Atami adventure

Summer in Japan is super hot, and as little Pi is slowly gaining more and more control over his head, we thought it might be nice to take Pi for a swim. The beaches around here are very below average (but then when one hails from a place called 'the Gold Coast' it is hard not to be discerning). We do have a 'beach' right out the front of our house, but it is more rock than sand, and there isn't much water before it drops down quite deep. We also love an excuse for a good road trip.


So as the day was a lovely, sunny 35 degree day, we packed up our belongings and drove to Atami. Atami is technically in Shizuoka (the next prefecture) however it only took us about 45 mins to get there. Little Pi was great and slept the whole way (after about 5 mins of crying), and with the sun gleaming off the ocean it was a beautiful drive.

Atami is a hot springs town, so there are plenty of places to stay, but we were happy with just the day trip. There is a beach there called Atami Sun Beach, which is a man made beach. 
The sand is yellow/blackish, and it is in a sheltered cove, so there are no waves. Perfect for a babies first swim.


From the drug store we bought Pi little swim nappies; they only have them from medium size and up, which is 7-10kgs. Pi is only 6.5kgs, but he managed to not 'swim' (excuse the pun) in them. We just put him in a regular long sleeve shirt, as we don't have a baby rashie yet,  a hat and slathered the sunscreen on. We really wanted him to wear his sunnies too, but they are a little bit big for him at the moment.



The sunscreen we used is Badger all natural sunscreen, which we bought off i-herb. I wanted to be careful what we were putting on his skin, and this site, safemama, had a big list of baby friendly sunscreens.


The day was, unfortunately, super windy! We had bought our sun-tent, but it was so windy only body weight could anchor it down. The lifeguards (how great that this beach had lifeguards) were telling people to watch out, as tents and parasols were flying all over the beach. Husband went for a dip, but Pi had sand all over him and in his poor little eyes so I wanted to take him away. After we packed up all our gear back into the car, we decided to try the beach one more time, but this time leaving EVERYTHING in our car and just going straight into the water.


 It was cold! I am used to much warmer oceans and even the Sea of Japan (in Niigata) was warmer. We dipped Pi in up to his belly, but I thought it must be too cold for him, so we took him out just to sit on the shore line where it was warmer for him to splash his feet in the waves.





While Pi didn't dislike the beach, I think he is way too young to grasp the concept yet. It was still a lovely day out though, and the great little guy slept for most of the way on the drive home.