Post 'Final Defense' Wind Down....

To celebrate the passing of the 'Final Defense' on friday last week we planned a lovely (Greg-funded *THANK YOU GREG*) trip to the beach, so that 1. we could both relax, and 2. i could finally get to use the body board that I bought in Malaysia (dammit its been too long since I've had a holiday)

We ended up getting the Odoriko Minami-Izu free kippu* [踊り子・南伊豆・フリー切符] which, at 11400yen each turned out cheaper than buying our return tickets with the student discount.

We got to Izukyu Shimoda [伊豆急下田] just in time for lunch. MMmmmmmmm unagi, yumyum. while Greg had sanma [さんま](i have no idea what fish it is in English) and what looked like an enormous cockle which aso appeared to be a speciality of the region.

Then took the hotel shuttle bus to the hotel to drop our bags then BEACH TIME!

Look! Palm trees!

The sea was a bit nippy, but a nice escape from the ridicuously hot sun...we eventually wondered back to the hotel as the sun started to set and had a pleasently surprising dinner at the hotel restaurant. The desserts sounded a bit strange (pineapple canole with rosmary sorbet) but they were absolutely fantastic. The pineapple canole turned out to be some rosmary sorbet wrapped in a thin layer of pineapple flesh, lying beside tubes of meringue and some more sorbet in a heap on top.

The next day was spent taking a little wander around the coast line and playing with hermit crabs (there were millions).

*the Odoriko Minami-Izu free kippu is valid for 3 days valid on the JR Odoriko limited express which takes 2hrs 40mins from Tokyo. more info here

[N.B. all photos are property of Greg, because it was his camera and he's also much better at taking photos than me]