My family and I had a short break in Tateyama in Chiba recently. We took a trip to the beach, enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool, sang in the karaoke room, and ate a nice dinner with wine. We also had a few minor troubles and incidents, though, which I would like to relate.
It was a very cold day when we went to the beach. We had warm jumpers and jackets on to keep out the biting wind. Nevertheless, when my six year old son saw the lapping waves hitting the sand, he ran forward enthusiastically.
“Stop!” screamed my wife.
My son paid no attention, and approached the water. Suddenly a big wave washed over his feet and ankles.
“You have to take your shoes off before you enter the water!” continued my wife. “We only brought one pair of shoes.”
Too late. My son would have wet shoes for the rest of the trip.
But we finally got him to take his shoes off to play in the icy cold water. My son loves seaweed, and went looking for wakame, or other interesting things washed up on the beach. He was extremely excited when he found a broken piece of crockery – perhaps part of a bowl or teapot. He insisted on putting his piece of crockery in a bag of shells and other treasures, to take back with us to Tokyo.
The swimming pool was great fun. I enjoyed helping my son to kick himself around the pool using a float, and I got some exercise by swimming from one side of the pool to the other. Unfortunately, I thought the wall at the far side of the pool was further away that it really was and when I pushed myself forward with a powerful breaststroke, my face suddenly hit the wall. I cut my lip and tasted blood. Oh, well. Children’s swimming pools are mostly full of blood, urine and verrucas anyway.
I really enjoy karaoke, and I rarely get the chance to go. So I was looking forward to using the hotel’s karaoke room, and spent some time planning which songs I was going to sing. Since I was on holiday, I chose upbeat pop songs such as “Girls just wanna have fun” by Cindy Lauper. As we got ready to leave our hotel room to head to karaoke, I bent down to put on my shoes.
Crack!
As I bent forward, my face hit a shelf which extended from the side of the genkan. I hit the side of my face pretty hard, and had a headache for about an hour afterwards.
We still went to the karaoke room and tried to enjoy singing, but I no longer felt like singing upbeat pop songs. I only had the energy to sing downbeat songs such as the Platters’ “Smoke gets in your eyes.”
The hotel’s restaurant served a Japanese style course meal, which was very nice. In previous holidays, when my son was a little younger, we always had to eat as quickly as possible, before he got bored and became difficult. But he has become much better at sitting patiently. This time we could even stay long enough to enjoy our post meal coffees.
My first trip to Tateyama has ended, and it
has left me with a few bruises and a piece of broken crockery. But I’m not crying tears of unhappiness. It’s just that when a new flame dies, smoke
gets in your eyes.
Vocabulary:
to lap – of waves, to hit the shore etc.
gently, producing gentle sounds
crockery – plates, cups, bowls etc.,
especially those made of earthenware
a float – an item used to help people swim
or stay afloat in water, shaped like a board and made of material that floats
to the surface of water
a verruca – a contagious and usually
painful wart which appears on the sole of one’s foot
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