VISITING BEACHES ONE HOUR FROM TOKYO: Yuigahama & Zushi Beaches, Kamakura, Japan

VISITING BEACHES ONE HOUR FROM TOKYO: Yuigahama & Zushi Beaches, Kamakura, Japan

Are there any decent beaches an hour from Tokyo?
I love Cities. I love Beaches.

Today I ventured outside Tokyo. Took a train To Yokohama. Then another train to the coast at Kamakura. Walked down to Yuigahama Beach. Then continued around the coast to Zushi Beach.

I’ve always had an interest in Japan. In my late teens and twenties I was really into music, listening to punk, new wave and mod bands. Popular subcultures were a big thing in the 70’s and 80s and I dressed accordingly, kept in touch with my favourite groups and musicians by reading the New Musical Express and Sounds weekly music newspapers, plus The Face AND SMASH HITS magazines. Fashion styles were constantly changing.

Groups were now creating music videos which were showcased on the the MTV channel. The Face magazine would publish a lot of Japanese influences. David Bowie, my idol was big in Japan. One of my favourite new wave groups were called Japan. Be Bop Deluxe another one of my favourite groups also had a song called er you guessed it……. Japan.

So Japan was very much on my radar. But also very out of my reach as it was considered a very expensive country to visit. Unlike India which was the first south-east Asian country I visited in 1987. So I bought The Lonely Planet guide to Japan which I placed on my bookshelf and left it there gathering dust for 2 decades.

In 2007 I was living in London. I’d been working in a library for 6 years. Both my parents had recently died and I came into some inheritance. Over the past 30 years the yen has fluctuated between 120 – 260 yen to the British pound. During summer 2007 it was hovering around 240. The highest it had been against the £ for almost 10 years. So this was the time for me to go and I made plans to stop work, give up my flat and travel to Japan for the first time. I arrived on New Year’s Eve, not realising just how cold Tokyo gets during winter. I hate the cold, so this was a bit of a schoolboy error on my part. But I rented an apartment and stayed in Tokyo for 5 months at the start of 2008 before travelling to other neighbouring Asian countries.

Over the years I’ve yearned to return to experience Japan during the summer. But I can’t believe It’s taken me 16 years to go back there. Having gone to the Beijing Olympics in China in 2008, I proposed that I’d return to Japan in 2020 to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics. But covid scuppered those plans. The Olympics was put back a year to 2021, but sadly no spectators were allowed.

So here I am in 2024, back in Japan.

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