Umibe wa doku deska?

Since my parents never took us on vacation to any place but Colorado, I came to Japan without ever have seen the ocean. Nagahama is in central Japan, just 38km from the Northern Coast. I took the Special Rapid Train about 45 minutes to Tsuruga. There, I took a bus for the first time. It was kind of abunai (not safe: one of the only Japanese words I know). The bus dropped me off at a road surrounded by forest & a baseball field across the street. The bus driver pointed where to go & drove off. By the way, all the buses here are stick shift, which is pretty fun.




This is the forest I had to walk through in order to reach the Sea of Japan. To be honest, I was a little more impressed with the forest, than the sea, since it really was a bay of sorts & the waves were about as big as the tsunami that hit last week.
This is proof that I have seen the ocean, however unimpressive.








After I walked around on the beach & took pictures of families I did not know, I walked back down the road to some trail-heads I had passed on my way to the umibe, or seaside. The trail was squooshy & therefore quite satisfying.






After a while (about 15 minutes), I noticed something in the distance, a structure & I thought maybe there was a temple ahead & got kind of excited. As I neared the mysterious structure, I realized it was a conbini, or convenience store: the light at the end of the tunnel. The trail ended at a busy road. It was weird.

This is a JAPANESE-STYLE NO SMOKING PSA poster popular all over Japan. I considered stealing this because it's so great, but I was surrounded by Japanese people & did not want to be the stereotypical disrespectful gai jin, so I left it there for everyone to enjoy. Lame.