Our local area is in the process of having a face-lift. It used to be an area of social housing, but in the past ten years big changes have taken place there. The social housing lives on amongst the new builds of big family homes.

We arrived nearing the end of the changes, as our local supermarket got a ‘free from section’, and started selling mixed bean salads and whole grain bread. Whole grain bread is pretty much rarer than gold in Japan…

And now we have a new beach-front cafe to enjoy. The Beat Cafe will always be our first love, but there is something pretty beautiful about the long wooden veranda overlooking the beach up from Ayaragi, Yasuoka. This beach is pretty, with white sand, and less seaweed and washed up boat litter than Ayaragi. We have stumbled across a new cafe that only opened a few months ago, with a long rustic veranda to sit and enjoy your drink from. It is pretty perfect, and we were surprised to find there another person with a little English language ability for us to talk to. She was pretty delighted to have us, and we found out her niece attends one of my schools, and that we were are pretty well known in our area as we are “not Japanese”. That, friends, is very true!

It is another great find and makes us feel even more lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

#Yamaguchi