Three Atami memories: seafood, fireworks and a forest terrace
The sea in the morning, fireworks beyond an open hotel window, and a terrace surrounded by greenery: Haruru’s Atami records from 2021, 2022 and 2023 each keep a different memory of staying away from home. Seafood runs through all three.
Three separate personal records saved in November 2021, January 2022 and June 2023, edited with Haruru’s existing permission.
2021: a sunrise and a seafood lunch
The November 2021 record opens with the morning sun over Atami. Beyond a balcony railing, the photographs show the sea, palm-like trees and a bright strip of light near the horizon.
For lunch, Haruru returned to a place she had visited before. There was plenty of sashimi, and the fried horse mackerel was especially memorable: fluffy and delicious in her telling. It was a meal she was pleased to have again.
A hotel meal with more than she could finish
It was her first stay at the hotel in this record. The food was good, but there was so much of it that she could not finish everything. Some dishes never made it into her photographs.
The meal photographs range from sashimi and browned meat with vegetables to a shellfish dish and a large plate holding a whole red fish. The abundance stayed in her memory, along with the regret of leaving some food uneaten.
2022: fireworks beyond the hotel window
The January 2022 record is about fireworks in Atami. Haruru had not watched a display for years. She opened the window of her hotel room, and even from there the fireworks felt wonderfully powerful.
The saved landscape photographs keep another side of the stay: the sea and waterfront trees in daylight, then illuminated palms beside the dark water. The excitement of the fireworks comes from her own account of watching them.
Choosing seafood at the market
The hotel food was not to her liking on that visit, so she chose seafood she wanted at a nearby market beforehand and took the sashimi back with her. She remembered it as good value and delicious.
The photographs show a large takeaway tray of sashimi on shredded garnish, and tanks holding shellfish at the market. Choosing what she wanted to eat was part of the pleasure of this stay.
2023: a road delay before the villa stay
The June 2023 record starts with a difficult journey. After the previous day’s typhoon, roads were closed, including the Odawara–Atsugi Road. Haruru stopped for a leisurely tonkatsu meal while heading towards Atsugi; during the break, she found that the closure had been lifted.
The weather improved too. She had booked a villa stay without meals included because the place looked promising, and the setting lived up to her hopes when she arrived.
Shellfish beside a forest terrace
In Atami, she stopped at the market she often visited and bought a generous selection of shellfish. Her note names turban shells, scallops, rock oysters and two kinds of clams. She was delighted with the shellfish-filled meal.
The photographs show a terrace table facing greenery, shellfish and corn on a barbecue, a pot over the heat, and opened oyster shells. The wooded setting was as much a part of the memory as the food.
A wooded view and time to reset
One photograph looks past a white bathtub towards wooded hills. Another keeps the greenery as it appears after dark, lit from below. They capture the surroundings that Haruru liked about the villa.
She had things on her mind, but wrote that she was glad the stay helped her feel refreshed. In this record, the good location and a meal she enjoyed made time away feel worthwhile.
Sources for this account
Edited with Haruru’s existing permission from three separate past records and their saved photographs. Purchases, travel events and personal impressions come from her account. The records describe different stays; venue names, present services and photographic details beyond the evidence have not been added.