Off to the beach we go....

Baa-chan and Jii-chan only live about 10 minutes drive from the beach but this is the first time we have been since the tsunami (I am not a beach persona at the best of times!) but Ebi-kun was really excited to go. We got there early and couldn't wait to jump in.

Ebi-kun's camera is waterproof which meant I got to play with it in the sea - this I love this shot, it looks like something out of Gulliver's Kingdom.

And of course there was sand castle building to be done. This year we all have rash guards too, which was a god send for me since I burn easily and get sun stroke, it meant I could spend more than 5 minutes in the sea and not come out looking like a lobster.

We hired an inflatable boat but it had no oars so we ended up trading it in for a couple of rubber rings instead. The water was fairly clear but the beach was pretty grotty, cigarette butts and rubbish everywhere, quite surprising since the Japanese are usually so efficient at taking everything home with them.

Here he is, before the jellyfish stings! The first one he screamed to high heaven, we didn't know what was wrong so daddy picked him up and ran up the beach with him. Although it hurt it didn't leave much of a mark and after 10 minutes or so he was back in the water. The second time though, he got stung good and proper, screamed for a long time and refused to go back. One of the neighbouring beach goers gave us some ointment to put on it. It did offer to wee on it but Ebi-kun said I couldn't because he had seen a TV program and some jellyfish stings are made worse if you pee on them - well that was his excuse and he was sticking to it.

He did venture in again but wouldn't swim, insisted in staying in the ring. Daddy got stung too but his stings turned quite nasty and he had to buy some special cream for it.

We left at lunch time, half a day was more than enough for me! Plus it was getting far too hot, this winder babe doesn't fair well in the summer.