A weekend in Hamamatsu

Where: Hamamatsu (to visit the wonderful, super teacher, Becky)
When: April 8 & 9, 2007
Info: It didn't rain this weekend! And for the first time I got to see the beach in the daylight! Good company, good food, adventures on the beach and in a cave, zombie movie watching and Indian food = perfect weekend getaway

Warning: I was so excited to take pictures of the beach that I might have gotten a bit carried away with the digital macro and gone a bit arty. Oh, and it was kind of overcast so I decided to go black and white for some of it...



Becky had suggested we have a picnic on the beach so we picked up sushi and stuff at the department store and hopped on the bus to the beach. When we opened our lunches we found that it was quite windy...actually REALLY windy...yummy gritty sushi...


We packed up after a bit and walked quite a distance down the beach, just chatting, watching the parasurfer/boarder and me trailing behind taking pictures of things I found in the sand...


Do I really have that many freckles?
(Elspeth: sobakasu! And hey, I just realized as I am writing this that I no longer look like a kokeshi doll with freckles)


Look out! Here's comes the series of photos of what I found on the beach that day...let's call it 'Beach Stuff'...










Okay..enough with the arty photos, Laura...seriously. So we emerged from the beach, sandy but happy and headed back to the city to do some shopping. About an hour later I had new glasses (so cheap and done in 15 minutes)!

That night we met up with Becky's co-worker, Yuu and went for Indian food. Butter chicken, aloo-gobi, curry, mountains of naan and delicious chai were consumed. Back at Becky's spacious apartment we watched a really bad Johnny Depp movie (I don't even remember it's name) and then finished they night by introducing Elspeth to the world of zombie movies (we eased her in with Dawn of the Dead).


The next morning, after a relaxing breakfast of french toast and sashimi (I love how Japanese you are Becky!) we got on another bus and made our way to Ryugashi-do (the dragon cave).


I love how Japan loves the touristy 'stick your head in the hole' photo opportunities. I can't pass one by without taking a picture and this one made my day!


The helmets totally rock.

Inside the cave:

The picture of the alligator rock reminded me of one of my favourite kids books, "Bill and Peet". If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up, find it and read it...you'll laugh your head off.





When Yuu recommended Ryugashi-do to us, she didn't really mention the cave but she did remember the wonderful ice cream sold at the entrance. We couldn't go all that way and not try it...

It was delicious...home-made. I wasn't brave enough to try the wasabi flavour (the ice cream was kind of expensive) but the Japanese black sugar kind was de-lish!

We were sitting outside, minding our own business (wondering how one woman could walk through the cave in stillettos) when all of a sudden, the plant dragon started breathing steam and it's eyes lit up! How exciting...






Thanks Becky, for having us! I had a blast!