#91 Exploring the beaches south of Tokyo

Transcript

Another beautiful, clear day in Yokohama. Still a slight chill in the air. Mid-January. Jeez, I guess I only have nine days left in Japan, but hey, no sense thinking about it that way. Let's think about it as I got nine days till I go to South Korea. Keep a ball rolling, man. Keep an all-rolling, don't uh... Don't try to hold on too hard to the past, son.

And to be fair, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with myself, although I think with first thing I'll do, I'm gonna go walk up the stairs and get a Zelda coffee, because I'm actually getting on a train soon, but I could use a coffee, I could use a Zelda coffee, and if I go up the stairs and walk up this hill, there is a machine that has the Zelda coffee. I was looking at which I do, which I do with myself today, and there's that street doboita that's famous from Shenmue, that yeah, you know, it's on my list, but it's like reflected. Oh, I guess I'll explain when I go there, but I'm going there like in proxy. It seems like it'd probably be kind of cool, but I gotta go to Yokohama Station and then it's about an hour from there. I was like, oh, what if I just went out to the coast, more to the west, and I have to go to Yokohama Station and it's about an hour. If I did want to go back into Tokyo, I don't know if I'll get around to that, but I'd have to go to Yokohama Station and it's about an hour, and if I wanted to go back to west Tokyo, I mean, it's about an hour if I get an express, which I'm not sure if there are westerly midday expresses, and then that's only to Hachioji Station. So realistically, it's more like an hour and a half at best, it might be more like two and a half hours, it's probably not realistic, but basically everything's an hour from here, and I'm like, I don't know, I don't know which one to do, or I could do none and just stay in this neighborhood. But then I realized last night when I took the train back, was actually kind of visually cool. Once I left that park with the three lakes, and I walked to the next station, which was a way, so it was dark by the time I got there. And the station was pretty big, though the neighborhood didn't really grow that much, but by that point, with the sundown, I could see in the distance a bunch of big buildings on the horizon. It looked really cool. It looked more like a painted backdrop than reality, because there were so few big buildings in the way, so you could just see, you could see the city way in the distance, and I looked on the map, and I'm like, what is this one? It's either Magoro City, or Setagaya. Actually, I think maybe I could see them both, and it wasn't really close, I was only like half way, it'd still be a very long walk. But I was like, ah, Setagaya, perfect, what a perfect loop, because if you recall, way, way back, when I first got to Japan on this trip, Setagaya City is the first place I went. There's the Blue Dome House.

It has like, geez, almost a full loop, that's kind of cool.

But I got on that train and headed back towards Yokohama Station, and then I switched over to another train whose name I don't recall right now, but but this one to take me to my Airbnb, it continues on to a place called Zushi. So I was like, you know, just, I just need a reason to go somewhere, I don't care where or why.

Why not that? Because that's the one where I don't need to first go to Yokohama Station, and then recalibrate. I can just get on on the train that's right by my Airbnb, and rather than go central to Yokohama Station, you can go the other way to Zushi, and there's some parks, some seaside. I'm curious about the seaside, we'll see how it goes, because it's so awesome right where I am, because this is touristy bayside. But then if you go east of here, that's like insane amounts of factories and power plants, and shipping container stuff. So I just want to see what the southerly coast is like. There's definitely some beaches and stuff down there that seem a little rough, like more like beaches you go to surf than to hang out on the beach, but that could be fine for me, because I don't, I'm not going to hang out on the beach, I'm not looking to stand out of blanket, I just want to walk. So if it's kind of a messed up beach full of driftwood and shit, I don't think I'll mind. Well let's start with Zushi. Gorakman again, you there Gorakman.

Oh my god, I fucking love this coffee. Dude, it's such a shame that this is going to be gone next time I come to Japan, since I only make a Zelda game every fucking zillion years.

Yeah, what a turn around. I was definitely a little dubious of boss coffee, but the boss coffee fucking tears of the kingdom Zelda. I just can't believe how good it is, so weird. You guys, you clearly know how to make good coffee. You pull it out when it's sponsorship time. Why not, why not do that all the time?

What could they call this? Like once the Zelda sponsorship is over the new Topia coffee, the golden axe warrior coffee.

So that's my plan. I'm going to go down, back down the hill now to Zushi station. No, not to Zushi station. I don't know what the station's called. I'm going to Zushi, and I know there's like a park and some kind of seaside stuff, something. Whatever, we'll see. That's the point. We'll see what's there. Man, also just from, I mean, I did a lot of walking yesterday, but it is weird how this up and down of this terrain, the constant up and downs of the mountains here. It is a whole new type of thing where my knee hasn't been bad, and my hip that I somehow messed up in West Tokyo seems fine. It hasn't hurt at all. Now it is the ankles, the backs of my ankles. Like I don't notice it as I'm walking around, then I'll come home and lay down for a bit because my little room is so tiny that there is no, there's no desk or anything, so I just have to recline on my futon to use my computer. Then when I get up to go pee or something, it's like, fuck out, my Achilles heels. Like it feels like I got kicked, kicked by a tiny goblin man in the back of my legs. I don't know. I don't know why that's the image that comes to mind. Badge is different terrains, different pains, man. I mean, I guess it's good though, it's good to spread them around. My previous pains are successfully healing, but yeah, I really got to do a little less walking, so I think some train time will be good today. Oh, geez, in my sock, I noticed too, it's just the sock I was wearing yesterday, he's got a bunch of holes developing in it. That's how much I'm fucking walking. He's like, I got to calm the fuck down, man. Don't walk halfway to set a guy, that's a little much. But all right, the station, since I've only ever taken it like that one time, yesterday night, not even quite sure where it is, but it's right around here somewhere, it's very close.

Well, the train systems definitely work different when you're coming home from work, because that train I was on yesterday.

Whatever that jingle signifies, certainly doesn't need to be that long. Anyway, yeah, that train I was on yesterday, I mean, it went all the way from where I was, way the fuck out, halfway to Setagaya, all the way back to Yokohama Station in one stop, like that was one go. It was a really long, fast ride, because yeah, people are coming home from work, they're like, we ain't got time for this, express everywhere. So then whatever the other train was I was on that went to Zushi. That ain't a thing right now, because it's like 11-30 in the morning. It's really just me, some old ladies, and some other various indigent men. So these are all just local, slow trains. So I only got to Isago Station, not very far, but because it's such a small station, there is nowhere to transfer to. I just got a wait for the next train, and just it'll take me further. And the whole reason I pull out this recorder is I was going to say, like, guy, it is nice just to be at a random station, just to be at a random station on a sunny day. But it's only fun with my headphones in. Once I've got this recorder out, man, the announcements never stop at these stations. They're just constantly blaring announcements. I need to remember that, and you just stop recording it, train stations, sucks, it's a miserable experience. So I'll turn this thing off now and just continue on my journey. Of course they stopped talking now. Though as soon as I start talking, they're gonna, it's gonna come back on. Okay, well, I just want to say real quick. So the movie from Up On Poppy Hill that by the amazing view at Bayview Park, there's a plaque about this movie, this Studio Ghibli movie, and it's like, hey, this is the place. The girl put up her flags right here. Here's a commemorative flag thing, whatever. Anyway, I watched that movie. It's no damn good. It's really boring. I still don't understand Studio Ghibli. I don't even like the style, the overly cartoony tintin style of these gormless characters. They all just look so stunned and stupid all the time. And yeah, I don't know. I still don't get it, man. If you just love this shit out of Studio Ghibli, 10:00 expand your fucking horizons, man. Watch some more shit, because I don't fucking get it. Shit's not that good. It's not that good. Okay, now I'm gonna turn off the recorder.

All right, here's the first. This is me from later in the day back at the Little Air B and B. I'm not bad after all these episodes, I guess, that I haven't lost any recordings, but I noticed after I recorded this little bit where I got to the next station, which is Ophuna Station, and I yammered a bit, and then I sat down, eat some food. And then next time I looked at this recorder, it was like 20 minutes deep, but was just still recording. So I was like, oh, that's strange. I must have just forgot to stop the recording. So I guess that it's just going to be, you know, 15 minutes of dead air or whatever, no problem. I'll just edit that out. But now that I'm checking, now that I got back, it looks like I somehow did the classic I thought I turned off the recorder, but I only at that point turned it on. So I only had the dead air and not the stuff. But it's okay, let me just give you the recap of this little bit. So I went to Ophuna Station and from there, the part that I was in seemed very similar to Hyjima Station, but I could see that there was a corridor that led to more station. So it clearly was bigger, but my first impression was Hyjima Esk. And then just trying to figure out where to go next, not a big problem. I do find that these stations are fun. It's so different from, I guess the difference is above ground or below ground train, like the subways in Tokyo, just a just a disaster, just not fun to navigate, not fun to get lost in, not fun to spend too much time in. But the trains that are above ground, like they're just way easier to figure out, way fewer routes and you're above ground, you're looking at the window, you're watching stuff go by, it's just cooler, it's way better. So from here, I found a train heading into the direction of Atami, which is way down around the bay, way southwest, but the train actually didn't go that far and I didn't get nearly that far, but just in that direction. And that's what I like about it, you can just point yourself in a direction and you'll just go to the major routes and it's just all good. And speaking of looking out the window, that is as I was going by, I did go by the big Enios power plant that I mentioned the other day. I went past it on a train and it's way better on a train than walking because you just see it out the window and you're just like, whoa, look at that big crazy thing and you just get a little view and then you move on and that's fine. And seeing that out the window is actually what made me think of that movie from Oppon Poppy Hill, whatever the fuck it's called. Because there is a part in that movie, I just kind of, you know, I was just being cranky about it, but just to explain a little better, there is a point, the movie takes place in the 60s and there's a point after about an hour where they do go into central Yokohama and that part is really cool because obviously I'm just more invested in the environment in the place and seeing an approximation of what the city looked like in the 60s was really cool. You see the buildings and the business suits and the cars and just, you know, it's it's a real city. It's like cool and it's like, oh, there it is. And one of the things you briefly see are smokestacks in the distance and it's like, oh, man, it's so interesting to see where that's leading to that that's going to become insane in the future. But the movie itself mostly takes place, you know, what what is now just a part of Yokohama at that time, I guess, was much more rural. So it feels like a different world. It's super rural and it's just a not only a sin story that's hard to give a shit about, it's it's the empty drama of it that is what I don't like. That's why I like shows like Eurocamp and SuperCub and Nanon Biori that genre, a Yashike that is distinctly like heavily plotless, you know, deliberately plotless and I really think that's a fucking interesting and bold way to go with slice of life. Like let's just not pretend to list. This is what we're here for. We're here for the environment. We're here to soak in the vibes. In Eurocamp, we're here to see the lakes and to see the views of the mountain. We're not here for empty drama between characters. And unfortunately, this studio jibbly film as with all of them and with all as with all fucking movies is full of empty dramas. Just like they shit that is like just so boring and just so pointless. But they're like, oh no, run, we got a race to the car. Get to the car in time. Jump on the boat. We got to go talk to an old man about a boring thing. They don't want fucking gives a shit about. It's brutal. I just I hate that feeling of 15:00 like, oh pay attention or like like you're being manipulated. Like it's trying to pull your strings. And I'm just over it. I'm like, no way man. I've seen too many movies, too many shows, read too many books. I'm not having my strings pulled anymore. I don't like this in my day, in my life. I don't want this. If you're not going to make the drama be about something that actually matters then fucking don't have it at all. And unfortunately this movie is very much mired in the past. The old style storytelling of just empty fucking drama. Which maybe that was a little more valuable back in the day when you had limited access to books and movies and TV. Now it's a flood. We have everything. Everything that's ever been made is at your fingertips at all times. I ain't got time for this fucking shit anymore. Fucking don't like it. I don't like it at all. So there we go. That's my just imagine that I did all that yammering while standing outside of a new days in a funistation. Probably additionally cranky because I had food that I had not yet eaten. Why I'm so cranky about it now that I've come home and taken a little nap is because I just legitimately didn't like it. The movie can fucking suck my balls. All right, there we go. That's the part that I forgot to record.

So yeah, this station Ophuna is definitely a fair bit larger than Hyjima. It just looks the same. It's kind of laid out the same on the end. I was at, but it's kind of cool because I could tell that even before I'm walking down its little shopping promenade. Now, but even before I did this, I could tell because I sat there for like 20 minutes, just eating all my food. Sitting on a little bench, eating all my food from new days, watching some fucking crap on my phone. And stations, they're like, it's like a little heartbeat, you know? You can feel the pulse when a train comes in, and everything gets real crowded, and then it clears out. So that's how I could tell though that this station was a lot bigger, is that this was a very consistent pump, like the pump of the heart. People, no people, no people, no people, no people, no people, where at Hyjima, it's like, people, quiet, quiet, quiet, people, you know, you can feel, you can feel the pump, the rhythm of the station. Man though, despite the fact that the station is kind of big, ish, medium, not even medium, I don't know, bigger than Hyjima, but it's got all these stores and shit, and it has no garbage cans anywhere. Not even in the convenience store, they will not accept their own trash. And even the drink machines don't have anywhere to put your can. They're just like, nope, nope, not gonna do it. Just take your garbage somewhere else, we're just not gonna do it. We just aren't gonna do it. It's like, well, okay. Alright then, I guess I'll take it to the next station, you got me. What am I supposed to do?

Man, riding on the train and watching the little blue dot move further and further, and it's like, oh, where's this? And where's this next place? I don't know what goes to here. I don't know what's this. There's a mountain near there. Oh my god, what is that? What is this thing over here? There's so many things that it's like, oh, I just want to see what's there. I want to see what's around that corner, but I can't just go on the train forever. Got to stop somewhere, so I met Sugito Station. TSU Jideo, because it's a pretty big neighborhood here, actually. This is not the closest to the shoreline. I think the next station is actually a touch closer, but close enough. So I'm heading down toward the water to Sugito Seaside Park, and then the idea is I'll just walk west to Chigasaki Beach, and eventually there is a river in the way. The Sagami River. So that's probably as far as I can go, realistically. That's the plan though, just to try to get down to the coast and see if I can walk along the coast. Because who knows, man, who knows how it works, I might not even be able to. I don't know what the coastline is like around here, but that's the experiment for today. And yeah, some of this other stuff that looks cool, I think I just need to explore a little more. Like this train goes to Odawara, and by there is Mount Hakone with Lake Ashi. Looks real cool, but I mean that could be like a serious severe mountain. Then I passed by this little area, Dino Shima. It seems really cool, but I don't know, it's like a weird bridge you got to take to get out there. And there's another train station that is a lot closer, should I want to go there. 20:00 So yeah, I think I need to do further research for the other stuff in this area. Yeah, I just love this, man. I love this feeling of just going, just moving, and just seeing these new places. It is fucking great. I was thinking though, like this really makes me think like I really should move a lot more next time I'm in Japan, you know, just like get a bunch of Airbnb's sprinkled all over the place and just travel for place to place to place. Because it would be great to keep going, you know, it would be nice to just be able to travel this direction and just keep going. And the speed that you move into new areas is, it's ludicrous, you know, like I'm a good chunk of the way toward Mount Fuji already. Like if you just kept going, you really could cross the whole country very, very easily. But then I realize one thing that makes this so nice is all I got on me is a couple layers, you know, probably too many coats, but who knows it could get cold once the sun goes down, so I gotta be on the safe side. But really just my little day bag, that's it. The trouble with if I was doing the, like if I didn't have to go back today, if I could just keep moving forward to a new place and never return, I would have my big bag with me. That would be the trouble. And that would make this a lot less fun. Like that had not occurred to me till just now. Like if I do set up a thing where I just keep traveling across Japan next time. Am I gonna have to have my wheelie bag with me all the time? That's pretty fucking not fun. But I just really don't know how much I can chop it down. I mean everything I own fits in a stinking book bag and I think it's pretty cool that I'm never wanting for stuff. You know, I never go like, oh, I wish I had this or that. Maybe I wish I had some crazy glue or I wish I had a sewing kit, but if I needed it bad enough, I could go to a dollar store and just buy that shit. Because specifically my winter coat needs a little patching, but if I can make it to spring, I'm just abandoning this fucking coat anyway. I think I've done pretty good whittling things down, but like how much more, how much more can I? I guess that's the thing though. Each of these things doesn't seem like a big deal. It's like, oh, it was just a little bit, but I guess the little bits add up. Because then the main thing would be closing. Well, the main thing would be a laptop. Not bringing the laptop would definitely help. It's the heaviest thing. But I just, I can't do that. You know, I could almost live with that a laptop. It's really just editing software. I just can't properly edit stuff on a phone and do all the fucking FTP RSS goddamn bullshit. I mean, almost I could. I don't want to though. It's just like having your fingers glued together doing stuff on a phone. I do need a laptop. But that would help. The other thing I guess would be clothing. If I did really just bail out on clothes, and there would be, it would be kind of fun to just buy clothes as I go. I wish I could just build up some big strong military man marine muscles and just carry my stupid book bag and not have it be a problem. But that just ain't happening. I'm not an upper body strength man. It just makes my shoulders deteriorate into dust. Anyway, here's a coffee machine with Zelda coffee. I can't see the coast at all. I'm just walking down. Very nice little neighborhood but just walking down a neighborhood. Let's get me some Zelda coffee. It's warm enough out that I'm going to get cold Zelda coffee. There's actually two. There's one hot one and two cold ones, two cold options right or left. Let's go left.

Who is it? Is it that stupid bird again? No it's Zelda. Princess Zelda. I'll take it. Cheers Zelda. Although your voice actress can fuck right off. I'll link what has happened to your arm. I'll know. I'll know. That's a spot on impression by the way.

I just passed a place called American House Diner which had burgers and steaks and shit and they had a sign that said dogs welcome. They have a like a terrace. Dogs welcome. It's like wow that's not very American. I've never seen a restaurant in North America where dogs are welcome. I think if you have a seeing eye dog or something like that then maybe they can sort something out but even that I think it's highly discouraged. 25:00 But I think that is just a sign of how many dogs there are. I haven't noticed as many around here but I figured I harped on it enough when I was walking around Nacka Ward. I didn't need to keep bringing it up but man yesterday so many dogs and then I got to that cool park with the three lakes and the dog levels went super bananas. I mean obviously at a park you're going to see more dog walkers but it was just out of fucking control. So many dogs.

Man that's one thing so the guy Quinlan of Go North Japan, the interview I watched with him about his 20 some years living in Japan, the 10 years he lived in Tokyo. He lived in Northern Tokyo near my beloved Ikebukuro a little north of there even and he was saying how back in like 2003 it was quite a bit more notable to be a foreigner.

There was a lot less English people cared that he was a white guy you know it seemed relevant. He said he made friends just based on the fact that there were other white guys. God kids are fucking loud shut the fuck up. Every time I go by kids anywhere in the world it's nothing to do with Japan. Why are they always yelling? What is up with that?

Anyway he said back in the early 2000s he made friends with people just because they were other foreigners like there was few enough that that was a sensible thing to do is to go like oh geez look at you you're an American let's be friends. Where now yeah they're just there's foreigners everywhere. He said there's a lot less English it really makes me think like man it must have been another world when my friend Ken moves here in the late 70s. So like what the heck if even just 20 years ago was so different. But one thing he mentioned is that that area around Ikebukuro was so much worse. Now you know it's like fun CD. It's CD in the way that like an idiot like me is like well this was cool I like it. But it used to be for real CD like the station north of Ikebukuro he said he was there one morning. And there was like a guy clearly Yakuza guy on the phone in his suit and he had blood all over him and just whatever whatever awful Yakuza stuff he got up to the night before he was calling it in I guess. It's like dude yeah it's kind of like how by the time I went to New York people are like you didn't see the taxi driver New York you didn't see the really rough New York Times Square whatever. And I think that's okay I don't really want to man you know the graffiti on the subway cars was cool but there's a level of grime that is a little much. But I just thought that was interesting just how much things have changed just in 20 years. Which again I mean I feel like I probably came to Japan at a good time I don't really think coming here 20 years ago when I was a very young man. I don't know that that would have been the best time I mean obviously as you get older stupid hips hurt your stupid knees hurt etc. But as far as my brain goes I think I came here at a good time in my life. You are here I've made it to the park there are cool palm looking trees here sports fields and stuff still don't see the shore so let's continue on and see. If I can get to there I want to go to there.

Man you never know on these little adventures you never quite know how it's going to go how's it going to turn out what's going to be on the other side. And my first impression of this beach is that it's fucking perfect what the shit this is crazy man. I just kind of assumed because so much of the waterfront area in Japan is very inaccessible and everything is just crowded and stuff. I guess maybe in the summer I mean it is January maybe in the summer it's more people but this is insane man so the I'm pretty much just right at that beach. I met the beach just behind Sugito seaside park I walked down from the station and then just had to walk east a little bit and I found a little walkway that goes underneath the road that's near here. And immediately surfers that's the one people type that is here it's 90% surfers quite a few surfers everywhere surfing. Remember that was like a joke a joke version of how to write a terrible first sentence or I guess it was like it's like a contest. It's a contest they do to write the worst opening sentence possible for a book and one of the winners was Jeff carrying his surfboard said to his surfing friend walking next to him. 30:00 Hey do you like surfing you know that's that's what's going on here anyway this beach stretches way far down the east I could have started much much more easterly from here if I could have got there. I don't know how to get there on the trains and stuff but I can see that in Oshima Island.

I should really try to figure out what train takes me to that because that thing is wild it is like a really tall like big overgrown really wild look in Island. It's some serious shit out there whatever that is it's quite a ways in the distance but it looks enticing and terrifying at the same time and then there are some buildings and resort kind of looking places and stuff along the beach.

But it seems to stretch all the way from in Oshima to here and then continues on west and yet just like it is kind of a rough beach as far as like there's rocks and wooden stuff but there's no garbage or anything. And there's just really not that many people I can see a little bit of people further on where I am is definitely surf or grand central this is the place for surfing. Let's see here I just just like let me do a quick count I hit a dozen people without moving my eyes so I'm going to guess I can probably see a hundred people right now and they're mostly surfers. And I don't know shit about surfing but oh there's some guys who are going to say the waves I'm not sure how great the waves are but there they go that's what they're doing okay so these guys are all just floating in the water waiting for the waves to come and then they spring to action.

Of course there's some old ladies and there is one dog one dog on the beach requisite dog and yeah then further west from here you can see a bunch of mountains on the horizon. I'm pretty sure I read that you can see Fuji from here theoretically but I cannot it disappears into the haze but you can still see a lot of mountains in the on the horizon and I don't see anybody to the west. It just looks like empty open beach is the way I'm heading after I sit here for a while but I mean that's a sign of how fucking amazing this is is usually I'm just like alright keep on rolling keep on moving just keep walking I just I'm just sitting here on this little rock wall because I just like holy fuck this is the spot dude it's all downhill from here this is the peak of the day it's not going to get better than this just sit your ass down and soak this shit in it is so fucking nice.

Then again I just got like the god the god draw for weather it's nice and sunny basically warm but kind of breezy the little chill in the air from this morning past so it's really just nice it's just fucking nice.

At this point, I still got my coats on. I don't have to take them off, but we'll see. I might have to take them off. But the wind is counter-balancing things very nicely. It seems cold, though.

BS is a nice fucking day for surfing. I suppose it is. It's Monday today, isn't it, right? So that probably helps as well. Yeah, it's Monday, 1.30 in the afternoon. Good time for the beach to be empty. Good time if you got the time to be a surfer. Good time to come surfing. And the wind is not the biggest waves of all time, but I guess they're big enough.

Damn, this is really fucking cool, man. It wasn't exactly a quick journey, but it wasn't that bad either. Whatever little videos and shit I had pre-downloaded on my phone, I have not remotely finished watching. So it eats up the journey pretty fast. This is where, though, I really got a buckle down after I leave Japan. Because like that is the time of day I should be using to write my stupid fucking novels and shit while I'm sitting on a train. It's like the perfect time.

But I have just type in fucking the dog while I'm in Japan. But hey, whatever dude, fuck it, I'm in Japan. I'm giving myself a pass. But after I leave here, I got to stop. Because that's the perfect time. It's like when you're just on a train. You know, you're in transit. You're in between spaces. Do some writing. It's perfect. It's a perfect way to use up the time in your day, but instead I'm just wasting it watching fucking dumb shit.

But yeah, I don't know, just Japan, man. That's my excuse Japan. Anyway, yeah, this is a goodness me. This is very nice.

I guess I, I mean, I didn't have particular expectations, but whatever expectations I did have were certainly less than this. Because even if I compare it to other shorelines, you know, like Vancouver and stuff, or even other shorelines here in Japan, like there was that really nice shoreline I found on those islands north of Fukuoka. And they were unpeopleed in a bad way. There's like garbage on them and stuff. Although it was a pretty long shoreline, so it was nice in that sense. And in Vancouver, it's just tough to find a beach that goes this far. This is like it really stretches like pretty much as far as I can see both ways. It's fucking crazy. The only reason I know that it ends is because of Google Maps. And they know it doesn't end. It just hits rivers and stuff that I didn't have to cross over. Maybe it keeps going. This is really fucking good. This is really fucking good. This would be the kind of thing that I don't know what kind of Airbnb's there are out here. But this would be the kind of thing that would be worth posting up near and just hanging out by here. And this, you know, Shima place, look at this fucking place. It looks like the fucking lost world. It looks like it's out of time. It looks like the ancient world. The fuck is that? I gotta look that up for sure.

I guess this is good because, you know, once I explored Naka Ward, and they're like, yeah, cool. Yokohama is very nice. I like it. But I really did see what there is to see quite quickly, because it's just not that big of an area. It was a little, you know, I'm not quite sure what to do next. What do I do on my last stretch in Japan? I'm not saying this is what I'm gonna do, but this could easily be what I do. You could come here every fucking day. Dude, this is great. I say that, but in two days I'll be bored of it. Paradise, get out of here. I saw paradise yesterday. But that's the feeling now. The feeling right now. And just, yeah, looking out into the water, too. This is not like the other bay areas up around Tokyo and Yokohama where, you know, you see more city on the other side of the water. Here, I can see some mountain way in the distance and one boat way in the distance, but it's basically just open sea. It's fucking cool. Pictures do not do this shit justice though. The first thing I did when I got here was try to take a picture, but the tiny little framing, I'd have to do one of those panorama pictures that is incredibly long, but then is completely un-viewable. You know, there's not much point. I don't think to those. If I could take a VR picture, I suppose, that might be pretty good. Probably someone has. If you're in VR right now, I don't know, go look that shit up.

Man, this is a weird feeling because it's kind of like the absence of. Like, it really is. It's weird to think how uncommonly I've just sort of sat somewhere and just stayed in one place in Japan by kind of all over the place. It's weird to be by the water and it's like if there was a light level of anxiety, say, that was just always there, so I didn't know what was there. You know, if it's just the way things are, if it's just continuous, then you just, that's just how you feel. And it's just weird to be in a place where it's like, oh jeez, I never even knew that was there because while I'm here, it's not there. It's just like, ah, like the way I always play either ocean sounds or rain sounds at night to go to bed. Those sounds are just here all the time. It's just automatic. It's just the water. Because there's like a street behind me. I'm not sure how busy it is, but I can't hear it at all. It's just the ocean.

This is nice too, because I was thinking how ever since I found that mountain in 2019 behind Umabayashi Station in Fukuoka, I started getting it in my head that like, if I was ever to retire somewhere, I want to retire to a place like this. A place where I can leave my house and so easily go on a very moderate mountain hike. So it would be such a nice way to stay in shape and stuff. But it's a really hard situation to replicate because you kind of got to be in Japan for mountains to be that awesome and that close to your house and then close to transit and close to convenience stores, close to everything. Whereas runner-up would definitely be just being by the water. I mean, it's obviously not as good exercise-wise for hiking. I'm sure there's some exercise just to walking in the sand. 40:00 But the nice thing is, as a consolation prize, as a runner-up, this is replicable. I've been in situations like this plenty of times. This is definitely, this isn't especially good coastline, but this is not unique to Japan. I've been to plenty of places like this, especially on the west coast in the Vancouver area. But even, you know, like Lake Ontario does a pretty good facsimile of this.

And yeah, it just feels right. It just feels like, I mean, I wonder if this could be looking too deep into it, but I wonder if there is something like ancient people's or whatever. Or like you obviously wanted to be by the ocean. There's so many benefits to being by the ocean. There's so much you get out of it. Why have dirt in every direction when one of the directions could be water? It could open up all these other avenues of resources and of stuff you can do. I think it's just natural to want to be by the water. And yeah, it just feels freaking good. And also, I mean, my hometown is just a river, but it's a real big river that probably seeped into my brain somewhat as well.

But yeah, instead of usually I feel the little anxious kick of like, hey, don't just sit around, don't just stay here, get moving. Go somewhere else. We're here, I kind of feel the opposite. It's like, wow, that's a long walk down that beach to the next station. I'll get to it, but kind of just want to stay right here, just want to sit here. Speaking of sitting right here, I've been watching these surfers. I've never watched, I've seen people surfing here and again, but I've never seen a whole school of surfers. You know, like when I say, there's like a hundred people, it's pretty much, that sounds like a lot of people, but it's like there's a doll up to my left, some in front of me, some to my right, and then just all surfers. In fact, I think, oh, there's one person who's not a surfer, and then there's some people that are doing video stuff.

Yeah, it's become even more surfers though.

But I've never really watched surfers before in a concentration like this, and I wonder if this is what it's always like, because I've only ever seen surfing on, you know, video and stuff, where you get the most extreme close-ups and you get it to look as exciting as possible. And I guess a lot of what I've seen are much bigger waves, but I'm surprised that they're not farther out. I mean, they're probably farther out than it looks. But they can't be more than 50 meters out into the water. And I just presumed they'd be farther out, but I guess there's no waves out there. The waves only form near the shore. But probably that is just because this is perfect, nice breeze, weather, nice sound of water, perfect for me weather, but I guess for them, these waves are probably a little small. So yeah, maybe if it's a crazier day, maybe they are farther out.

And like, here comes a wave, and then they hop up, or do they really quickly paddle to go along with the wave, and then hop up on their feet? And it seems like a pretty short ride. But I guess this is also that California thing, just in movies or whatever, you're just like, eh, yeah, it has the waves today, man. It's like, I just never really thought about surfing. It seems pretty cool, but I don't know anything about the actual instant out of it. It's like, yeah, I guess that would be a common question, right? Like, you're up to, uh, you got to leave it up to nature. How are the waves today? If the waves ain't no good, I guess you got to go, uh, pioneer skateboarding on a banana board, because you can't surf without the waves.