it they were the first things we came across.

They were actually very popular and all of the pods were full. I wasn’t that keen on waiting so I went and had a little look further inside. This place was beatem-up heaven. I actually have never seen so many different fighting games in one place, which is good for me as they are one of my favorite genres of games. I sat down at what I though was a Guilty Gear game but turned out to be something called “Melty Blood”. Nope I have no idea either. What it was though was damned fun. Very similar to the mechanics of Guilty gear I was wailing away at my opponents fairly quickly and managed to get through 8 stages before losing. A well spent 100yen.

Gamed out we headed back to the station for a bit of shopping before heading home. We went to the rather good bakery at the station called “La Saint Michel.” The baguettes here had already been given Sam and Arnaud’s seal of approval so  picked one up to use with my dinner, it had been ages since I’d eaten bread and this was particularily yummy.

I also picked up some microwave chips to. They were decent, or maybe I thought they were decent as it’s been so long since I’ve eaten any. I got them mainly cos they are crinkle cut and that always  makes me think of home. I’ll admit I’ve been a bit homesick lately. I really can’t wait till the rents arrive at the end of the month.

Ja ne minna-san, mata kondo.