白浜 (Shirahama)

If we'd stayed on the train for another half hour or so we'd almost have been at the furthest southern point of Honshu.
We got off at Shirahama - Sean and me - a beach town on the Tonda river and overlooking Tanaba Bay. I guess it's south south west Wakayama Prefecture.
It was hot and the imported Australian sand was real white. Shirahama. 'White sands'.
By 5p.m. a typhoon coming up from below Okinawa was pushing the sea inland. The beachside public baths were closed. We walked along the coast until we came to a group of rock outcrops and watched a beautiful sun sink into some of the most hypnotic and biggest waves I've seen in some time.




(Click on the images for bigger versions)

Fukuoka - with clouds - from the 31st floor