Shirahama

Hee, HAW! Nothing like a day at the beach with a few million very close friends (only a few centimeters away). Shirahama is a quite famous -- and therefore quite popular -- hot spring resort in Wakayama Prefecture, about 90 km south of Yoko's parents' home. Late in July, Yoko had a 'store check' job in a city just north of Shirahama, so we drove down to the in-laws the day before. The next day, after the job was finished, I drove down the coast with the kids, picked up Yoko, and a few minutes later, we were in Shirahama. It isn't Lanikai or even Waikiki, but the water is clean and the sand is soft and comfortable, although, as you can see in the photo above, both water and sand are generally at maximum capacity.

We stayed at a resort hotel on top of the mountain, just meters from Adventure World Safari, a huge amusement complex with marine animal show, wild animal 'safari' park, and rides and games. Kind of a combination zoo, Disneyland and MarineWorld. Our room overlooked the massive complex.

We've done the Adventure World Safari bit a couple of times in the past, so we gave it a miss this time in favor of the beach scene. Steve dropped the gang off at the beach, then went in search of parking. Alas, in the process of getting turned around, he ended up participating in one of Shirahama's more infamous alternative activities: the traffic jam. It took him over an hour to get clear of it. But on the way back to the in-laws that afternoon, we passed a traffic jam heading south to Shirahama that must have been 10 km long. Had we delayed our departure by another hour, we would have been sitting in a similar jam going north. In other words, just the usual weekend Shirahama Shuffle. I've played it many, many times in the past.