Flying south for the weekend

There's a little mathematical equation that is used among HSM-51 pilots to describe their time here in Japan. It goes like this:

There are 52 weekends in a year. The pilot is likely to be on the boat for about 60% of those weekends. Of the leftover free time, half of it will be dedicated to SDO or squadron events. That leaves the pilot with about 10 weekends during the year to actually see Japan.

So when I (Kylee) managed to squeeze my way out of working for Ichiban (spouses store) on a Saturday, Stephen and I jumped at the chance to travel down the Izu Peninsula. Our destination: Shimoda.

Shimoda is only a 3 hour train ride from Yamato, so we packed our bags and headed out the door at 7am on that gloriously free Saturday morning. We managed to take a wrong train at some point but got right back on track eventually. That's quite a common occurrence when there's about a thousand different train lines going all over the Kanto plain. Once in Shimoda, we walked around the "downtown" area to get acquainted with our location before catching the bus to a popular surfing area called Shirahama beach where we climbed on the rocks, relaxed with a good book, and just enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. I use the work "peaceful" because we were basically the only people on the beach. And of course it was cloudy and cold (our luck). Coming from California, I was surprised to see an empty beach on the first weekend of June but then Stephen quickly pointed out that when you're on an island beaches are dime a dozen. Not such a prime location as it is in California. Also, the Japanese don't like to be tan so they tend to avoid the sun, i.e. beaches. Which made for a very romantic and private getaway for us.

We stayed in a traditional Japanese hotel complete with tatami floors, yukatas to wear (like robes), and a tea set. Our room had a balcony which looked over our "private" beach. When getting ready for bed we had to pull out the mattress, pillows, and sheets from the closet and did our best to make a bed the way we thought it should go. After some guessing and playing around we eventually made a comfortable japanese style bed on the floor. A very cultural experience indeed!

During the evening, we strolled down Perry Road, named for Commodore Perry who catalyzed trade between Japan and the U.S. in 1854 (also a Naval Academy alum). Represent! Perry Road is full of little restaurants and shops that look like they would get good business during their open season but that doesn't begin until July so we sort of had the whole town to ourselves. It was actually a bit reminiscent of our time on Catalina Island.

The following day we walked through the park overlooking the Pacific ocean which was full of blooming hydrangeas. There were flowers bigger than my head! It was the perfect time to visit.

This small weekend away showed me how I need to be more meticulous about keeping my weekends free for when Stephen is home and how exactly to plan those weekends so we don't end up 3 years from now regretting not having traveled.

More photos available at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100583130533651.1073741827.12004504&type=1&l=b6a3001351