Tsukuba-Dooba-Doo

A testimate to the power of Facebook:

Koji, a man I met through the Tsukuba Hiking and Mountaineering Club, posted an event labeled "Awesome Summer Trip to Aquarium, Beautiful Beach, Isosaki Shrine in Oarai" and invited all of his friends.  Two weeks later the Walkers and Haines' hop on a Greyhound sized bus (rented specifically for this occasion) with 50+ other people and make our way to Oarai.  Amazing. 


About 75% of the 61 confirmed guests were students at Tsukuba University and in true 'Science City' fashion, almost every individual was from a different country.  As we made our way to Isosaki Shrine, our first stop, the bus microphone was passed down the bus as everyone introduced themselves.  For most, English is their 2nd language which meant it was fun to hear greetings in many different languages.  Of course, since there is really no need to learn another language in the U.S, when I was handed the mic I said


Upon arrival at the shrine we quickly determined that the beachfront 100 yards away was more appealing.  This particular part of coastline is famous for its images of the temple gate embedded in the coastal rocks (see below).

Luckily, I was able to stay relatively dry as we got back on the bus and made our way to the Aquarium.  After grabbing some "American Dogs" (a.k.a. corn dogs), we entered the Aquarium.  Quite frankly, the aquarium was all around better than the Kamagawa Sea World we visited the week before.  Although navigating around in the Aquarium is like trying to make your way through an M.C. Escher drawing, the facilities and animals were quite good.

The main highlight of the aquarium was the dolphin show.  Since Katie and I missed the dolphin show at Sea World, I was really excited to see it here.  Apparently Reagan wasn't able to contain her excitement either as the following video shows.







After a miscommunication lead to us waiting for about an hour by the bus, our group finally arrived at the sandy beaches of Oarai for swimming, beach soccer, and lounging.  Katie, Matt, and I were so excited we immediately took to swimming out to the outer buoy barrier.  This proved to be more of an event as our strokes of pure joy quickly devolved into thrusts of survival.  The buoys were much farther away than they looked.  We all took a small break from the swim, played on the buoys, and soaked in the moment.

Once we got back to the shore, I decided to throw Katie into a wave.  It was then that we noticed that there were literally hundreds of small dead fish swaying back and forth with the waves under water about 2 feet down.  UGH!  We couldn't keep from stepping on them or bumping into them as we tried desperately to get away.  In fact, the spikes on one of the fish's fins stabbed into my ankle.  Not cool.  Every time I stepped on a fish I fought back the urge to dry heave.

It wasn't long before I started questioning what lead to so many dead fish....hmmm....I suddenly felt the urge to stay out of the water, so I joined in the soccer game in the sand and Katie went to hang out with the Haines'.  She took this photo during that time. 


After a mind-clearing game of soccer, I gazed back at the water and saw the the local birds diving in on the dead fish situation.  Since I was sweaty from the game I made myself get back into the water for another swim.  Once you got past the dead fish barrier, the water was great.

I ended up having good conversations in the water with a guy from Uzbekistan whose name to me sounded an awful lot like chocolate.  He wanted people to call him "shoe" because it means "honey" in his language.  I guess he wanted all of the girls to call him honey.  The trouble is, all of the guys end up calling him honey too..?  As we stood in the waves he asked me about undertow because that day was the first time he had ever been in an ocean!  I congratulated him and asked what he thought of it.  He replied nonchalantly "It's salty."


After I broke though the dead fish barrier for the last time, Katie, Chelsae, Matt, and I enjoyed a beer on the beach.  We walked back toward the bus and found a fountain-ish station where we washed off (below).