One Awesome Weekend

I get an e-mail a few days ago from a friend telling me that there would be one big beach party happening in Yotsukura, Iwaki. Not knowing where that was at the time, and since said friend lived in Sendai, I assumed that it would be somewhere close by. I would be dead wrong when I told my roomies about it when I asked if they'd be interested in going. Kuni, specifically told me to check a map... I did. Turns out it is *150* km away from Sendai... and that it'd be happening on a Saturday, the day I have lab meetings that typically runs until 4 pm.

Sendai-->Yotsukura = 150 km

I nerfed the idea on the Friday evening thinking that it would be one hell of a ride out. The next day, during the lab meeting I decided "what the hell! A 3000 people beach party with 30 DJ's etc etc doesn't happen all the time now does it?" So as soon as the meeting was over, I scrambled home to drop off all my stuff and called Kuni to borrow his motorbike touring map book. After I told him what for, he proptly replied "are you freaking crazy?" and I told him "shouldn't you know that by now??" And then I was off... I didn't bring anything, except for my wallet, iPod and cell phone.

On the way to the beach party there were 2 things that I knew, the name of the beach and that I wouldn't have a place to sleep that night. Why? Because my scooter has a range of 70 km on a full tank of gas but all the gas stations would be closed past midnight-- I'd be sleeping on the beach tonight and that's exactly what I did.

I scootered without end for 4 hours to make it into Iwaki by night fall. The sun had set while I was scootering and the bugs came out-- I turned into a human bug screen running through the night at 60 km/h. I had to wipe my face a few times after a few good splats!

I arrived at the beach to the smell of BBQ smoke, flashing lights, lots of music and everyone in beach gear. I'm just going to say that I'm really sorry for you guys that I didn't bring a camera with me (come visit me next year in August instead)!!

There was a make shift half-pipe for skate boarders, a motor-bike stunt show, a row of tents with food and DJ's in everyone of them playing all sorts of mixed music. 1 big stage for live DJ performances, a Reggae booth for people to chill out and a couple of fire-dancers hanging out for the evening. There was even 2 beach volley-ball nets setup and a bikini contest, which I missed (unfortunately oh well, life goes on).

So what did I do? I milled about, bought food and drinks and took in the sights for a good hour. I came alone and the friend I was supposed to meet never returned calls or my e-mail (from the cell)-- so it would be up to me to have some fun.

The volleyball nets were open late at night to anyone; they finished a tournament so I hopped into a game over there and made friends with a bunch of JETs (English teachers) from around the world based in Ibaraki and with some of the Japanese people hanging out. Was great fun.

By late evening I crashed on the beach looked into the sky and caught a few shooting stars... until clouds... clouds of smoke from fireworks, that is, cover the sky at about midnight. I hung out with the international crew, went out for a midnight jog just for the hell of it chatting with a new friend and then crashed on the beach by 3 am. I would wake up (not that I really slept) by 4:30 ish to the rising sun... which unfortunately was obscured by the clouds and left at 5 am for Sendai by scooter because I had an appointment at 10 am!

I got a call on the beach, from a friend of mine. I knew that I'd be going to a beach BBQ the next day and was just waiting for the details on when... I got that call to learn that they'd be leaving in the morning to the beach to BBQ in the afternoon. WHAT? All my BBQs usually happened at night... but these people would be leaving at 10 am. Man, oh man. I'd be on a tight schedule.

I agreed that I'd make the BBQ. I got home by 8:30, showered and slept for 30 minutes before I was up again to change into a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt, then I'd leave home running to the subway station with sand still in my shoes from the last beach.

I arrived to meet up with Mari and a guy named Motomu (works at the local TV station) and his director boss (Kame). Who knows, I might be on Sendai TV one day, oh wait, I already was for an inpromptu interview nearly 5 months ago. There were 7 that were supposed to make it out, 3 bailed because they wre hung over from a party the last night. Turns out that I was the man of the day because I came scootering out of Iwaki on 2.5 hours of sleep to make it to their BBQ. A little hard effort really does pay off!

I didn't even bring a pair of swim trunks to the beach... didn't even think that far because I wasn't entirely there in my head at the time. But I went swimming anyways, setup the fire and gilled some meat on the beach. It was good. I got home at about 8 pm, fell asleep by 9 and woke up by 8 am. Slept 11 hours straight, but it was the best kind of sleep. The kind of sleep you get when you went all out, drift off exhaused and wake up the next morning satisfied with everything you did. I want more of those kind of days!