Interestingly, in Japan it can be hard to tell
that you are in the midst of a holiday, mostly because everything stays open. You’d
be crazy not to keep your boutique or bakery open on the one day where people
have the time to get out and spend their money. Last week was what is
known in Japan as Golden week. It’s almost an entire week of national holidays
strung together. If you play your cards right and take a little time off, then
you are looking at a nice 9-day long holiday. We packed up the car with our
little 2-man tent, surfboards, and baby paraphernalia and headed south to the
beach town of Aoshima to see what kind of waves there were to be had.
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| Hobby Land |
On our drive south, we noticed the various unfamiliar license
plates. Lots of people from everywhere were traveling down our packed, 1-lane
poor excuse for a highway. A lot of them were surfers with boards strapped to
the roof of their cars. Surfers also can’t seem to resist a good board-shop
bumper sticker or rearview window decal, so they were easy to spot. Along the
way we stopped at one of Matt’s usual surf spots. A parking lot full of
squatting surfers is an interesting site to see. People bring their scraggly
longhaired kids, who when they aren’t surfing too, are weaving through the
parked cars on their skateboards. They assemble their camp stoves and they
create spaces to hang their drying wet suits. The entire length of the coast
was packed with every kind of wave rider; long boarders, boogie boarders, wind
surfers, short boarders. This assembly of like minded-hobbyists seemed to go
beyond ocean enthusiasts. Out on the open road there were packs of bikers
straddling their shiny Harley’s in seemingly brand new leather chaps. There were
roadsters too, looking slick in restored vintage convertibles, sporting bizarre
haircuts and sleeve length tattoos. We spent two days down south enjoying the
sun, watching Matt catch his waves, introducing Noah to the concept of a tent
and driving right to southern tip of Kyushu to see the wild horses of Cape Toi.
After a couple nights in a tent too small for a family of three, we trucked it
back home for a night of proper rest. With one day left in our precious Golden
Week, we decided to take up an invitation to go rock climbing with a student of
Matt’s. Upon arriving at the rock faces, of which there were a good variety, I
was surprised to see the number of climbers scurrying up the dangerous cliffs
and facades. I asked them how often they climb, in which they said just about
every week at an indoor climbing gym. The boy professed that his main hobby of
choice was climbing, even though he also liked baseball. With a surf-addicted
husband and little boy who is already climbing the walls of our apartment, I
suppose it’s inevitable, right?
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