Things started going wrong quickly. Benna's slow movement through the morning and a hot, crowded, slow bus ride to the station conspired to make us miss our intended train. We caught a later train, and that was going fine until I noticed that the station names didn't match with the names on the map - we had gotten on the wrong line! We quickly got off, took a returning train, and transferred to the correct train, but it cost us an extra half an hour. (Lucky for us, the girls were so into their book they didn't notice!)
We started to see beaches after a while, and eventually we arrived at our stop. We did not really know what to expect or even which way to walk once we got off the train, but then we saw some teenagers in bikinis walking around so we figured it must be the right place. Jana asked a girl "Sumimasen, beach wa doko deska?" (Excuse me, where is the beach?) She replied "Up ahead on your left" in perfect american english! Welcome to New Joisey! We walked along the road in a light rain and signs of the beach were everywhere - boats, parking lots, stands selling inflatable tubes, etc.
So, we get to the beach and it is packed. There are many groups of people, mostly teenagers and young adults. There are jet-skis buzzing around and pleasure boats anchored just beyond the swimming area. There is a row of little food stands, restaurants and shops just above the beach. The beach area has tarps and tents set up all along, with the trees being used as anchors for the tarps. Everyone group seems to have a barbecue grill going. Beer and cigarettes are being consumed all around. Some large groups even have generators set up and music playing. Suffice it to say, it was not exactly a serene beach experience!
Fortunately, Benna and Aleeza did not care about all this. They had two questions - where do we change into our bathing suits, and, can we buy a floatie? Jana and I held up towels for the girls to change and we said no to the floatie things. (They were 6 bucks to rent for half an hour, twenty bucks to buy, for small cheapo inner tubes.) The girls started playing in the sand (which we would probably characterize as "gravel" in the states!) and the rain picked up. Nobody seemed to care! Jana and I found shelter under the trees and looked around at the scene. Jana was not happy but I reminded her it was a "cultural event" and suggested that the memory would be better than the experience. So, we endured. After an hour or so, the rain eased up and I put on my suit and played in the water with the girls. Despite the beach being trashy, the water was clear and warm, actually very nice.
We lured the girls out of the water with the prospect of a nice restaurant meal back in Kyoto. It was an ordeal getting them out and dressed but we managed to stumble back to the station with about four minutes to spare before catching the express train back home. The return trip was smooth and much faster.
We arrived at Kyoto station amid evening rush hour traffic. As we tried to leave the station, the exit gate rejected our tickets so we went to the gate attendant. The woman takes our tickets and says they are no good, we have to pay again - more than twenty dollars worth of tickets. (I had tried to buy round trip tickets from the vending machine on the way out but had inadvertently bought two sets of one-way tickets. I didn't think it mattered, but apparently the tickets specify an origin point. Lesson learned!) It took ten minutes to get this worked out, and by then the girls were already complaining of hunger. Next, we got lost for ten minutes outside the train station looking for the bus stop! At that point it started really raining again, the traffic was absolutely horrible and it took a long time to get anywhere! It was a difficult time in our lives.
We finally arrived at the area where Jana's friend had recommended a restaurant. In his words "it would be a sin to be in Kyoto and not eat there." So we reassured the girls that it would be worth it, and we started searching. Let me explain - there are few "street addresses" in Japan, most places are known by their neighborhood and nearby streets. So we had a general area and a name, but it took a while to find it. The area had a million restaurants, and this one was a very small and cute "yaki-niku" place - meat cooked on a barbecue at the table. We walked in and the waiter-guy looks at us and asks us if we speak Japanese. "Skoshi" we reply. Another waiter rushes over and asks us the same question. The other customers are eying us warily. Something is not right. We are tired and wet and hungry. The waiter does not seat us, but instead starts apologizing "so sorry, so sorry...no children." We look around and see other families there. We are totally deflated by this, it is clear that they just don't want to deal with us. I say to him in clear Japanese without any smile "I understand" and we are out of there.
Standing in the rain, kids crying, what are we to do? We start searching again, and quickly find a big open "pub" place with an appealing menu. We order pizza and wings and beer. Everyone is happy again. Then the food arrives.
I don't know what they do to the chickens here, but apparently they don't grow any meat on the wings. These were basically small bones with tasteless greasy sauce! The Pizza is supposed to be "three cheese" pizza but that doesn't mean that even one of them is tasty! I don't know what was worse, the fact that it tasted bad and was undercooked, or the fact that it was about 6 inches in diameter! And for 8 bucks, the draft beer tasted like flat budweiser. We could not get out of there fast enough.
Another bus ride and we were home. I hopped off a few stops early and hit the grocery store. I returned home with a large load of store-bought sushi. It is half-price after 7pm, so for ten bucks Jana and I had a feast. Oh yeah, and some sake!
The girls had frozen pizza and soup, finally a decent meal. Then we celebrated Benna's birthday.
Along with this cute little berry cake, she received her gift (a beautiful "yukata" robe) and many virtual hugs and kisses from her grandparents and cousins.
Another day, another adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment