Beach Party / Thom's Birthday Party

On Sunday, thanks to the super organisation of our friend Yukiko, about 20 of us headed off to Shin-maiko 新舞子 beach not far from Centrair airport. It's an 'artificial' beach, which I think means that there was no sand there before they put some there. For those readers from Adelaide it reminded us a bit of the port river, more like a river/port than a beach. For added ambience it is backed by a huge industrial area mostly consisting of oil erfineries or something. Jacqui did question the intelligence of swimming in such an environment but Eric and I reassured her that there must be legislation in place to protect us, so lets not worry about it. Here are some scenic pictures of the beach. Note: it even has grass to sit on - luxury!













































In case you're wondering, yes, that is a wind turbine in the second shot. Below is a picture of Liz and Kirten pretending to be one too.

And the last picture should be on next cover of tce (the chemical engineer) magazine.

We had a great time at the beach, not getting burnt, playing ultimate frisbee, swimming, throwing seaweed at each other (the seaweed is exactly like the stuff in miso soup - わかめ), harassing a half American kid called James and, of course, eating and drinking.

I even managed to convince some other people to follow me on a fruitless hunt for somewhere to rent windsurfing equipment from. Maybe next time.