Japan: Shirahama

Shirahama is a seaside town about 2 and a half hours drive south of Sakai City (the place I’m living now). I was told before going to expect a Japanese version of Scarborough, but what I found couldn’t have been further from the truth. The original sand on Shirahama beach was swept away years ago, so they imported some from Australia to replace it, meaning that it’s one of the best beaches in the country. There’s a tonne to do and they even have pandas at the zoo!

Unfortunately I was too busy building sandcastles to take any pictures at the beach, but I found this gorgeous little harbour behind the place I had lunch.

My first stop after the beach was Adventure World – a poor man’s Universal Studios with a zoo and aquarium attached. It was almost empty – apparently despite the fact it’s been topping 30 degrees almost every day here the Japanese still don’t consider it summer.

These are the previously mentioned pandas. They had lions, tigers, elephants and everything. I even touched a zebra!

This little guy was posing for photos with his nappy on. I’m quite glad, because having a monkey crap on my head is not high on my bucket list.

The dolphin show was good. Not quite a spectacular as Discovery Cove in Florida, but still impressive. Before the show they were panning the crowd with a camera for images to put on the big screen and managed to display a picture of the back of my head for a good 20 seconds in between the happy Japanese families, much to everyone’s amusement.

Of course I couldn’t pass up the chance to beat Japanese children at go-karting.

Walking around the park had knackered me out, so I was glad of 5 minutes in a hammock out of the sun.

After leaving Adventure World I went to try my first Japanese onsen. It’s basically a hot spring where people go to relax – imagine a really big public Jacuzzi. The only strange thing was the mandatory nudity. At first I didn’t have that much of a problem with it, but after a while I realised I was basically having a hot bath with a bunch of old and soapy Japanese men, most of whom were staring in amazement at my non-Japanese genitalia. I was freaked out so I retreated to the games room where I played ping-pong (don’t worry; I did put my clothes back on for that), then headed for pizza before the long drive back to Osaka.