Kuniko was off to work again – on another everlasting weekend-less week. Rather than just sit around at home and sweat and do more packing, I decided to head for the beach.
I went to Suma beach because it is the closest to an authentic beach as I’m going to get. The day was sunny, and there were lots of people out there. I bought a sandwich and two big cold beers and sat out in the sun enjoying the sound of the little mini-waves lapping against the sand.
They had built a lot of temporary restaurants/bars to cater to the beach crowd, and while I was walking around looking at them one of the hawkers out front called out my name. I was surprised – my first thought was, “How do they know my name?” Was I wearing a name tag or something? Then I recognized the guy – he was a student of mine two years ago.
I chatted with him a while in Japanese, and we got caught up. He was a really cool student back then, and now he’s enjoying college and doing part time work to earn spending money.
I found a good place to sit down by the water, and there weren’t too many people around – it wasn’t like some beaches where there are people laying out just a few feet away all around you.
There was a young couple next to me – a girl that looked about 18, but she was drinking an alcoholic beverage so maybe she was older. She was with what at first I thought was her boyfriend, but I couldn’t immediately tell the sex. The girl drinking was wearing a tiny bikini, something you don’t often see on the beaches in Japan. She was bouncing around and splashing in the water and trying to get her boyfriend to come down and play with her. Her boyfriend was interested in smoking and spacing out. Finally when some other guys starting paying a lot of attention to the girl bouncing around he walked down. As he walked down to the water I saw that he was wearing a bra!
Well, it was a sports bra, but it was a bra. I tried not to stare, but they were hanging out and holding hands and not quite kissing but close. They got in the water together and were kind of holding each other, but both of them were acting strangely. I don’t know quite what was going on. One way or another, I think there were two sexually confused people down there in the water.
Other than watching the lesbian bikini show I read my book, did some vocabulary on my handheld computer, and enjoyed the awesome weather. Finally, once the heat was too much I headed back to the train station, and took the train to Maiko park, and then lounged around some more on the grass in the shade and took in views of the Akashi bridge. After about an hour of that, I was finally ready to head home.
I got back, took a cold shower, and then set about doing a little bit of organizing. Luckily, Kuniko got home early, so we were able to have a simple healthy dinner of tofu, stir fried sprouts and mushrooms, and a couple of nikuman.
We got a new game for the Nintendo DS, Super Mario Brothers, and so Kuniko is playing away right now. She’s only got a couple hours to relax this weekend, so I’m staying out of her way and letting her chill out.
Tomorrow is Monday, and it’s back to a long schedule. I’ve got a lecture in Japanese to a chemistry class, and I’m not sure how that is going to work out. It should be very interesting whether it turns out to be a success or a train wreck.
