July 15, 2019

Monday - Marine Day - Hot and Sunny

It seems like the weather has finally decided that summer is here. We went from cloudy and cooler weather on Sunday to hot and sunny today. It was lovely, but unfortunately, both of us are sporting a bit of a sunburn. Mine isn’t as bad as F’s since I stayed in the shade, used a big floppy hat, and wore sunscreen.  

Anyway…I finally heard from my friend on Sunday that she and her husband and nephew were going to be in Akita on a beach fishing.  Since F wanted to try the type of fishing too, we packed a bag each, loaded up the cooler boxes and left.  Of course, we made sure that K had lots of food so she wouldn’t be hungry. 

F at the beach.

We drove north, my friends drove west, and we managed to find each other.  We had told K that we’d spend the night away, but hadn’t made a hotel reservation yet. I made one on my phone for a hotel in Akita. It sounded so far away, but really it was only 30 minutes away from the beach!

Sunset

The guys went fishing and my friend and I had some lovely chats.  We did a little craftwork together too.  We set up for the meal and when the guys came in from the water’s edge, we had a feast.  We had steak and other meat, some sausages, some grilled veggies and some of my garlic toast. Dinner was great.

F and I left around 10 pm I think and drove to Akita, stopping only to get gas. We checked into our hotel which was fine. It’s a chain I’ve stayed in before. They didn’t ask for my passport, so double woot!

We made a convenience store run, which was easy as there was one just off the hotel lobby. We didn’t have to go outside! We grabbed a few things for our hotel room and went back up. We didn’t turn on the TV at all. F had some noodles and I did some craftwork.  He took a shower and I went to bed. It was only 12:30 or something, but we planned to be up at 6 the next morning to go back to the beach. 

Today, we got up at 6 am. I took a shower and packed up my stuff. We checked out and then drove to the beach. However, halfway there, F decided he needed bait, so we turned around and went back to Akita city and got some. Then, we came back to the beach but stopped in a store for a few things.  

At the beach, my friend and I stayed under a shade-canopy while the guys went fishing. My friend’s husband caught a few of the fish they were trying for, but poor F only caught fugu and didn’t keep them!

Around 12:30 or so, the guys called it quits.  We had been preparing lunch a bit, so we could all eat fairly quickly. We had a lovely lunch together and then we had to go our separate ways.

I slept most of the way back to Tsuruoka. We did stop a few times for ice cream or Baba Heya, but it was terribly hot out today, so necessary.

Baba Heya Ice...sold to us by a woman on the side of the road!

F decided that he wanted to go to the onsen before going back to the house. Although I could have taken a bath, I decided not to. I sat in the lobby and read a little, crocheted a couple of rows and checked my phone apps.

We stopped in Tsuruoka later to buy K a bento, then delivered it.  After we came back to the house we emptied the car and checked the fridge a bit. 

We went for dinner tonight. F wanted fish, but none of the places he wanted to go were open. I had suggested Pisolino earlier and he didn’t want to go, but we ended up there anyway. We had a fairly good meal. F ordered a pizza and I had pasta. We shared a bit and also had the buffet. 

On the way back to the house, we stopped into

the grocery store to get some food for tomorrow. I’m not planning to cook dinner tomorrow as it is much too hot for me to be in the kitchen.  However, we may be able to find something in the grocery store that will be easy to cook and not heat up the joint…fingers crossed anyway.

Come back later and see what I get up to on Tuesday. Until tomorrow….