Stormy Beaches

Beaches

On the second day of my walk eastward along the Japan Sea coast was blustery with overcast skies as a typhoon had passed by the day before. Between Asari and Kuromatsu a section of the sea was relatively calm and a sole paddleboarder was out enjoying herself.

Once when I showed some Japanese friends some photos of beaches in Cornwall they wanted to know where the trash was. Here in Japan I often hear that all the trash on Japanese beaches has come from Korea. Its true that the current does flow in that direction and certainly some of the detritus is not Japanese, but the majority of it seems to be from commercial fishing. Every time we have heavy rains and floods the rivers fill with plastic from the riverbanks and makes its way to the sea.

Oshima, meaning Big Island, is just offshore. Uninhabited except by a kami. The shrine at Kuromatsu has no honden, the sanctuary normally found at the rear of a shrine and where the kami resides when it is present. The honden is on the island entailing a wonderful summer matsuri with boats going out to the island to bring the kami to shore.

The second line of wind generators is found on this next stretch of beach. The mountains behind are the edge of the mountains of Iwami Ginzan.