Shirahama Beach and Fireworks in Atami

Last week I got back to Japan after visiting the US for about three weeks. I had a really good time and will do a post about that soon.

The day before flying to the US, Jonathan and I spent a day at Shirahama Beach in Shimoda. We also went there last year: A Day at Shirahama Beach in Shimoda.

We had a lot of luggage and didn't want to deal with it on the local trains, plus we were going to be spending so much time traveling the next day, so we took the shinkansen to Atami. It had been over a year since I had last taken it so it was nice.

When we arrived in Atami we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and ate second breakfast at McDonald's. It was kind of weird that it was sill early enough to eat McDonald's breakfast!

Then we took a train to Izukyu Shimoda Station and then a bus to Shirahama Beach. We made it there around noon. We bought lunch at the 7-Eleven across the street, rented an umbrella, and ate our lunch on the beach.

The water was super clear and it was fun to float around in my inner tube. Though at the end I was hit by probably the biggest wave we saw that day, lol. It was kind of scary but funny.

I went to 7-Eleven to get ice cream for both of us. I went in my bathing suit because that's what a lot of people there do. It was a weird and interesting experience. 

I got a watermelon popsicle. It had "seeds" which were little chocolate balls. The chocolate didn't really go with the watermelon flavor, but they were cute and still tasty. 

After spending a few hours at the beach, we headed back to Atami. I got a snack and then changed into my new yukata! Then we walked to the beach in Atami which is where the fireworks festival was. There were some cool signs with black lights. My yukata was so glowy! And so were my teeth... creepy...

I had been hoping that there would be some food stalls, but there weren't any. I guess it was just a fireworks show and not really a festival. So I got some sushi from a konbini. I didn't finish it all though because the wind was strong and blew sand into my food. I had eaten most of it though.

Also, not as many people were in yukata as I expected. There were still quite a few so it wasn't weird that I was in mine, but they weren't as common as at the fireworks festival in Fukuroi last year.

The fireworks were impressive and the setting was very nice. It was nice to sit on the beach, see light from the fireworks reflected in the ocean, and hear the sound echo off the buildings behind us. Though the wind was very strong and blew sand around so sometimes I had to look away from the fireworks. We had bad luck with wind this summer. Though this wind was much less cold than the wind on Mt. Fuji!

 

We couldn't get any good pictures of me in my yukata during the fireworks because it was dark, but luckily we got some as we walked back to the hotel.

It was such a fun, summery day! :)