Himi



We went to Himi on Saturday for a sushi and beach adventure. I was blessed with a fudgesicle (thank you Dave!) and delicious sushi. Some of the best I have had in Japan yet. There were also fish with hats that talked, a kissing tako, and a bridge show reminiscent of "its a small world" (shiver).



I nearly forgot, Dave and I had a fountain photo shoot as well!



Classy...

The beach was an something else. I have only been to the Shimao beach once last year, and it seemed a lot cleaner. This beach looked as if red tide had struck, but instead of rotting fishy carcasses, there was GOMI. Enough to make a tree-hugger wretch. It made me very sad, and I think that I will have to organize a beach cleanup. The most confusing part, though, was that there appears to have already been a beach cleanup! There were piles of trash formed upshore every 200 yards or so. It looked as if they were waiting to be burnt. Gomi still covered the beach, it didn't make any logical sense. We wondered if disgruntled pirates were throwing their gomi overboard, or perhaps a landfill accidentally leaked into the river system and shot out into the Sea of Japan. There has to be some reasonable explanation. And NO it wasn't Korean trash, as another great myth of Toyama leads us to believe.

The waves were fun, as always. I miss waves. Yeah, you heard me... I miss Florida. Not enough to come home for at least another 6 months, but I miss it. Warm weather, tropical plants, the beach within 3 blocks of my apartment, papayas, sigh... Enough of that though.

The saddest part of the day wasn't the trash. It was the monkeys. If you are not too quick on the draw, or perhaps have only read this blog once or twice, you may not be aware of the fact that I am obsessed with monkeys. Monkeys are downright adorable. They are most adorable when living in their happy, open, free, entirely liberated, natural monkey habitat. So, when you see monkeys trapped in a cage, behind fencing, standing on urine-stained concrete, and looking forlornly at you from within their dreary empty hell... you cry. I love Japan, but this shit is too much. I have seen some horrible things in my time, but there was NOTHING for these poor animals. The cage was empty. No toys, no fake foliage, no ropes, no nothing. They had each other, and their miserable little faces. The Takaoka zoo is along the same lines, and I am currently boycotting it. They at least have something to entertain their trapped animals, though.