May 2006

So Golden Week in Japan is well golden. No really here you get a week or so off for Golden Week so Eric, my friend Brent and his son Ryoma went camping in Shimoda out on the Izu peninsula Shimoda is nice Sandy beaches and blue ocean. It is also a good place to go surfing. I hoped to get some surfing in even though I didn't bring a board or wet suit. We left Numazu around 930 am and arrived after a fairly uneventful trip. We found some people we new from Numazu and decided to pitch our tents next to theirs It was a good choice at first Billy and the others were more than helpful watching Eric and Ryoma while Brent and I set up the tents and schlepped the gear back and forth from the car. The rest of the day we drank some beer and Eric went in the water and which was freezing. I took him to the shower to warm him up at the cost of 300 yen (about $2.50) for 3 minutes and after the first 3 minutes he was just starting to get warm so we went for it again. We cooked some steaks and sausages and shared with the people around us as night time came. It was really cold that night so I put sweat shirt on Eric and I and we sat around the fire and talked to different people. Eric made himself busy with gathering firewood and picking up girls. I asked him a couple of times to get me a beer out of the cooler and because he got to use the flash light he was more than happy to comply. As the night went on a couple other people some English blokes got keen to Eric's ability to retrieving beer quickly and had him get them some too.... from our cooler. I let it slide for the most part it's a party right? Even if beer is 45 dollars a case! I informed them that Eric was giving them our beer and they were SHOCKED!! Please how low are you when you will scam a 4 year old for free beer. It was getting late so I tried to put Eric in bed but he was ready to go home?!?! only home was 2 plus hours away and I had been drinking.... He cried and called his mom and then finally after a while fell asleep. Our location protected us from the wind and rising tide but not the all night partier we had ungraciously envied to camp near us. At 7 AM the music finally stopped and about 5 minutes later Eric woke up! Errrrr We had some breakfast and played by the beach I tried to get Eric to fly the kite but he wasn't really interested in it. Sometime around noon Taro, Mari, Joe and Cholo showed up. I love Mari she is such a great help with Eric and she really likes to take care of him. Eric went into the water a bunch of times and she changed him each time and made sure he was warm. I was there to yell at him or chase him as he ran into or out of the water! He managed to soak all 3 changes of clothes in 2 hours. I was a little pissed but his clothes dried pretty quick in the warm sun. Eric played with the other kids on the beach and had fun with Ryoma and another girl who was camping near by. Later in the day I took him to hunt for crabs. I hate those kind of things so I used my knife and a bucket to catch it. As soon as it was in the bucket Eric and Ryoma were picking it up with their hands Ewww. I made them let the crab go. That was quite a ordeal but I got the crab home safely. That night we went to a cool onsen under a water fall. It was a bit cool and a long walk down to the onsen but well worth it cause there was a big water fall in the back round really cool place to just chill out. We went back and had some dinner and by the time that was all over it was time for Eric and I to hit the rack to the sounds of techno blaring out of one little boom box. At about 5 am I had enough and woke up with the mind to kill some one ...... but instead politely asked if it could be turned down and it was..... for a while. The last day Eric and Ryoma played in the water for a while in a stream near by. I had watched the 2 of them the previous day for a while so Brent watched them while I grabbed Taros wet suit and a spare board of Collins and got some surfing in. I was lucky that I got to go in for about 1 hour and had a pretty good go of it. I finished up cleaned off and got dressed and Brent and I packed our stuff. Eric started being a bit bratty cause he didn't want to leave but I had had enough and wanted to get going. We packed the car and headed out. We decide to take 414 instead of taking 135. What a mistake. Half way up the twisty turny sometimes one lane road a old man in his brand new mini-van rounded a corner in front of me and then came to a dead stop. Ya I saw him but just in time and barely bumped his van. Still there was a scratch an a little ding on his car my car had nothing wrong. Brent and I got out and Brent negotiated a sweet deal for me 25000 Yen ($ 210 +-). I can speak enough Japanese to get by but those are the kinda times when you don't want to be testing out your skill. I as soon as it was all said and done I got us out of there and home as quickly and safely as possible. I dropped Brent off at his in-laws house and Eric I headed back to Gotemba. 5 or 10 minutes from the house Eric took off his seat belt and curled up in his seat and went to sleep and stayed asleep till the next morning. When we got home I had a shower some food a beer and by 8 or so I was crashed out in bed. The next day was pretty uneventful with just a trip to the pool. Sunday we went to have lunch at Brent's house and exchange stuff that got mixed up while camping mainly kids clothes. When we were coming back from the bar to pick up my cooler I turned wrong way down a one way street. Of course there was a cop right there and of course what followed was a 7000 yen ($62.00 +-) ticket. Man I suck. Brent begged and begged for them to let me off... I was in no mood to beg. Our kids were in the car and Ryoma commented to his Dad "WOW Eric's dad is cool he gets to sit in the back of the police car!" When I heard that it made me laugh... WTF it is only a ticket. It could have been worse I am a gaijin they could have just beat me down in the street, well there was only 2 of them so they could have tried. LOL Any ways it was fun... I laughed I cried I paid and paid some more..... Shogani (it cant be helped) thats life in Japan. E./ Pictures tomorrow