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下田 - Shimoda Beach
 Summer time has come and its off to the Beach ! My first summer in Japan was an almost historically cold and gloomy experience. I was informed Japan's summers were insufferably hot, but 2004 was a very mild affair which even led to rice crops failing due to lack of heat and sunshine ! This year however its a scorcher and my partner and I are off South to Shimoda,  famed for its beach resorts. We've been travelling quite a bit recently so this time to keep costs down we decided to take the bus rather than train and stay at the cheapest place possible. We took a night bus, so we arrived at dawn and the beach was deserted, as the day went by the beach soon filled up. The beach in Japan has its own unique experience; every country has its own "beach style" with the exception of Scotland - As Far as I got to going to the beach as a youngster was Nairn, which albeit is a beach town,though many holidays were spent sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop drinking Bovril. Japan's Beach experience revolves around the beach house.     As soon as you arrive at the beach your inundated with offers from
rival beach houses that you use their service; which includes them
setting up a ground sheet and parasol for you. Rental of surf boards,
body boards, etc. The beach house itself selling lots of traditional
summer foods such as kakikori (Ice cones) Yaki soba, BBQ corn on the
cob with soy sauce (delicious, better than it sounds I assure you !)
chilled noodles,etc
Beer is aplenty and almost everyone seems to swan up and down the beach with a can of beer in their hand, which I found a bit weird, as drinking in the sun makes me feel really ill.
As it was hitting 4pm we made our way to the "pension" (Bed & Breakfast) that we were staying at, we'd had a great day, I was reliving a summer childhood I never had and releasing all the pent up frustration of sitting in the car in Nairn.
When we arrived at the pension it was called ニューいいじま- "new Iijima".
New in Katakana meaning "new" as in the English sense of the word.
This was the biggest misnomer I have seen in my life.
This was the B&B that time,hygiene and maintenance forgot.
It was half between a corrugated iron hut and bits of driftwood bolted together. We arrived at 5pm and it was swelteringly hot, we were shown to our room by an odd looking wee man who had a "beard on his cheeks" but no other facial hair, his belly hanging out of a 2 sizes too small surf t-shirt.
The rooms tatami floor was covered in sand, stank of saline, urine, foust and mild whiff of brown steak sauce.We tried turning on the air conditioner which was coin operated and made of Bakelite (it must have been about 50 years old !) but after much hassle, asked the B&B owner. He came and looked at it, when I say look at it, I would like to say he tried getting it to work, but he literally did just "look at it" gave it a bang on the side, cursed then said "Ill give you another room".
If room 1 was bad, compared to room 2, it was the Carlton Hilton. The room had no window, an air con that worked but a carpet that was sodden wet with seawater. The smell of mould,urine and foust was unbearable; and when we went to get the bedding out, COCKROACHES!
By this time it was getting dark so we ventured out and walked almost all way round Shimoda asking at every B&B, hotel we could find, by 11pm we had been to every place we could find but no vacancies. Not to turn a bad situation into a worse one, we did enjoy the search.
There were lots of festivals taking place, crowds wearing traditional robes, playing flutes and drums, fireworks and some of the hidden away side streets were eerily lit with small paper lanterns floating down the little streams next to the more traditional older houses.
By around 2am festivities were over and we gave up and returned to "new" iijima, but before going bought loads of air freshener, roach spray and incense. We used about 2 cans and a whole bundle of incense but there was no getting rid of the smell. We resorted to sleeping upright on the small stools, as lying on the ground would be an invitation for a mouthful of Bronchitus or cockroaches. With hardly any sleep we checked out as fast as we could, the owner seemed upset that we hadnt opted for the breakfast he made for us.What horror that could have been, I still have nightmares about.
Spending the last day on the beach we were both exhausted and slept under the parasol, though me being not used to sleeping in the sun, I got badly burned.
Not a tremendous success but the beach and Shimoda was great, my partner and I even now have a phrase for the other if misbehaving :
"ニューいじままた戻りたい？" - "Do you want to go back to new ijima !?
If you or anyone you know has been affected by the contents of this
article or has stayed at New ijima, please call our trauma hotline for
advice and counselling.
=)
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Posted by sasqwach
at July 29, 2005 10:53 AM | Permalink
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