10 fun stories from Japan – A miniseries: The Kamakura Story

by The Flamingo

Dear reader, you already know what big fans we are about all things Japan. The Flamingo wrote a 10 stories miniseries about funny/awkward/eccentric experiences that can only occur in Japan. I will share with you some more or less embarrassing moments that happened during the trips there, that always make top conversation topics.

7. The Kamakura story

Kamakura is a beautiful town on the coast of Japan, with large sandy beaches and the famous Great Buddha.

On one of those beaches, while lying under the hot sun, I was making fun of the Japanese adults, who were floating on big swimming rings in the ocean. All of them had swimming rings, which we found very unusual.

Nowhere in Europe had I seen a person older than 10 using one. My very rash conclusion was that they would drown without them.The mean girl in me was very amused at the fact that the Japanese adults don’t even know the basics of swimming, not that I am a great swimmer myself, but I like pretending I am.

I went in the water with my boyfriend, amazed at the warmth of the Pacific. The water was dark and muddy, the bottom impossible to see despite it being shallow. Suddenly we felt something soft brushing around our ankles, then a tingling sensation and tiny stings. Grossed out, I kept imagining nasty looking creatures on the bottom of the ocean, swimming around our ankles.

After a few minutes, we needed to get out of the water as quickly as possible. Our ankles were red and a little swollen. This was probably the work of jellyfish or maybe something even more disgusting. The water was so murky, we couldn’t determine even to this day, what kind of beings were down there.

That was the last time we made fun of the Japanese, who were floating happily with their feet up in the air. This was another “stupid gaijin” experience.