The View from Yaizu

After a slow start to the morning the weather decided to clear up nicely. I threw my bike into the back of my car and drove to the beach in Yaizu. I put the front tire back on the bike and started heading north up the beach line towards Yaizu central. I would stop from time to time to take pictures and think about taking a short swim to Vancouver.

Yaizu is a very famous fishing community in Japan. One day I would like to sit down with Hasagawa-san and learn more about it's history. Yuzo Hasagawa is one of my students in the Ohtomi group. A former english professor, he is rich with stories about this community's history. As I neared Yaizu central I reached the port and docks where many fishing boats make berth.

A little further up you can find many people, old men and teenagers with lines in the water. Not a waste of time either, while I was riding along I saw at least 2 or 3 people reeling in a fish.

I pressed on through Yaizu. On the other side of town is more beach front. I had to turn back though. The nice seawall scenery ended at that big hill.

I headed back to the car stopping to take one more picture. This group, a family and friends I assume enjoying the sunday of their long weekend on the beach with a few beer, sunshine and view.

When people return home after travel they are quite quick to regale you in stories of how different things are in other countries. While I am not nearly as worldly as I hope to be someday, I can admit that peoples pass times and media are quite different in Japan. But when I see people just hanging out with other people, all I think is how alike the people here are to the people where I am from. These folks for example, just chillin on the beach with a few wobbly pops. I imagine that what is most important to them are much the same as whats most important to us. Family, freedom and being happy. I don't imagine there is much difference in that regard whether you live in Canada, Japan, Afghanistan or Iraq. It occurs to me that anytime I have ever listened to someone tell people how different one group of people is from another, I can always think of something that that person might have to gain from people feeling that way - power, money, oil.

Consider, if you will, a world where people respected authority, but ignored power.

The whole world, hanging out on the beach with their friends and family?