One Hour Famicom Beach Vacation

Spring is here! Winter is gone! Thank god for that.

I've grown tired of being cooped up indoors during the cold months. I hate cold. Tragic that I should have been born a Canadian with such an affliction. Southwestern Japan with its semi-tropical climate that only has a relatively short cold season is ideally suited to a person of my tastes.

So when I saw that today would be a warm sunny day, my mind turned to taking to the open road on my bicycle - my favorite warm weather activity. There is nothing better in the world than living in a place like this with a day all to yourself and two wheels beneath you. The feeling of freedom and the fun of having a massive expanse of coastline, cityscape, mountains and other things to explore is a feeling like none other.

Unfortunately today was not such a day. I'm just too busy these days to take a whole day off, tempting though it is. I had things to do downtown in the morning and then a ton of work waiting at home for me when I got back. But I knew I could squeeze an hour in between of idly doing nothing in the sun, and that would have to suffice.

I also knew that my schedule would take me to the vicinity of Momochihama, where one of the nicer beaches in town is. And finally I knew that none of my Famicoms had never been to the beach even though they look like they would really enjoy the experience. Thus an idea was born:

One Hour Famicom Beach Vacation!!!

So I tossed one of them into my backpack and, after my morning errands were taken care of, we headed off to the beach.

First stop: A picnic table where I sat down for lunch overlooking the islands of Hakata Bay:
Then: The sandy beach. Incidentally, never do this with a Famicom you care about. Sand really does get into everything.
Then: Out onto the breakwater for a better view of the Bay:
The island in the background of the above photo is Nokonoshima. There is a ferry that leaves from near this beach and only costs about 200 yen. Its a really great place to take a day trip - lots of beaches, hiking trails and nature. The missus and I love the place.

Anyway, after that another breakwater, but this time looking back at the beach:
The tall building is Fukuoka tower, the tallest structure in Kyushu. For 800 yen you can take an elevator to the top, but we gave it a miss this time.
One last item of interest at the Momochi beach is this fake church. It is a wedding hall made to look like a Spanish colonial church. Despite being consciously designed to look like a religious establishment, it has no religious significance whatsoever. I didn't take a picture of the Famicom with it, I thought this facade would completely upstage the Famicom:
And that was the end of our one hour beach vacation. Its a shame that more people don't do outdoor things with their consoles. I guess its the lack of outlets to plug them into. Nonetheless, I'd like to nominate March 4th as "Take your retro console to the beach day".

And with that idiotic though expressed for all to see, I'm off to work again....