So even though we didn’t go to Okinawa, the typhoon still had an affect on our trip here in Onjuku. The change in water temperature from the typhoon created some very large and choppy waves so we weren’t able to continue our surf lessons yesterday. To make the most of the situation we just hung out on the beach which was a 3 min walk from the guest house and Eugene let us use his boogie boards which was also fun.

This morning the waves weren’t as crazy so we were able to go out on the surfboards. After an hour though the waves started getting pretty big and we were thrashed around quite a bit to the point where it wasn’t very fun anymore.

We were super glad to have Jessica with us during our time in Onjuku, she learned a bit of Japanese on her own over the years and was able to help with ordering food. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before in the blog but it’s a little stressful when you can’t read the menu or ask for things in Japanese.

This is super random but Eugene warned Kimberly not to let her bikini dry outside because someone will come and steal the bottoms and sell them either online or in a vending machine for $40. He said there’s old 50ish year old business men that will approach girls in school uniforms and offer to buy their used underwear for around $60. Japanese people are weird

He also told us some interesting ghost stories too. Since we’re heading to Hiroshima he said that people believe that the hotels are haunted there by the ghosts of the people that died in the war. Another story was that since this week is sort of a homecoming week for people to visit their family gravesites, people don’t go into the water because they believe that the people that were lost at sea will pull you in. He said that people who have taken pictures in the water have seen hands reaching out of the ocean later on in the picures.

Tomorrow we head to a town near Hiroshima called Onomichi. It’ll be a 6 hr train trip and we’ll be there for 2 nights and then we head back to Tokyo to wrap up the trip. Can’t believe we have less than a week to go before we head home.