June 2017 (ROTM#102) Tottori, Japan

If I made this a mystery location and asked where you thought this was taken, you'd never guess. It could be anywhere. But it's Japan.

I've never been to Japan, but I know they have rip currents because the country is surrounded by ocean, has many beaches, and has a surfing culture. Surfing = surf beaches = rip currents. There's also been a long history of very good scientific literature on rip currents coming out of Japan (although mostly in Japanese) and while I know that rip drownings and rescues occur, I'm not sure of the numbers.

This picture was sent to me by my fellow Tamarama Surf Lifesaving Club member Guy Waddell and it's from a beach in front of the Tottori Sand Dunes, located on the north-west coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu, facing the Sea of Japan.

As for the rip current in the picture, about two-thirds down the beach there is a pronounced dark and narrow gap heading offshore through the breaking waves. You can also see a scalloped rip embayment at the beach. This is common of channelised rips which can stay in the same location for days or weeks and start to erode the beach. If you look very closely you can actually see another embayment and dark gap rip much further down the beach.

If you know anything about beach safety and rip education in Japan, I'd be interested to hear it as I really haven't heard much about what goes on there. Yet they must have lots of rips.

Japan looks a lot like Australia