Japanese love-of-nature at garbage beaches

[Taro Toporific]

Long ago during my first Endoshima (aka Garbage Island) swim, I managed to get a mouthful of dead cat as well as being covered with green oily dioxin film.

Losing battle being fought to keep Kanagawa beaches clean
The Japan Times: July 2, 2004
FUJISAWA, Kanagawa Pref. -- It's almost 5 a.m. and the sky is warming as the sun rolls up to burst open the horizon. The pacific rhythm of the ocean waves dominates the soundscape of the virtually deserted beach.
For Atsuko Sakurai, a local surfer, this is the best time of day to pursue her passion. She strides excitedly onto the beach, but her glee fades quickly into quiet dismay as she steps around the minefield of cracked bottles, smashed cans and other assorted trash.
Seeing such a messy beach, Sakurai can only sigh.
Summer is officially here and it's the season when piles of trash from weekend parties at the beach welcome early morning surfers and trouble the residents. The ocean debris is a serious environmental issue for Kanagawa Prefecture's popular beaches, and the condition gets only worse as summer wears on....

[gomichild]

Indeed - Hiratsuka beach has turned into a garbage dump in two weeks.

I noticed at Oiso beach they have a citizens clean-up once a month. Perhaps it's time to put the pressure on

[Taro Toporific]

Indeed - Hiratsuka beach has turned into a garbage dump in two weeks.

In the mid-90s, Hiratsuka beach used to a have a surfers' clean-up twice a month. The Hiratsuka firehouse by the beach would help with it---- If you helped with the clean-up, the firehouse would let you use their super outside showers (used after a fire for firemen to get clean). It was a good deal for folks using the beach and good for the community.

[gomichild]

I'm hunting around trying to find out info now - found the Kanagawa Coastal Environmental Foundation homepage which has quite a lot of info although is dreadful to look at.

[emperor]

Which is the best beach to head to if your based in Tokyo?

Some friends went to Kamakura beach last week and said it was nice enough ; the quality of sand is ok, although the waves arent exactly swimmer friendly and the water is very salty and murky probably due to recent typhoon activity..

[Big Booger]

In awaji, I and my wife went down to the beach on the western side, and my god, the place was a mess... Not garbage.. oh noooo.. It was full of onions.. The place smelt horrible. There were full sized onions all over the beach.. we had to leave early because of the smell and the squishy feeling of rotten onions on your feet..

[Taro Toporific]

Which is the best beach to head to if your based in Tokyo?.

A great old thread were GomiGirl and I advise Zushi beach among others. These threads have the maps and everthing as well as a few "secrets" hee, hee.
Beaches. Quiet. Secluded. WHERE?
Let's Quiet Tokyo Beaches
Let's beach happy! "Marine Day"

[Charles]

Jeez, don't they have those big mechanical sand rake tractors like they use in California? I saw a cool idea for sponsored beach cleanup, they had a big rake tractor to rake up all the garbage, behind it, they pulled a big roller that stamped advertising on the fresh clean sand. The one I saw was sponsored by Skippy peanut butter, it was hilarious seeing a huge beach completely covered in the Skippy label.

[Taro Toporific]

[Charles]

I suppose garbage piles and tetrapods are natural?

I'll never forget the first time someone took me to a "real" beach. I lived along the coastline in Hakodate, near big garbage-dump beaches, but my friends said nobody goes to swim there, they all go to the beaches near the resort hotels. So we paid a few yen admittance, they had an immaculately groomed, clean, sandy beach, with a big shark net around the swimming area. There was a big inflatable plastic pontoon pier that most everyone walked out onto, my friend and I seemed to be the only ones swimming. The surf was a bit high, we wanted to see if we could body surf, but the waves weren't high enough. Apparently our swimming in the low surf caused a panic, the lifeguard was blowing the whistle and yelling at us to get back to safety. I guess nobody swims in deeper water, people were freaking out to see us, they though we would drown. Sheesh!
As I got out of the water, I got a huge piece of seeweed about 10 feet long wrapped around my leg. I kicked it off and a woman came up and grabbed it, took it back to the water, rinsed the sand off, neatly rolled it up, and took it away with her. I asked my friend what that was all about, she said the seaweed was a particularly choice piece of konbu.