The Kansai Boat Show

This weekend saw the arrival (and departure) of the Kansai Boat Show at Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbour in Nishinomiyahama 西宮浜, where I have lived since I moved from England to Japan just over 2 years ago. I could see the preparations for the show from my balcony, and really looked forward to making a visit.

For many years, prior to moving to Japan, I lived in the beautiful small town, Lymington, a famous sailing centre on the English south coast. I grew to love the sea, and was the proud owner of a small cabin cruiser on which my wife めぐみ and I spent many a wonderful weekend.  I find that the students at my English conversation school 英会話, Smith’s School of English, Kawanishi スミス英会話川西校 really enjoy learning about my life in Lymington, and I have often used a video about this beautiful town as a listening exercises with my students.

The annual boat shows in the south of England , especially the one held at nearby Southampton, were always events that we looked forward to, and I don’t think we missed a visit for ten years before we came to Japan. So now we look forward to the (far smaller) shows that appear at our local marina, and always find a boat to fall in love with. Today was no exception, and we fell in love with a little cruiser, but it was far too expensive, so it was merely something to dream about until the next boat show, when I’m sure we’ll find another object for our affection, being a fickle pair (at least as far as boats are concerned).