As we set off for our weekend away I was grateful that it was only about 25C and cloudy, though that didn't stop me taking Emily on the bus for the short ride to Tamachi station, and it was still quite humid anyway so I would have got sweaty. From Shinagawa we took a shinkansen as far as Atami, which took just half an hour, then changed onto the SuperView Odoriko service bound for Shimoda, which was a further 80 minutes on. I had heard about a special feature of this particular train: a 'kids' car'. This proved to be a wonderful tip for anyone travelling with a small child. The last carriage was split level, with spacious seats atop and a special deck below fitted out with colourful cushioning.
Emily loved it in there and spent the whole time climbing and bouncing and playing with her train collection. Outside the weather deteriorated so that the views of the nearby sea were blurred with heavy rain at times.
On arrival we camped out in a cafe for some time and ate lunch. Emily was due for a poo and that affected her behaviour. She would not sit still in her seat and refused to eat any of the food we ordered, limiting herself to bran flakes and tomatoes. I had to eat her toast, which was hard work as the fluffy white bread was fully 2 inches thick. At about three pounds for only one slice I was determined not to waste it though.
Across the road was a ropeway station and we decided that as it was too wet to check in and go to the beach we would have a trip up to the tree-clad hills above the town first. The cable is 540 metres so the ride is over very quickly. We were soon donning raingear and venturing out of the upper station for a wander around the hilltop gardens there.
Despite the rain it was very pleasant to stroll there and thankfully Emily cooperated despite her odd mood, though she became obsessed about the spiders (admittedly there were an awful lot in the bushes, but they were mostly tiny). There were many of the seasonal hydrangeas up there, some in very attractive shades. We came to a shrine that was dedicated to togetherness. Like hundreds of others we wrote a brief message on a wooden heart amulet and tied it to the rack.
We returned down the ropeway
and jumped in a taxi to Pension Sakuraya, which was about 10 minutes drive from the station and up a very steep hill above Shirahama beach. We had been there once before: our first trip from Tokyo when Emily was less than 5 months old. As we were the only guests that night we were given the biggest tatami room, which had lovely views to the wooded valley opposite and down to the sea. The rain had more or less stopped so we dumped our things and wasted no time in getting down to the beach. After the heavy rain the sand was now more golden or tan than white (Shirahama means 'white beach'), but apart from the ever-present surfers we had it virtually to ourselves. Emily had been flagging but now came back to life and couldn't wait to run into the sea.
There was a very odd middle-aged man parading along the beach in a bizarre get-up: a shocking pink thong that was only a V-strap 2 inches wide that came over his shoulders and met at the crotch, where it became a poser pouch that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. To top off the look he was wearing a full-face sun visor, so he resembled a very gay welder.
Nick got his trunks on and was soon swimming. After he got out he reckoned that the warm, humid air did not chill him, so I gave in to his exhortations and changed into my swimsuit too. I ran into the sea and managed to immerse myself quickly in the cold water. My heart was really banging as I swam with all my muscles tensed against the chill. I soon relaxed and began to enjoy it though. In fact I didn't really want to get out and was having fun jumping into the big breakers as they crashed on me. Nick and Emily built a big Fuji of sand, then he buried her feet, much to her amusement. When I did emerge I found that Nick was right as I didn't get goosebumps at all. It came on to rain heavily again so we got dressed, dropped in at the handy convenience store for supplies for Emily's tea, then squidged back up the hill.
A bath had been prepared for us in the large communal bathroom and we all showered then got in. The pension is very child-friendly; there were lots of stuffed toys around the place and several bath toys to play with too. Emily would have happily stayed for longer but we had to crack on as we had asked for dinner at 6.30.
I was glad that we were the only guests as she was being really picky and soon lost interest in food and went roaming around the dining room. Nick and I quaffed the complementary homemade umeshu (plum wine) and I was doing fine until a platter of sashimi arrived in front of me. I can cope with raw fish it if it is thinly-sliced and with lashings of wasabi, but this was too thick for me. There was also a pretty shell with its contents sliced and presented for eating. My heart sank. Mr Yamamoto said that most foreigners left their shellfish so I was determined to eat some of it. It didn't have much taste, but I found the almost crunchy texture very unpleasant and stuffed down small slivers with mouthfuls of shredded daikon (white radish). Then the main course came and I wished I had mentioned that I don't eat meat as it was steak. I was given temporary reprieve when I realised that Emily was doing her overdue poo; when we returned ten minutes later Nick has eaten his and half of mine. Luckily Emily had left her sandwich so I filled up on furtive mouthfuls of that instead. We went to our room at 8pm and made up the futons, then I lay in the dark with Emily while she dropped off. Even after such a busy day she took 20 minutes to go.
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