When evening comes on the Zaimokuza Beach in Kamakura, the people living around there come out and watch the sun going down or take their dogs for a walk. In summertime, the seaside huts open for business, so I drink beer there. On fine tranquil evenings when the waves are not rough, the air is sometimes mellow. I feel at peace at such times. When I walk along there in summer, I’ve always got beach sandals on, and if I walk in the water, the heat escapes through my feet so it doesn’t matter even if the sun is blazing.

When I walk in bare feet, the sand feels nice. It’s a gently sloping beach, so it’s a good place even for small children to play. There are also lots of creatures, such as fish and crabs. On summer nights when there’s a full moon, crabs carrying lots of eggs enter the water and shake their bodies, releasing all the eggs. I hear that in this neck of the woods, the water is cleanest, and it seems some creatures can only live where it’s clean.

Sometimes I find something unexpected that has been dropped, like the bone of a medium-sized (who-knows-what) animal, and I hear that on occasions some objects from the Kamakura Period are found jumbled up with other things on the beach. I always try to choose times when there’s no one around for my strolls along the beach. For example, in summer I’ll go when the sun is blazing in the middle of the day, and in winter I’ll go when it’s windy and cold and there’s hardly anyone about. The air is clear, so the sky is beautiful and the coldness feels nice.