umi hotaru, nokogiri-yama

So this weekend one of my friends invited me to go for a drive in Chiba (Prefecture), because a couple of her old friends from France were in Japan and she wanted to show them around. I haven't been anywhere other than Chiba City since I got here, so I gladly accepted her invitation and we were off!

After some deliberation, we picked Nokogiri-yama as our destination, which is about two and a half hours away from Chiba City by car. I'm not going to pretend to know as much about it as I did for the BIB and Chiba City Museum of Art (who I thoroughly researched for work) - in fact I hadn't even heard of it until we decided to go there, though it's probably quite well-known.

We started out from Soga and decided to drive there using regular roads, instead of the highway, so we could see more of Chiba. Halfway to our destination, the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line came up in conversation, so we decided to swing by and take a look. The Aqua Line connects Kisarazu, Chiba to Kawasaki, Kanagawa, across Tokyo Bay. There's a bridge that goes until a service area called Umi Hotaru (sea firefly) about halfway across, and then the rest of it is an underwater tunnel. We only went as far as Umi Hotaru, but it was really cool to cross the bridge and be surrounded by beautiful water as we drove. When we got to Umi Hotaru, we spent some time admiring the view (I've included a picture below) and trying to find notable sites like the Tokyo Sky Tree (which we did find!). There are also restaurants and game centers there, along with lots of little vendor stalls, which was cool.

The view from Umi Hotaru, facing Chiba!

Then we stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant near to Nokogiriyama, called Kanaya. Apparently it's been featured on TV before, so when we got there there was a bit of a line, even though it was around 2:00 in the afternoon. Since it's right by the seaside (we were lucky enough to sit at a table right by a huge window by the sea), obviously the seafood there is very fresh. but I was told that in fact they keep their seafood live in basins until it's ordered, making it even fresher! I ordered a dish that involved eggs and various shellfish and shrimp over rice, which was quite tasty. :)

The view from the Nokogiriyama Ropeway

And then we were finally at our destination, Nokogiri-yama! We decided to take the cable car, the Nokogiriyama Ropeway, which gave us a really great view (though it was a bit crowded, haha). The view where the cable car left us off was also really amazing, and we spent a few minutes admiring it before deciding to go see the giant Buddha at Nihon-ji, which was on the mountain. Unbeknownst to most of us, who had never been there before, this was the start of what ended up seeming like a never-ending series of stairs! On the way there we saw a lot of stone figures, but many of them were missing their heads, which is apparently the result of an anti-Buddhist movement that happened in the Meiji Era.

Headless figures

When we reached the giant Buddha, it was really quite impressive - it's the largest stone Buddha in Japan, at 31.05 meters (or almost 102 feet) tall. I'd seen the Buddha in Nara when I studied abroad two years ago, which is apparently only 18.18 meters (60 feet) tall, so this one wins! After that we climbed up a little bit more to see the view from the Ruriko Observatory at the top of the mountain (amazing) and the Hundred-shaku Kwan-non before heading back down on the cable car. All in all it was a little bit tiring to hike up and down stairs to go from place to place, but the views were gorgeous and it was definitely worth it! I would definitely recommend it to anybody interested in going.

The largest stone Buddha in Japan

 After that we stopped by the beach for a little bit, to admire the sunset and relax a little bit after all our exercise. Even though where I live in Chiba City is actually very near the ocean, I haven't gone by the water at all (I'm not sure if there are beaches, really), and it was really nice to just relax by the waves for a little bit. It really made me realize how I'm now living on an island country, with lots of beautiful beaches that I'll have to try and visit during my stay!


On the drive home we took the highway this time, and stopped by a very tasty ramen shop (Menba Kuradashi Miso Kikuya) near Soga station for dinner. This was the first time I've had ramen since coming to Japan this time, and it was delicious (of course)! It was a shop that specialized in miso ramen, so I had their most popular Hokkaido miso ramen, and I can see why it was the most popular.

I came home very full and very tired, but also very happy from all that I saw that day. It was definitely a good first foray into Chiba Prefecture, and hopefully the beginning of many more! :D