The Tamagawa Tour Guide

There is a man that lives near Tamagawa that I have seen riding his bike up the 191. I was intrigued with him the first time I saw him. He is very tall and very thin. Picture Skeletor and that would describe how thin he is. His skin is dark, like an Indian man who has worked outside for his whole life. His hair is long and faded whitish, greyish, yellow to be precise. He wears shorts, tank tops and a trucker hat. He looks about 35-40 years old. I was riding in the car with my supervisor last summer and I asked her about him and she said 'Sarah, stay away. Scary man. Strange man.' I figured it would only be a matter of time until I would have a run-in with him. Well a whole year went by and I was in the clear. I had seen him when driving but never a face to face encounter.

Yesterday I went to the beach and Skeletor was there. He was talking to some office workers so I just mosied down to the water for some privacy and swimming. After a few minutes of swimming I saw that Skeletor had made his way down to the water and was sitting remarkably close to my stuff. Then he goes and sits in the only shady area of the beach (where I intended on moving once I got out of the water). So I swam for a while and then I sat in the water and waited for him to get bored and leave. I waited for 1 hour until my fingers were pruney and he still didn't leave. So I got out of the water and moved my towel to the shady area (about 10 feet from where he was sitting). I knew he wanted to chat with me so I immediately laid down, put my head phones on and pretended to sleep. Can you ever just feel someone's presence? My eyes were closed and I knew he would be still sitting next to me when I woke up (about 30 minutes later). I woke up and he, of course, was still there. Then another man (I got a story on him too) gave us ice cream. This was Skeletor's invitation to talk to me. I was doomed. The reason I call him the Tamagawa Tour Guide is because he informed me about when all the fireworks would be happening this summer. And I saw him talking to EVERYONE that would go on the beach, pointing things out, making recommendations etc. He told me he comes the the beach everyday and other things. Then he started talking about my shoulders which were sunburnt. I assumed he was asking about the sunburn. I was telling him that they were OK and they didn't hurt. Next thing I know this man was massaging my shoulders! He was digging his twig-like fingers into my back, his dirty fingers nails were scratching my sunburnt skin. It was painful. Then he got down on his knees and massaged me more and more. It was the weirdess experience of my life. I told him that it hurt and he said it was supposed to hurt, that it would feel good afterwards. He said it was traditional massage from Nara. I asked where he learned it while he was grinding his fingers into my shoulders. I couldn't think of a polite way to get away from him and his massaging. (I think he has some mental problems so I didn't want to be too harsh) So eventually after about 5 minutes I said, 'Ok, time to swim. It hurts I have to go swim...'. He asked me if I came to the beach everyday and said that he would give me a massage everyday. He said he would give me a foot massage too. I was so extremely weirded out! I went right in the water and was grossed out and then cracked up that that actually happened. I couldn't believe it. In a country where no physical contact goes on, not even a hand shake, this complete stranger thought it would be OK to massage my back. Oh the weirdness of it all. I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

Part II. So the man that gave us the ice cream was hanging out on a more secluded area of the beach. When I was swimming after my massage I could see him through a few rocks. He was digging some sort of hole in the beach. The next thing I knew, this man was standing by some rocks with his swim trunks on and then he drops his shorts. Butt-naked. He turns around, I see all of his manhood and he plunks himself in the whole that he dug. Apparantly he dug himself a nice little onsen on the beach. Now, Tamagawa onsen is about a minute up the road so I have no clue why he was inclined to get starkers on the beach that day. Afterwards, Skeletor walked me to my car, asked me if I would be there tomorrow to which I answered 'I don't know' and drove away. So that ends the weirdest day at the beach.