Entries this day: beach!

beach!

9:56am JST Wednesday 23 September 2009 (day 14427)

Went to the beach yesterday (Tuesday 22nd September) around 4:30 or 5pm, and basically played a game with the waves up by the small wall that makes one side of a small river outlet into the ocean.

Ah, before I got to the river outlet, I found a rather large log that had been washed ashore. I stood on it, attempting to keep my balance while waves occassionally attempted to loft the log higher up on the beach. I won the game, growing tired of playing before I was dislogged.

Went and sat on the wall, impressed to see that a recent storm had filled the outlet completely, raising the sand level about 2 meters or so.

I sat on the wall facing outside the outlet, watching for neat shells and trying to detect changes in the rocks. Or actually trying to identify any of the all-look-the-same rocks between waves. Finally grabbed about 4 big rocks and put them all in a line to let them race as the waves pushed them around. Eventually, I had a piece of heavy styrofoam, a dense rubber ball, and a slab of cinderblock all racing each other. One big wave came and they all cruised up the shore nearly to the same point! I was shocked and thrilled, especially considering their very different densities. Wow!

At one point soon after I sat down, I looked up and saw that the log had moved a good bit. I couldn't really detect motion up the shore, but it had rotated about 15 degrees around an axis normal to the beach. Wow!

At a later point, the ball escaped the shore and was taken by the sea. Later, I thought I saw it (maybe I did!) down the shore past the log a ways, so I ran down to recover it. It was just past the log, so I ran past that, but then couldn't find what I thought was the ball. Had the sea claimed it again? Teasing me? Hmmph!

To make my trip worthwhile, I started push-rolling the log into the wat.., aw man this thing is heavy! With much effort, I was finally able to get it about 1.5 rotations closer to the water, but by that point I was basically evenly matched with the ocean pushing it back toward me. The log was quite heavy; I could see I wouldn't safely win this contest, especially without getting soaked, so I headed back to the wall.

(( Shipes now I can't think cause the guy for whom I gave up my seat re-gave it up to me because I squatted down to keep writing. So now I'm sitting again but my train of thought has been swept away by the sea of somethings. ))

Um, amazingly, the ball came back after a bit, and I was well-happy for that. Had I seen it beyond the log? How had it come back this direction? Some mysteries are mysterious for a reason.

There was a guy fishing on the end of the wall (maybe not fishing; he never seemed to reel anything in. Actually I've never seen any of the shore fishermen reel anything in) and when he left, I wandered out there after meditating for a bit, counting down each time I finished a breath. I made it from 33 to 0, and then from 33 to about 20 or so before my mind was like, "that's it I'm taking over," and took over.

Went out to the end of the wall and was amazed at the flatness of the water. Waves were like just a foot tall usually. I jokingly summarized my entire hour or two of funtime like a scientific expedition: "summary: high tide, low waves," and started walking back well after sundown: 6:30pm.

WTF? C'mon Japan, use daylight savings time!

Walking back, whistling a happy song and saying thank you to the beach and thank you to the water, I felt something sharp jab into the side of my ankle. Eeep! I gently worked it out: a long sharp wire hook/needle/thing with no place to attach a fishing line. I couldn't see well enough to tell its color, but its length felt pretty rounded and smooth and its ends looked pretty sharp, especially the end that emerged from my ankle, but how could it be useful for fishing if it couldn't hold a fishing line? Maybe it used to form a ring or something. Anyway, now it graces the bottom of the metal recycling bin; I hope the workers have their eyes open or gloves on.

After pulling the wire outta my foot, I did a little reiki energy request for good health and kept on down the beach to the T-bar, where I wanted to try rock hopping in the quite dim light. I slightly mis-stepped once and then slightly stubbed my toe a second later, so I said thank you and turned around to head back.

Note to self: don't rock hop after dark.