Surfing in Japan
I spent this weekend surfing at a place called Rokkasho. Rokkasho is located on the Pacific coast of Japan, about 2 hours from where I live. The beach there looks much like the Oregon coast - wide open, long, sandy stretches of grey sand. It looks especially grey in the pouring rain: I bet it rained a couple of inches while we were surfing on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, we surfed an unprotected beach break. It was a royal pain getting past the whitewater - no channel and no rip. Once outside, though, it was nice: a couple of feet overhead, completely glassy, and four people out. After we tired ourselves out, we headed over to the other break (that's it with Stefan surfing in front). This one is protected by one of the Japanese government's employment schemes: they make these concrete tetrapods and throw them into the ocean, ostensibly to protect the beach. In reality, they just give people work to do.
The tetrapods do, however, protect the surf break and keep the sandbars from shifting too much. Because of this, the second spot was a very consistent, albeit smaller break. It reminded me a lot of Oluwalu on Maui.
After surfing, we headed up north to Mutsu for a JET party. We happened to stop into a surf shop, the owner of which used to live in Seattle. Turns out he knows Taro Yoshinaga, the guy who was my first year Japanese teacher. Small world, eh?!
