Comparison of activities on beaches in Japan and overseas
I visited Port Dickson, a beach resort easily accessible from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia a few months ago.
Port Dickson is located about an hour and a half drive from Kuala Lumpur, and its location makes it popular for day trips and weekend excursions.
We had a Malaysian friend drive us around and we enjoyed a picnic, bringing our own food.
We didn’t go swimming on the beach but fully enjoyed the nature and the atmosphere there.
I also went to Kota Bharu in the east side of the Peninsular island of Malaysia.
I was with a local friend there and they took me to the beautiful beach.
We enjoyed walking around the beach and eating some local food there.
Some people are even enjoying horse riding.
I have noticed differences in how people enjoy beaches in Japan and overseas.
1. Wearing swimsuit in Japan and overseas
In Japan, people have the image that it is rather young and vigorous people or families who go to the beach.
In particular, young women who come to the beach wearing swimsuits are often thin and model-like or very young.
Young men also tend to be rather always at the beach, dark-skinned, and so-called “playboys” type of people.
We call that kind of people ‘party people’ in Japanese.
There are also people enjoying swimming who bring kids on family trips.
However, mothers in Japan tend not to wear bikinis like young people, and they only let their kids play and mainly act as a mother to take care of them.
So, I feel that people have some kind of pressure that wear swimsuits on Japanese beaches is a kind of pressure to have to be in perfect shape, otherwise, people don’t dare to do that.
This may be relatively true outside of Japan, but people wearing swimsuits overseas come in all shapes and sizes.
When I was in Australia, even middle-aged women who would be considered [fat] in Japan were naturally wearing bikinis.
They didn’t seem to care much about how people looked at them.
Since many people in Malaysia are Muslim, there were no people who were very highly exposed, but the people who came had different ways of enjoying themselves and did not seem to mind how people looked at them.
The age, gender, and race of those who came to the beach varied.
Rather, the culture values family time, so there seem to be more groups of people who are with family rather than very ‘party people’ as in Japan.
2. varieties of the way to enjoy
Most people enjoy swimming at Japanese beaches, but not at Port Dickson, where people enjoy a variety of activities such as eating, enjoying the scenery, and spending time with their families without getting into their swim suits.
I found it was the same in Kota Bharu.
People enjoy the beach not only for swimming but also walking or hanging around.
There are also food stalls near the beach, so we can buy and enjoy local food.
Some of the locals, in addition to swimming, enjoyed barbecuing and napping in hammocks.
In Port Dickson, the beach has a bridge over it, allowing visitors to walk around and enjoy the view of the beach without getting their feet wet.
So I felt the freedom and diversity on the beach compared to that in Japan.
