Cute Cafe by the Beach and a Campfire

The summer heat is slowly dying down. This means that a lot of people are pretty much done with going to the beach. Or are they? As for me, I still go to Ajigaura Beach during October. Two reasons for this are, one the Ibafornia Market event (more info at the end of this post), and two, I get to chill out by the ocean, either in a cute cafe or while enjoying a fire. Today, I will be talking about Ajigaura's Cafe Umino and Ibafornia.

Cafe Umino

Cafe Umino is a small cafe located in Ajigaura Beach. It's right across the street from the beach and close to the toilet and shower area of Ajigaura Beach. The Ibaraki Eats Duo visited this cafe on a hot day in late September. We went swimming at Ajigaura Beach and then decided to have a nice lunch at this cafe.
When we walked up to the cafe, there was a sign that said we could not go inside if our feet were full of sand and we were wet from swimming. This was kind of annoying since the cafe is right by the ocean. We were full of sand and still wet from our swim, so we decided to eat outside. The owner walked outside and gave us the menu. The owner then walked us to our table, which was a bench at first, but then, with some finesse, it turned into a table with stools.

The Menu

The menu at Umino is all in Japanese. Except for the Food, Tea, Cake, parts.
Coffee: Drip, Americano, Cafe Latte.
Tea: Hot or Ice Tea and Tea Latte.
Soft Drink: Ajigaura Blue Cream Soda, Ajigaura Blue Pine Juice, Orange Juice, Apple Cider.
Food: Keema Curry and Toast with Almond Butter.
Cake: Today's Cake
The cafe also has a specials menu which changes monthly.
My wife and I ordered some drinks and decided on the curry for our nice beach lunch.

Wiener Coffee

This coffee is not on the regular menu. I ordered it from the special menu, and it was a tall glass of wiener coffee. Just like a regular wiener coffee, this wiener coffee had a mountain of whipped cream on top of it. This was a pretty good coffee, especially on a hot day. It wasn't a particularly strong coffee, which was a bit of a bummer. I was hoping to have a strong coffee with a lot of sweet whipped cream. Other than that, not a bad wiener coffee.

Ajigaura Blue Cream Soda

This was Mrs. Ibaraki Eats' order, the Ajigaura Blue. If you plan to visit this cafe either after a swim or just for a day by the ocean, try this soda. This refreshing soda was delicious. I am not sure what was actually in the soda, but it reminded me of a melon soda without the melon. The vanilla ice cream with the soda was great. I recommend having some soda with the ice cream instead of the ice cream melting into the soda. I'm not saying that the melted ice cream in the soda is bad, quite the opposite, it is quite good. But something about having that cold vanilla scoop with sugary soda around it made it taste fantastic. Mrs. Ibaraki Eats loved her soda and said she would like to have it again the next time we visit Ajigaura.

Keema Curry

For our lunch, we chose to share the Keema Curry. As far as keema curry goes, this wasn't too bad. It is not the best keema curry I have ever had, but it was pretty good. The fried egg on top was a nice touch, and we both enjoyed it. As far as the spice level goes, there was some spiciness at first, but we got used to it pretty quickly. What I will say about this curry is that it is a good option to have if you don't want to have beach house food. Don't get me wrong, beach house food is great. Yakisoba, kaarage, and fried squid are all great! However, some people would prefer a different option to the numerous beach houses on the beach that serve the same thing. This curry is a good option, and we both really enjoyed it.

Comes with ice cream!

Did I forget to mention that the keema curry comes with ice cream for dessert? It was a nice treat for a hot day, and after that hot curry.

Our time at Cafe Umino was fun and we enjoyed our drinks while hearing the waves crash across the street. This cafe is not a bad place if you want to take a break from the sand and just sit down to have a coffee or a nice lunch.

Ibafornia Base Camp Area

Our day at Ajigaura wasn't done yet. After we finished our lunch at the cafe, we thanked the owner for a lovely meal and headed back to the beach. We swam for a couple of more hours, took a shower at my favorite beach house Yamagataya, got dressed, and headed to Ibafornia Base.
Ibafornia Base is further down the beach, away from the swimming area. If you follow the pedestrian walkway above the sand, you will pass a hotel, and then you will get to Ibafornia. Ibafornia Base has a rest area with snacks, wifi, and AC. Ibafornia also does SUP. We were hoping to try SUP that day, but unfortunately, the waves were way too rough. They also have a camp area on the second floor of their building. You can BBQ there, start a campfire, and or stay overnight.
That day we decided on a campfire. For just 2,200 yen a person, we were given wood to burn, chairs, a fire pit, and marshmallows to roast. My wife and a few friends met up there and got the campfire party rolling.

Look at that fire roar!

After we got our fire started, our group drank some beers and started by roasting some weiners on the campfire. They were delicious. We then roasted some marshmallows and made some s'mores. Ibafornia only supplies marshmallows. So if you want to make s'mores, please make sure to bring the graham crackers and chocolate yourself.
This was an excellent way to finish out our beach day in Ajiguara. We did some swimming, had a nice lunch, and ended the day at a campfire making s'mores. I hope my wife and I can do this again sometime soon. I also hope we can finally SUP later this month.

So if you are planning a beach day in Ajigaura and are wondering where to have lunch or where to have a nice BBQ, may I suggest Cafe Umino and Ibafornia? Who knows? You might see us there. Enjoying the Ajigaura Blue soda at the cafe and having a BBQ and a campfire at Ibafornia.
Enjoy!

For more information on Cafe Umino, check out their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/cafe_umino/?hl=ja

For more information on Ibafornia, check out their website:
https://www.ibaforniabase.com/

Speaking of Ibafornia and Ajigaura, Ibafornia will be having its biyearly Ibafornia Market event this month on Saturday, October 25th. The market will feature a crafts area, a second-hand clothing area, food trucks, live music, and a movie screening later in the evening. I hope you can make it!
https://www.instagram.com/ibafornia.market/?hl=en