Surfing Destination: Sea of Japan

We have made a few attempts to find waves around the Toyama area in the Sea of Japan, and for the most part it is like you would expect, flat. We have made the most of it though and had a few fun sessions in Solimar-like surf at a few beachbreaks. On the positive side, the water is warm, there are no crowds, and there is cold beer and warm food waiting for you in the beachfront dining shacks. Off to the east coast soon to try and find some better waves...

Tunnel Vision

This is one of the most perfect rivermouth setups I have ever seen, with 6-inch right tubes draining down the sand bank. All we need is a swell!

Toyama

A few photos from the around the Toyama neighborhood. Quite a difference from San Diego, or anywhere in Socal. Everywhere you look it is green, green, green. The climate here is very tropical and it feels just like Hawaii, rains every afternoon. There is a great zen garden in the back yard, and countless rice fields around the neighborhood in every direction.

More Tokyo

It would probably take 2 years to see all of Tokyo, we tried to see it in 8 hours. Below are some highlights...

The Asahi Beer headquarters building in Tokyo. Look closely and you will see that the building resembles a giant mug of beer with a foamy head. This building makes me thirsty!

Making homemade soba noodles at a restaurant in Asakusa. I love eating these noodles, and it is considered polite to slurp the noodles noisily. While eating soba with Aya and her family for lunch at this restaurant, I felt like Tom Selleck in this scene from Mr. Baseball, except my mustache isn't as big.

The busy main shopping arcade at Asakusa, where one can buy any kind of souvenir imaginable.

We looked around for a "Cafe Bart", but couldn't find one.

Entering a shrine in the middle of the Shinjuku area near our hotel. It was interesting to see how these simple shrines were located in the middle of such busy urban areas.

The prayer board at the shrine, you can buy a piece of wood and write your prayer or wish on it.

Ringing the bell.

Tokyo skyline view from the hotel room.

First official dinner in Japan, we dined on some Yakitori! Very tasty skewered chicken, you can order any chicken part you can think of, (skin, heart, wing, etc.) they all tasted great.

Nikujaga, a very tasty stew of potatoes, pork, carrot and onion.

Shibuya Station street crossing. This was in the morning, not the busiest time for this intersection, but it was still madness. I hung out of the car window to snap this photo.

Flew into Narita Airport at about 6pm and took a van into the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, in the middle of the madness, late Sunday night. Tokyo is nonstop action and does not slow down, even on a Sunday night. Kind of like the strip at las vegas, but stretching in all directions for miles and miles, but with more neon and many more karaoke bars.

View from the hotel room.

The main strip.

Pachinko! parlor.

Jet lag took its toll and I couldn't make it back to the hotel, so I snuck in a a quick catnap in the town square.

JAPAN!

Sayonara California
(Beach House, Hobsons, Pitas Pt. Solimar, Ojai)

And Konichiwa Japan!

Photo update from the past few weeks of swell. The first two below are from Beacons on a fun high tide summer evening, the last three were taken in La Jolla at one of my favorite reef breaks. I dawn patrolled 2 days in a row this week and took these photos after I got out at about 8 am. This is probably my favorite wave in sd and it packs more punch than anywhere else I have seen down here.

Summer is HERE

After a 3 week June Gloom Flat spell, we FINALLY got a decent south swell. Had a good session out here all morning, then grabbed a few pics post surf after the tide came in a little too much. Water is warming up, sun is out, south swells in the water, it is feeling like summertime. On a weather related note, it hailed yesterday, in San Diego, in June.