Bentos on the Beach

There's a lot to be said for both the Aussie and the Japanese beach experiences.

In Australia, you grab your towel, a picnic basket full of goodies, your togs and maybe a beach umbrella, unless you want to brave finding a suitable tree. If you live on the coast, you can also usually find a stretch of beach that is reasonably quiet, if not deserted.

In Japan (well, Tokyo at least), you grab your towel and your togs, head to the nearest beach (which in our case is 90 minutes away) with thousands of others and let the Japanese hospitality-conveyor-belt do the rest.

We (Martine, Al, Matt and I) arrived on Miura-Kaigan beach at the tip of the Miura Peninsula, with swimwear, towels and some snacks. We shouldn't have bothered with the snacks, as there were a slew of bento places and izakayas, providing ramen, curry and, most importantly, beer (there was also a beach-side KFC and McDonalds but we don't talk about that).

We rented a beach umbrella and beach chair, set up camp on the sand and soaked up the sun and atmosphere, for where there are thousands of people, there are thousands of characters. Including thousands of motherf@#$ing little "characters" masquerading as jellyfish. Its been a long time since I've been to a beach in Australia, but I surely do not remember these blobs of gelatinous evil ever stinging me. Yesterday, however, they were out in force. Matt and I compared stings at the end of the day, I won for biggest sting, Matt won for most stings. Little fuckers.

The thing that most struck me was the percentage of people in the 18-35 year old age group with tattoos. I'd be guessing around 5%? And we're talking huge, elaborate designs on both men and women. Its clear that the younger generation is kicking the arse out of the link between tattoos and yakuza. Such a stigma is so passe.

In keeping with the Japanese commandment of "Thou shalt not have quiet where people doth relax", the beach was a cacophony of sound - ice cream sellers were circling the beach with their little Tibetan cow-bells, music blared over a loud speaker system and three girls sitting behind us, with cigarettes and beers dangling from their mouths, treated us to some karaoke.

But after a fairly miserable and cold Summer, yesterday's 33 degree chill-out on the beach was blissful, almost sickeningly so. Although, when the crowds thinned out around 4.30 and there was time to contemplate the late afternoon sky and semi-peaceful surrounds, a loud announcement pronounced the beach was closing at 5 pm.

Huh? The day is just beginning!