Sun Beach near Ooarai

On Tuesday, we ventured out to the beach. From our house, the beach is about 1.5 hours away. We get on the expressway because we can drive faster. Typical speed limits are about 40 - 50 km/h (25-30 mi/hr). It is frustrating to get anywhere sometimes. Based on my interpretation of the speed limits on the expressway, I think it is 100 km/hr (62 mi/hr) but most people go faster. Unfortunately, it is a toll road, but time is money. I believe it was 1750 yen ($17.50) to get home. Worth every yen...

Anyway, after we left the aquarium, we went to our hotel in Mito which was about 15 minutes away. Elin and Reiko Sensei booked it. Since it was a little out of the way, we got a good price. It was a large room with two double beds. It had a large desk and a small table/chair set. Overall, it was a really nice hotel for $105 a night. For the money, it was very clean and quite. There was a train depot next to it, but I did not hear it once during our 2-night stay.


Savannah 'patiently' waiting for the rest of the family to get ready to leave the hotel.








Denny checking out the view of Mito.













Picture of the bridge and river. Denny actually took this picture which I thought was pretty good for a four year old.








This is Savannah's picture from our hotel room on the 11th floor.








Sun Beach. We lucked out and had really nice weather. There was a lot of cloud coverage, but for us, that's a good thing. We were worried about sunburn, but we used a lot of sunscreen and didn't have much of a problem - except for a few areas that got missed. We usually use a sunscreen stick on the kids faces. It looks like a glue stick. Denny didn't rub his in so he ended up with sunburn streaks on his forehead. Also, it is hard to get the kids' eyes so they had a little around their eyes. Elin had a nice patch on her butt just under her swimsuit line. I wore a shirt and hat so I was pretty well covered.



There were umbrellas set up all over the beach. We played the foreigner card and started to set up shop under one of them. Before we were able to drop our stuff, someone was there asking for 2000 yen ($20). Elin said she didn't care what it costs, we were going to have an umbrella.







Denny and Savannah with their new inflatable tubes.










View from the beach.













Another picture of the ocean.









Denny and Elin trying to make a sandcastle. The sand would not come out of the bucket so they never did succeed, but they had fun trying.

Beach bum.

Denny playing on the beach.

Savannah on the beach.

Denny going out to sea. I think he was following the bikini in front of him...

They had restaurants along the beach. We didn't pack a lunch so we stopped in to get a little lunch. We washed Denny off at the beach about three times. Each time, he would come back and start rolling around in the sand. We washed him off and walked to the restaurants. By the time we got there, they were covered again. Magically, each restaurant has showers. 100 yen ($1) for about a minute of water. We didn't have much choice at that point.

Denny eating his ramen and onigiri (rice formed into triangles). We think there was a soy based sauce brushed on the onigiri and then grilled. I think I was the only one who liked them.

Savannah with her favorite food - Shouyuu ramen (soy based ramen). If you are a follower, you might remember her favorite restaurant is She-she ramen near the house.

Elin and I had yakisoba (fried noodles). Usually, there is meat in the ramen and yakisoba, but there wasn't any at the beach restaurant... just noodles.

Finishing up our lunch.

Denny playing in the water.

Savannah riding the waves. She did this for literally 5 hours that day.