kaihin makuhari park

first of all: I now have hot water and have had two nice long hot showers.

but on to the adventures.

today was so beautiful. clear and just a little warmer than yesterday. it was so nice that I went back to chiba/kaihin makuhari to my school to get my old ratty tennis shoes that I forgot in my hurry to meet my students for drinks last night. for reasons that are beyond all logical reason, I never really explored or wandered around the area of my school before. on work days I was always too worried about my classes or my schedule and on weekends I never wanted to take an hour to get there. but it’s actually a really neat place. I’d heard about the outlet stores, which were swarmed with rabid shoppers. according to my students, rather than get a lot of Christmas presents most young adults just get a bunch of money from relatives and parents for New Years. They seemed intent to spend it all today. you know, while the sunshine lasted.

there’s also a nice big park, tucked between skyscrapers and filled with kids trying to fly kites, that leads down to the beach. there’s even sand on the beach. something the Japanese didn’t pave! it was really nice. there’s a big Japanese garden that was closed but, peaking through the cracks in the fence, it looks like the type of place I’ll definitely have to come back to.

to think that I worked just a few minutes away from all this and somehow didn’t look before! I’m so dumb sometimes. I find it too easy to find an awesome place and just go back, over and over again, rather than find new places. it’s a tendency that I fight already and have to keep fighting harder.