School Trips to Shiraishi Island 修学旅行

The first school group of the year receives kayaking instructions from Sea-kun.

May and June bring groups of Japanese school children to Shiraishi Island on field trips to experience swimming, fishing and kayaking. These trips are called 修学旅行 (shugaku-ryoko). Most of the students come from prefectures such as Gifu, which is surrounded by mountains, where the students have little chance to experience the sea.

While the International Villa is open for bookings, most accommodation on the beach will be fully booked. Since the villa is located up on a hill, you will not run into many of the students, but if you go down to the beach, you'll see them taking part in their activities. Give them a friendly "Hello!"

We also get smaller student groups from Australia and the US. Our first foreign school will come June 20.

Start planning now for your summer trip to Shiraishi Island!

 Shiraishi Island over Golden Week (Photo: Shelly Itoh)

Golden Week has come and gone and we were happy to see some intrepid travellers come out to Shiraishi Island over the holidays. There were plenty of beautiful sunsets to be enjoyed by all!

The Moooo! Bar website is back up but, unfortunately, the site url has also been updated. This means that all previous links to the Moooo! Bar site no longer work :( The new url is http://dollarbooks.tripod.com/moooobarshiraishiislandjapan/
At the moment www.moooobar.com does not redirect there, but will shortly. Apologies.

If you are still finding it hard to find the site, please email us.  We'll get it right, eventually!

The Shiraishi International Villa has already started filling up for the summer. Fully booked are the dates of June 20, July 13, 14, 19, 20, August 15, 16, 23, 24 and Sept 30. There are also many days in between that are nearly booked in full, so be sure to get your reservations in if you are planning on staying at the villa this summer. Please contact them directly.

We hope to see you this summer on Shiraishi Island! Moooooooooooo......

Moooo! Bar 2013 Opening Day June 30

 Amy's new book, available at Amazon and the Moooo! Shop this summer





Wow, it's been a loooooong winter! We hope everyone had a great Cherry Blossom Season, despite the rather foul weather and atrocious wind. We at the Moooo! Bar are gearing up for another season of sun and fun on the beach. However, there will be some changes.

We have decided not to open for Golden Week this year. As many of you know, Amy and Paul sailed from Japan to Philippines last Fall and Amy is doing a book tour to promote her recently released "Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage: 900 Miles to Enlightenment. " (about her 900 mile run on the Shikoku 88-Temple Pilgrimage). So needless to say, it's been a busier than normal winter, leaving us little time to get the bar in shape and stock the Moooo! Shop.  We are thinking that opening July 1 is much more realistic! Okay, okay, since July 1 is a Monday, we'll open June 30, the day before.

Please note that in an attempt to simplify our lives (yeah, right!), last autumn we discontinued our Moooobar Twitter account and the Humor-us Japan Twitter account and website (all run by the cows at the Moooo! Bar). We feel much relieved and less stressed, but now with the new projects of restoring our boat and promoting a book, we're getting back up to those High Alert busy levels again--Code Orange. Should we move into Severe Alert busy level--Code Red, than we're going to move to a small, remote island in the Seto Inland Sea where we can relax and live the slow life! Oh, wait a minute, we did that.

Well anyway, come on out to the Moooo! Bar this summer and relax on the beach, in the hamocks, with a Moogarita, and feel the slow life, even if it's just for a moment. We're looking forward to serving you! Moooooooooooo!

Moooo! Season now over--thanks for your patronage!

Shiraishi Reservations and the Moooo! Bar and Shop are now closed for the season--thanks for a great year on Shiraishi Island!

This year marked the expansion of the Moooo! empire to include the Moooo! Shop, Moooo! Bar and Calfe, and rentable picnic tables under shade structures. Our aim is to develop a cozy barn atmosphere for all our bovine-friendly customers.   

Shiraishi Reservations is now closed until April of next year. For those who would like to book the international Villa before then (including over the winter months), please contact them directly from the International Villa Home Page

Have a great winter and we'll see you next year. Look for a new Moooo! Homepage in April 2013....

Last day at the Moooo! Bar this summer is Sept. 23. We're gonna have a blow out time...

Join us Sunday, Sept. 23 for the last day of the Moooo! Bar season. The Moooo! Shop will have its annual 50 percent off sale and we'll be frolicking on the beach one last time. Get your last moo on before it's too late!

Moooo! Bar last day of the year Sept. 23rd

 The Moooo! Shop's "Mooin' 50 Percent Off Sale" is one day only--Sept. 23!

The Moooo! Bar on the beach at Shiraishi Island will be open on Sundays in September through Sept. 23rd. Please note that since there are 5 Sundays in September this year, we will not be open the very last Sunday (30th)..

The last day to kick up your hooves with us is Sept. 23rd. On that day, we'll have  a normal opening day and the Moooo! Shop will feature its yearly Mooin' 50 Percent Off Sale!

See you on the beach!

Moooo! Bar open on Sundays through September

 While the rest of Japan is finished swimming, you can still get in your strokes and sun on the beach on Shiraishi Island! Our beach is open year-round. The Moooo! Bar, however, will only be open on Sundays from now thru September, and our last day of the season will be Sept.23rd..

If you'd like to know more about why the Japanese stop swimming after Obon (Aug. 15), please read my latest article in the Japan Times: 
You can swim even after O-bon — the truth about jellyfish