Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Beach Season

Beach Season "officially" begins on July 1 and goes through the end of August.  It is a true season in Japan - the beach shacks go up and people come out in droves.

If you happen to be part of the "pastey-white-gaijin" crowd, Beach Season begins the moment you pull off the wool socks and your tuque!

Last Saturday, the woolens were put away and sand buckets were packed.  William and Pierce joined us at Miura Beach for some digging


and kite flying.  Dwayne brought the kite to the boys (pre-PCS closet cleaning).  Stefan could make the beetle's pincers "pinch"!


One of the only other beach-goers that was NOT fishing was also of the pale-skin-gaijin crowd.  He and his daughter walked by.  He stopped, gawked at the bustle of the boys and asked, in disbelief, "Do you really have FIVE BOYS?!?"  I really should have told him, "No.  I have six..."  But, I only claimed my three and that the other two were friends.  We added Matthew to the mix later that night.  As Eric put it - it was only a 20% increase!

It was the first time in a VERY long time that Eric and I just SAT AROUND!  We even played some frisbee.  And THAT is why we had five boys at the beach - they entertain each other!  When they aren't eating, that is...


A security guard came and told us... something.

We had to enlist the help of an interpreter.  Dougie told us that we needed to leave by 5 because they were bringing cars down to setup for the Yabusame.  That explained the horses!


I think we came here on the same weekend three years ago.  When we were here TDY, we came to this particular beach and saw the horses running then to.  Fast forward three years and its the same thing...



We had a great day that was turned into a great night with FIVE BOYS lined up on our living room floor (Ian was put in his own bed...).  We watched The Love Bug, ate popcorn and prayed a silent prayer (PLEA, really) that the five boys would be exhausted and just fall asleep.

20%...  Matthew, our 20% addition, was the 20% that fell asleep...  40% coughed (the Anthony boys) and the other two quietly wiggled.  And schemed... I lurked.  Stefan ran into me as he rounded a dark corner.  He started to cry...

Well, sheesh!  If I couldn't have guessed he was up to something rotten before...  He drew the short straw and was going to try the "sleepers-hand-in-warm-water-so-they-wet-the-bed" trick.  He did not want Matthew to wet the bed, so his plan was to wake Matthew up.

Both he and Dougie got sent up to their beds under the guise that they were coughing too much (they were - no joke) and needed sleep (they did!).  I reminded Stefan how much pranks like that violate someone's trust.  And can ruin friendships.  Stefan continued to cry and actually thanked me for catching him!  Priceless!  I sure hope he maintains this sentiment through the years!

I went stalking downstairs again.  And ran into Pierce.  Scared him!  He told me he was going to the bathroom...

And was putting a bowl away...

ha HA ha HA ha!  Rats!  Foiled again!!!

Matthew was the first to fall asleep, the last to wake up (I was envious!)...  No one was up before 6 - so it was really like sleeping in!