Wandering Wonderings: Sushi in our stomachs and sand between our toes

The heat of the Japanese summer has finally gotten to me and I decided I wanted to swim in something besides my own sweat. I never thought I'd go to the beach in Japan. I mean, Australia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world but I barely ever go to the beach back home. But I made it my mission this weekend.

So Nat and I met up in the city and I helped her get her phone. She was glad to finally get it. She's never gone so long without a phone before.

Then I decided that since I hadn't had sushi since arriving in Japan (sacriledge, I know) we simply had to find a sushi place. We managed to find a Keitan sushi which is a sushi-go-round like the sushi trains back home. THey aren't actually as common over here as you'd expect. But it was really nice. The plates started from $1.50 and went up to $10. You could pick up plates from the train or you could order it fresh. Nat and I had some tofu bags and ordered some hand rolls fresh. Man, it was so fresh and yummy. The seaweed was crispy and the rice was just perfect. Yum yum. We didn't spend much at all there. It only cost $7.50 for the both of us. But I can see how you can really rack up quite a bill at those places. It would have been interesting to see what was on the $10 plates but they didn't have any out while we were there.

Then we headed on down to Utsumi beach which is about an hour out of the city by train. We got there around 5.30pm which was perfect timing because the day had cooled down enough that we weren't scorching and the beach was pretty deserted. I'd heard that it was a really popular beach so I was expecting it to be packed. It was absolutely beautiful. I dove right into the water and it was warm... Ahhhh the glory. So we swam around in the gorgeous water and watched the sunset. At one point the as the sun let out it's final burst of light the clouds above us opened up and we had a glorious summer shower. It was so serene to watch the droplets hit the water. Then a rainbow came up. Because it's in a bay the waves were so tame. I'm so used to being battered by the waves at the beach at home. The ones over here barely gave us lazy nudges.