Southern Beach in Chigasaki

Who likes the beach?  Well, for my 500th blog post, let’s celebrate with a visit to Chigasaki’s very famous and popular beach, Southern Beach!

This beach is famous for the Southern All Stars, Keisuke Kuwata’s very popular band. I didn’t go there for the music, though.  My family decided to visit the beach on Friday to give our daughter her first experience of feeling the sand beneath her feet and getting her feet wet in the ocean.  It was a great idea, but it didn’t go according to plan.  Simply put, she slept the entire time.

After arriving at the shore, we had to walk a bit along the coast to get to the beach.  I’d been down this way before 2 years ago on one of my long walks, which I have plenty of photos of, but haven’t posted yet.

Ominous-looking clouds to the west. We’re walking toward Southern Beach.

The weather didn’t look very promising.  The forecast called for cloudy skies all afternoon.  When we arrived at the beach, we noticed it wasn’t very busy.  It was the last day before summer holidays, so that wasn’t surprising. It would be packed as soon as the summer holidays start (that was today, July 20th). There were some families, though.  I saw plenty of children, as well as groups of adults enjoying the beach, sunbathing, and swimming.  Some were also bodyboarding.  Looked like fun!

My daughter sleeping at the beach. In the distance, you can see Enoshima.

Those clouds sure look dark. But we didn’t have to worry. As you can see, it wasn’t crowded.

There were a few beach houses set up on the beach, selling food, drinks, shaved ice, and access to showers and rental beach equipment.

So, those clouds didn’t bother us at all.  In fact, it became very sunny!  Thanks to the bright sun, the sand got very hot.  I decided to go down to the water and feel the cool, wet sand beneath my feet.  It felt great!  I waded a little into the water, then a big wave came up and got the bottom of my shorts wet.  I wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, so I couldn’t go swimming.  Next time, we really should take swimsuits!  The water wasn’t cold, but it was comfortably cool with the hot sun.

A wave is coming in.

We didn’t stay long.  Only 30 minutes.  It was nice to visit, but since we didn’t have anything with us to enjoy the beach, we decided to go home.  Besides, my daughter was still sleeping.  So, until next time, beach.

Ishidaya, one of the beach houses. This is the back side. It has food, drinks, shaved ice, rentals, and showers. The staff seemed pretty friendly.

Southern Beach’s famous C.