Surfs up in Japan

Yesterday we left early to try and miss traffic as we headed out of the city. Well, we headed out too late. Next time, we should try closer to 6am. It seemed everyone had the same idea: Shonan Beach. On the motorway lots of scooters and motorbikes overtook us whizzing closely between edge of motorway/pavement/lorries/cars. It looked pretty risky to me! And then to top it off, all the riders had a surfboard tucked under their arms! It was only supposed to be a 35minute drive. 2 hours later we arrived just to hit the sticky heat of the day! Nonetheless, the vibe there was just sooo different from Tokyo centre. By the way, despite the fact that Shonan beach is technically in a different city, there is absolutely no break in the apartment block after apartment block that you drive past. If I hadn't known better, I would have said Shonan beach is still in Tokyo. Anyway! The vibe was different. Everyone was dressed in baggies, T-shirts, bikinis, wetsuits and carrying surfboards. I would also say that the surfers were 50% male and 50% female.
The beach itself was lovely. The sand was black (volcanic), but very fine and soft. But HOT! Had to keep my crocs on! Michael had a lovely swim and did body-surfing. The water was warm. No jellyfish. Stacks and stacks of surfers in the waves (swimmers in a demarcated area though so no board would go overhead!).
After 90 minutes, we could take it no longer. The heat, I mean. We HAD to get out of the sun. I'm especially worried about the girls, particularly Evie with her red hair and fair skin. But so far, neither of them has actually burnt at all since being here, despite being out every day. I do cream them up in factor 50 most days though.
Anyway, we had lunch at "Donald's". Had to figure out how to use their parking bay system which locks your car into the bay until you've paid/had your parking ticket discharged.
The girls were by then both due/overdue for a nap and so we settled them in the car while we drove to an island. Again - lovely!
The outing took a lot of effort and was truly exhausting. Many times I thought we should have rather just stayed at home. But in the end, I must say, it was a breath of fresh air. So nice to see something other than concrete too.

My camera is on the ship container and so I just downloaded an internet photo of Shonan Beach which is very accurate. The island in the background is the one we drove to after lunch.

And lastly, the way home was pretty fast - about 50minutes.