Finding my path; Surfing in Kisami, Ohama Beach

Mountain life exchanged for beach life. Let's drop in and surf!

Kisami, a small town on the Izu peninsula around 200 km's south of Tokyo, became my new 'hood' for the real japanese spring. In this slow life side of Japan time stood still on my arrival. I came straight from a few days in Tokyo.. what a contrast! Here, the tourists hadn't come yet, the rice wasn't planted, the swells from the typhoons where not frequent so neither the guesthouses, nor the famers or surfers were busy. Practically everybody seemed to be enjoying the spring before summer. My japanese friends seem not really to like summer in Japan. Too hot and too busy it's said to be. With that in mind I kept on wondering what I should do if I were to stay in Japan. I could escape the heat by working in the mountains.. I could escape the heat by getting the job I applied for in Denmark... Either way, this is an extract of my japanese surfing experience that helped me on my way. Here we go!

Mark (eng) and Thomas (fra) were good buddies of me in Kisami

Lawrence, Thomas and I out for a morning surf

Mark, Megan and I exploring other beaches nearby on bike 

A work-away-experience.. where people aren't driven by money

During my last week in Shiga Kogen in March I got a "work-away"-job for a guesthouse business in Kisami. Yasu and Angela teamed up as a couple many years ago, got married and figured out a way to mix lifestyle and business. Since they're both keen of skiing they choose to run accomodation in Hakuba. Later on they expanded to this beach area for summer seasons. Now they were providing me accomodation, weekly "get-togethers" and 500 yen a day in exchange of 5 hours work 5 days a week. Their story was an inspiration to me and I wanted to check out how they run their business.
Most important though was that I wanted to learn to surf. Yasu and Angela lended me a longboard and Ohama beach served me great beginner waves almost everyday. Close to every morning I was up early and eager to go out. Luckily I had managed to get my fingers on a used 5mm patagonia wetsuit from a garage sale on my second day. My mind had changed from sleeping 10 hours a day in Minakami to waking up fully rested and fully loaded with a newborn enthusiasm for this sport. Lovely!

As mentioned earlier the area wasn't busy at all. So there wasn't really a lot of guests in the guesthouses while I was working there. Whenever there were bookings I worked in housekeeping, and when I didn't do that I worked in the garden or on their bikes. This was the first time trying to do housekeeping under strict terms. So let's just say I enjoyed working outside in the garden a lot more with a bit more free hands. Good lesson for me though about downgrading for the greater good, and I must say that I felt so lucky to be hooked up with the other guys among the staffing: Lawrence from Canada/China, Thomas from France, Mark and Megan from Great Britain. I felt we had something really good going on in our own little house full of bugs and spiders. We all got to know each other quite well and spend a lot of time cooking, fishing, baking cakes in our ricecooker, throwing freespees, biking around, drinking, making fire on the beach, watching movies, etc.. One of the reasons I wanted to try doing a work-away-job was exactly to meet people who are traveling and want to do something not for money but for the experience. And had the idea that this kind of people might be a little different, open minded and maybe even creative. In contrast to being integrated in a company which staff is based around sallery and probably a more reliable lifestyle. I think this is true to some degree. Of course it's case by case, but being among these guys made me feel pretty much down-to-earth. My own approach to the experience had to develop or adopt the situation too since I now had to start burning money and not really having an income. Out of "desperation" I asked Yasu and Angela for permission to work some evening shifts on a nearby restaurent - but they denied me this. They wanted me to commit to this experience. Felt like total powerlessness.. But commit to Yasu and Angela I did.

From my arrival to this little confrontation I went through an adaption period. This taught me to focus on figuring out what to do after working for Yasu and Angela and then enjoy my good friends, great weather and surf possibilities I already had been given. Chill out, breathe and enjoy this "nombidi"-life (japanese expressions for living slowly in the country side) in perfect climate (not too hot or humid).

Palmes, green, green and more green. Lovely change of colours!

Thomas preparing sashimi of Black Snapper caught just hours before

Mark's trying his best

Biking back and forth to Shimda is a hilly ride of around 5 km's each way

Exploration around the area!

Street shop with fresh vegetables from the local farmers sold cheaper than imported/transported in the supermarket

Sunset surfing session

Thomas and Lawrence loved to dig holes

 Challenged on the quality of my japanese experience

One day Mark asked me "what's your favourite japanese food?" - and I couln't answer. That made me realize, that I couldn't answer cause I had been running around blinded by focusing on so many other things than actually interacting with the culture. In Shiga Kougen all the names of the food had been in Japanese, and I had shown no interested to learn these names of whatever I was eating. In most cases I could taste and recognize ingredients, but that's not really enough, right? So when Mark asked me this, I sort of got something triggered. I wanted to learn this! And Mark seemed like good inspiration since he had learned a lot of japanese from a season working with japanese co-workers in Hokkaido. Too, Mark was happy to share everything he knew. My eyes were opened and I started to note a lot more things such as gestures and names of the different dishes I was served or orderes. Takoyaki, temaki sushi and aji tadaki was the first three dishes I learned. Takoyaki is grilled octapus - tako being octapus and yaki being grill -, temaki sushi is a low key sushi method where everyone attending the meal "handrolls" their own sushi bites, temaki being "hand-rolled" and sushi being sushi. Aji tadaki is chopped raw Aji (horse marcerel) in ginger, spring onion and rice. Half way through the meal it's being covered in a soup that boils the fish changing the taste a little bit. 

Street art, grafitti, tagging, vandalism and ravage is very rarely seen in Japan

Huntsman spider hunting moths for an audience :)

Random bay. Around Izu peninsula is every single bit of the coastline just indiscribably beautiful

Thomas beating a Japanese girl in this "flipping cups"-game that I didn't catch the name of

Everybody loves a gaijin with a pink turd on his head :) Mark ftw! 

Mark and Thomas pretty drunk got to make light effects for a very small reggae koncert in Shimoda

Rejection from Denmark lead to acceptance in paddling with Masashi Takeda

For three weeks I had been mailing back and forth with the company in Denmark that I applied to. Working on cases for them, interviewing and so on. Finaly I got my answer: No, they couldn't use me. Rejected. Finished. Now I was free to channel my energy into staying in Japan and making a living somehow. It felt like the right thing to do. My mindset had developed in a new and natural direction. I left deskwork for doing something I really like. It seemed odd to turn off my travels in Japan for exactly deskwork back in Denmark. Same week I got the rejection, I got back in touch with a kayak guide living not far from Kisami. Two months earlier I had sent him a mail asking for job opportunities. Now we found a date to hook up. Yasu and Angela were nice enough to adjust the schedule allowing me a day off to go paddle with Masashisan. And paddling with Masashi would soon lead to a new passion, aspiration and job.

Determination: Postponed my departure and accepted a new challenge

I postponed my flight home on the 1st of may. One day before the day my departure ticket to Denmark was set for. I changed my ticket home to 1st of october. A date picked since it's said that the summer officially is fininshed by the end of September. The SAS website (flight company) told me that my trip was prolonged from 90 days to 288 days. Big difference and a big decision but great motivation to move on and make something happen. Time to get serious! Now was the time that I accepted a new and big challenge. Masashi, owner of Surface - Kayak Guiding Company, offered me a position as kayak guide supporter in his japanese company. Requirements would be to selfstudy the language and engage in tours as training for the peak season. Summer was on it's way! Me too!