Surfing in Chiba

5.5.08

Today I woke up at 5am in order to get everything ready for our two day surfing trip. Lauren had made egg salad the night before and I had set the rice cooker so the rice would be ready when we woke up at 5am. I jumped out of bed and started preparing our lunch. Lauren and I decided a few days ago that we would make sandwiches as well as our original rice balls made with egg salad in the middle. We call them tamago salada onegiri (egg salad onegiri). I tried to make them as perfectly triangle-shaped as possible. Lauren, who taught me how to make onegiri when we first arrived in Japan, was very proud. :)

After getting all the food ready, eating breakfast, and doing some last minute house cleaning were were out the door and on our way to Tokyo where we would meet up with all our friends at 7am: Ryoji, Chris, Mike, Mark, Christina, Tadao, and Fuyuki. Granted I only know about half of these people but I would soon meet the rest and get to know them. The nine of us eventually found each other and we piled into two cars. Lauren, Chris and I piled into Ryoji's big Toyota van and the rest piled into Tadao's cute, boxy Toyota station wagonish car. We were all on our way and making good time since we had to be in Ichinomiya for our surf lesson at 9:30am.

Ryoji at the wheel of his Toyota van.

Sheila and Lauren's Original Egg Salad Onegiri

Even downtown Tokyo is deserted at this early hour.

Rice Fields in Chiba

All the highways in Japan are toll roads. Here is one of the typical toll machines. There is also a Japanese version of E-ZPass but I'm not sure what they call it (maybe that's what ETC stands for).

First, we watched our teacher.

Then we practiced standing up on the board ourselves. Standing up and staying up is one of the hardest parts--in my opinion.

Sometimes you need to take a short rest.

The whole group (from left to right): Mark, Chris, Isamu (our teacher and the owner of the surf shop), Tadao, Fuyuki, Mike, Ryoji, me, Lauren, Christina.

Surfing gives you a very big appetite.

Here we are posing with our surfing instructor. He is also the owner of his own surf shop called P.D. Surf; we rented our gear from his shop. From left to right: Lauren, Mark, Isamu, and me.

P.D. Surf (P.D. stands for Positive Direction)

Our Japanese Style Hotel Room

This is the view from our hotel window. :)

For dinner we ate at this Okinawan style isakaiya called Monshichi. The food was very fresh and delicious. Lauren and I shared a salad, tempura, and some tofu that was freshly made by the restaurant.

Freshly Made Tofu

5.6.08

We had to check out of our hotel at 9am and afterward we headed back to the surf shop. Four of us wanted to try surfing today as well. It was slightly windy day but the sky was clear and bright. As the surfers set out for the ocean, Lauren, Ryoji and I took a trip to the grocery store to pick up some food for lunch. We were going to have a beach barbecue!

It was one of the first weekends of the surfing season as you can probably conclude by the number of cars lined up along the shore.

It was very relaxing.

Surfers waiting for just the right conditions.

Here is a surf board holder for your bike.

Mike is waxing up his rental board before heading out into the water. Waxing the board helps you maintain a grip while in the water--it makes it easier to stand up and stay on the board. If you look at the board Mike is no holding, you will notice a red and black logo in the center of the board. The logo consists of the letters P and D because the board was made by Isamu--the owner of the surf shop P.D. Surf and my surfing instructor (see picture above). P.D. stands for Positive Direction.

According to Mike, this is the "Surfer's Pose". From left to right: Christina, Mike, Fuyuki and Tadao.

While the four people above were out surfing, Lauren, Ryoji and I went shopping for the barbecue. We bought a lot of food to feed all nine of us.

Cutting all the food took some time. Do you like our cutting board?

Surfers

Waiting and Floating

Tadao and Mike

Ryoji came up with an ingenious idea for a barbecue. The grill consisted of a iron tray that was suspended over hot coals using two cinder blocks. We used rocks from the beach to wall up the other two sides of the fire and to keep in the heat.

Ryoji made Yaki Soba (fried wheat noodles with vegetables and a special Japanese sauce) on his grill.

Playing velcro catch with Lauren and Ryoji reminded me of my childhood.

One last goodbye before leaving Ichinomiya.