Day 37 - Day trip with Miho

I met Miho Shimada about 27 years ago and we became great friends. She has an excitement for life and it was always fun to be around her back then. She even visited my family in Utah a few years later and we had great fun catching up.

Sadly, though, we lost contact until about a month ago, but we were able to reconnect and she took a day off to hang out with us and show us some Fukuoka sights today.

We met her at Onojo train station, piled in her small car, and were off, first stopping at a huge shopping mall for snacks, and then driving to the far side of Shikanoshima (an island off the coast of Fukuoka connected by a bridge and peninsula) to a beautiful and fairly secluded beach.


We swam in the waves and got blown around by the wind, but mostly it was nice to be together and introduce my family to Miho. She remains as kind and optimistic as ever, and I really hope we stay in closer contact from now on.

There weren't any showers open when we finished swimming, so we did makeshift showers with buckets in the small, stinky bathroom across from the beach, and then drove to another beach to watch a fireworks show on the Fukuoka side of the bay.


The fireworks were cool, if a bit far away, but my favorite part was seeing the city lights and the ships coming and going on the bay as the fireworks exploded behind them. The tall blue building in this pic is Fukuoka Tower.


Miho was kind enough to drive us all the way home before continuing an hour more to get herself home. We're so happy that we could spend a day with her.

ありがとうね、ミホちゃん。楽しかった！

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Day 45 - All the way home

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Day 38 - Omuta Memories

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