Winter Surfing Part 3: Salt- and Fresh Water

Honestly, it's hard to believe that there are places with more rain than Oregon in the spring. At least this spring. And at least places inhabited by humans. I can't even remember if we had a day completely without rain while I was there...

For my first day of surfing the Pacific on its east side (and therefore the west coast - all a question of perspective), the weather was reasonable, the waves where - let me state it this way: 'not the nicest conditions I've ever surfed in'. (See previous blog entry)
When I was renting my equipment in the local surf shop in Cannon Beach, I was chitchatting with the guy from the shop. He told me "tomorrow will be big! I won't go today, but tomorrow I will."
Of course I know that surfers talking about waves and fishermen talking about their catch is pretty much the same (every time they tell it, it get's bigger), nevertheless I decided to trust the expertise of a local and go again the following day, which would be in the narrative of this blog - today.

If today was "rainly", than all the other days so far would be sunny by comparison. It's one of those days where you come home, go into the shower and while showering, you think 'finally, I'm in the dry'.
I used to always say, the weather doesn't matter if you surf, you'll get wet anyhow - which is true, but today I realized that there is a difference: getting soaking wet from entering the sea or already while unloading the board.

I felt like the only way to tell where the ocean ends and the rain starts was the difference of salt water versus sweet water.
By the way, the guy from the surf shop didn't show up after all. :D

When I surfed, I was the only one out; but when I was leaving I encountered a group of surfers on the parking lot, me heading in, they heading out. Always eager to learn something from others, I wanted to wait and see them surf (especially if they were locals, they should know about the best spots on the beach. If they surf today, they will surf everyday. Must be a hardcore crew.)

Unfortunately, I had to strap the board to the roof of the car directly as the car didn't have a roof rack and the rain followed the straps inside the car. Until I finished strapping the board, the inside of the car already looked like somebody had a water gun fight in there. So I didn't wait until the other surfers finally got ready and drove back to town to get rid of the surfboard.

I drove all the way back to the beach (quite a bit through the forest on tiny roads that are not only curvy in one direction (left/right) but in two (additional up/down) and made it in time to see the guys surf.

Only to find out that they - hard to believe - surfed worse than I do!

The forest there is so green, that green goes from relaxing, comforting to threatening.

Honestly, you start thinking if you don't move for a bit, vegetation will try to seize you and you will start to get all green and mossy, too.

Warming up and chillaxing at fireside

After lunch, coffee, and a bit of reading I headed out once more to the beach to see if other surfers are there. Again, tiny curvy bumpy road through the forest in the rain. And really, there were 2 female surfers who arrived more or less the same time than I did.

Hoping to finally have somebody unveil the secret channels and spots on that beach to me, I waited patiently until they got suited up, walked down to the beach, warmed up, went in.

Only to find out that they where - now really clearly exceeding "UNBELIEVABLE" -

worse than the guys who went in after I came out...

Specialty of the Northwest: Espresso huts. Every now and then, you find a hut on the side of the street that functions as a drive through for espresso and espresso drinks. Not always the barista is as nice as Jessica ;)

Leaving Japan -and- Winter Surfing Part 2: Same Ocean, Different Continent

I had left Japan a bit in a hurry. I left not so much because of fear of radioactive contamination, but because there was less and less I could do. The office was closed until further notice, I couldn't even go to the office because public transportation was party suspended due to shortages of electric power. Tokyo was still the vivid, livable city it used to be and the only shortages in food I witnessed where due to missing supplies from the area effected by the earthquake and tsunami or missing supplies that where redirected from Tokyo to that area. The hurry was not essentially necessary, but once I decided to leave I decided to leave soon. It still would have been very well managed if I wouldn't have had 2 "challenges":

1. my company notebook was still in the office - I hadn't taken it with me on the hike from Shinkawasaki to Ikebukuro after the earthquake. This had been an extremely wise decision on that day as I had to walk for over an hour until I found a cab and then spend another 7 hours in the cab to cover the overall 30km distance between the office and home. However before I leave Japan, I would have to retrieve it. 
2. the trains operated on reduced schedule, including the trains to the airport, status uncertain. Buses to the airport where suspended. Rental cars where not available because there had been an aftershock the same day. So how to get to the airport?

The first challenge was accomplished using my motorbike (which took me to the office building), some exercise (which took me to the 17th floor while elevators where not operating) and luck (that helped me finding the right buttons to open the closed door to the floor where my notebook was.

The second challenge was more a worry to me. I found out that 2 express trains should be leaving towards the airport in the morning (the flight was in the afternoon), however this information was not assured. So I planned to go to that station and by the ticket for the train today, the day before the flight. Already being in the elevator, I had the idea that maybe it would be clever to bring my passport and most essential things with me just in case, buy the ticket, go home again, pack, sleep at home and take the early train to the airport. So I went back to pack the most essential things (half of it turned out to be pretty useless or even a hindrance).

Arriving at the station, a big crowd was waiting to be let on to the platform. The friendly clerk told me, he still could not confirm anything about the trains the following day because the electricity company hasn't released the schedule for the brownouts yet. But today, there would be local trains to the airport.

Having had enough uncertainty in the past days, I just hopped on the next train. The night on the airport was pretty comfortable, I occupied a huge armchair and got a blanket, water, crackers from the airport personnel.

I arrived in Portland, wearing the shirt that I put on 40 hours earlier, at that time still assuming I could go to the office. With me I had: 1 T-shirt, 2 boxers, 1 sock (yes, singular!) but 3 notebooks, all the money I could get hold of in cash (ignoring the fact that paying in Yen is extremely difficult in the United States).

Well, after one trip to Woodburn (factory outlet), at least I had enough clothes again. 

My original plan was to stay here for 2 weeks. One day before my flight back, I received orders from my employer in Japan: All foreign employees who are currently abroad must not return to Japan until further notice.

Waiting for further notice, I decided to use my weekends to do some surfing...

Pretty cold. Nasty waves that break everywhere. No wonder I was the only one out...

But hey, nasty waves are waves, too! That's at least better than the no-waves-at-all surfing I did recently in Japan.