summer day trip!

Last Sunday we had a great day at the beach in Chigasaki. The boys spent ages in the water, played an elaborate game of "war" with little green plastic army guys in the fine volcanic-dirt brown colored sand, and then headed back into the surf with the plastic floaty things we were wise to rent. Happily occupied for an entire day, they were -- without a TV, computer or videogame screen in sight. (Sure it was spitting rain and I had to huddle under a beach umbrella and wear my towel like a burqa, but I was left alone with a magazine, so who's complaining?)

Ultimately we were forced to take shelter at one of the beach side bars, where we managed to kill another hour while Terry taught the boys how to play darts. A 5-min cab ride, two trains and 50 minutes later, we were back in Ebisu, hunching over steaming bowls of tonkotsu ramen at Ippudo.




How to get to Chigasaki: From Ebisu, take the Shonan Shinjuku line to Yokohama and transfer to the JR Tokaido line to Chigasaki. (You can also catch the Tokaido line at Shinagawa.) There's a bus that runs between Chigasaki station and the beach, but a taxi costs about the same as 4 bus fares.