Solo Travelling Japan's Most Overlooked Area (right next to Tokyo!)
Hello everyone, welcome back to another travel vlog. Just as the title says, I've got the next 3 days traveling around Chiba Prefecture, which is, in my opinion, it's kind of like a really overlooked prefecture because of its big, loud, popular neighbor, which is Tokyo. So yeah, just going to be traveling around Chiba for a bit, seeing what there is to see. This isn't my itinerary because this is sponsored by the Chiba Tourism, so this is the stuff that they recommended to me.
So, the first stop, like right now, I'm kind of in the middle of Tokyo Bay, which is crazy. I'm at a place called Umihotaru Parking Area. So, it's essentially like a rest stop, like a Michi-no-Eki, but it's the exact point where the tunnel goes into the ocean. On one side of the structure, you can see the highways coming in, and then on the other side, you look out and it just feels like I'm on a cruise ship, but it's still technically land, I guess. Incredibly beautiful clear day today, you can see Mount Fuji, which is amazing. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. There was like three monkeys running through there.
Oh my gosh So I'm at Nokogiriyama, which I've actually already been to before on this channel even, but this is like a different trail than I went last time. I'm just learning now that the reason that this is cut in such unique square cuts out of the mountain is because back in the day, this used to be, I don't know if the word is like farm or mine, for the stone because the stone was apparently earthquake-resistant and fire-resistant and that kind of thing, so it was really valuable stone. So they would come here, yeah, carve these huge chunks out of the mountain, basically, which is why this mountain, you'll see in a bit, it's got a really unique structure. The word "nokogiri"
means saw, but it was actually already called that before they started carving chunks out of it, but now it looks even more like a saw, which is crazy. There's nobody else here, it's dead quiet. This is so big, holy crap.
It makes you feel really tiny. So when they were mining the stone out of this mountain, apparently they would load them up onto these big carts and it was mostly women, actually, back in the day that would carry these carts all the way down like that whole hiking trail that we just went up, they would carry them all the way down and then carry the carts all the way back up again. And they'd do that like three times a day, which is wild because it's pretty hard. It's just so impressive how big these walls are. Sorry,
just quietly, this blows Mount Takao out of the water in terms of good hiking close to Tokyo, completely out of the water, so much better. Oh, hello. Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful. Oh my Gosh my leg! I tried to do a smooth shot and my leg... My leg's got the shakes. Calm down, calm down!
Wild. Absolutely huge Buddha statue, so apparently this is also the largest *sitting Buddha statue in Japan. Crazy. Man, this little cafe is so freaking cute, just around the corner from Nojima, and it's right on the water. It's got some of the best lighting imaginable. She's been doing this for like 50 years or something. I don't know, it's got the kind of vibe. I feel like
this is wabi-sabi. I don't really know what that is, but it's got like full of memories, photos, and just like so much character. So much character and history in there, and the lady who runs it is so sweet as well. Definitely check out this spot if you're coming to Nokogiri, it's so, so cute! That is massive. So the first stop for today is a spot called Tokyo Wan Kannon. "Kannon"
"To-kyo Wan Kan-non" It's really hard to say, actually. It's basically a statue of the goddess of mercy, and I looked it up, it's 56 meters high, which is honestly surprising because it looks a lot bigger than 56 meters. But yeah, they've got stairs inside that you can go all the way to the top, so I'm gonna go do that now. It's really impressive. Crazy.
So I just, like, on a poster at the very bottom that it's essentially 20 floors high, and they got the floors written here. I'm only at 48. I feel like I've been walking for ages, but anyway, in the center of the building, it's pretty impressive. They've got, like, there's, like, seven different gods on the way up, I guess, that you can pray to, and they even have the English writing saying, like, what they are a god of, what their specialty skill is, I guess, like this one, Hotai God. For Profit and Improving Fortune.
I don't even... I don't think we're even, like, I think maybe we're, like, two-thirds of the way up or something, but the view is already, like, amazing. So cool. This is actually, such a crazy view. It's so beautiful. It's freezing cold, though. So I'm now in the northern part of Chiba in an area called Naritasan, which you've probably heard of because of the name Narita. It's really close to the airport. I just had lunch at a really,
really nice vegetarian cafe that's just, like, one step away from here, which is cool. And we're heading to a spot called Naritasan Omotesando, which is kind of like a little shopping district, but it's really... It's really quite cool. Like, a lot of the buildings are the older style buildings. It's got kind of like a "post town" "Nakasendo Town" kind of vibe. And there's some beautiful temples at the end. So I haven't seen too much coverage of this area before,
but it's actually very interesting considering how close it is to Tokyo and the airport that everybody's coming in and out of. It's surprising that people don't talk about it. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! It's so cute! Looks just like Mochi! I need to stop, I'm going to cry. I didn't expect to get emotional in the souvenir store. Oh, Look at my eyes. They're watering. I'm on the edge, guys. I'm on the edge. So this is the first senbei on a stick I've ever seen before.
Let's give it a go. I don't even know if it's going to be crunchy. Oh, oh, it's way more wet than I thought it would be. That's really good. It's like sweet, salty, a little bit spicy. I highly recommend that. That's amazing. 200 yen! How good!
You can do it! I believe in you! Oh come on, last step last one! I really thought it would stay ontop. So, like, if you just keep going around the outside of the temple, there's like this beautiful little walk through nature, and there's really not many people here, you know, like one or two odd people like that, but it's really quiet and so peaceful right next to this busy, bustling Shopping Town. I came here actually in summer last year and it was beautiful, really green and lush, very surprising. There's like a little store that you go and buy the fish food from just over there. If I can open it...
Wow, they are huge, their mouths are so big. What the heck are you doing here? Get out of here. I found a cat.
Oh, denied! Let me love you! Oh my God, my gosh, this is the coolest experience. I'm sure you've heard of strawberry picking or, you know, in Japan, they've got grape picking and all kinds of fruit picking, but have you ever heard of mushroom picking? So this is basically like a farm experience that you can come to and you get 30 minutes in here for 660 Yen, and then you just get a little basket and you can cut as many mushrooms as you want, and then it's 250 Yen per 100 G. And then afterwards, there's like a barbecue experience as well, so you get to actually chop it and cook it on the day. So cool, so cool, so exciting. Yeah! One-handed, babyyy! Oh, that was very easy. I was expecting to, like, saw away, no, that was very easy. How cute, my first mushroom.
So there's like actually a number of different mushrooms here and I guess it changes depending on the season. So this time there's like two different kinds of shiitake mushrooms and then this, which is like a king oyster mushroom. They said there's not a whole lot of them at the moment and most of them are quite small. And also apparently, like a lot of the mushrooms sell out really early in the day. So a tip if you're going to come here, try and come earlier in the day. I'm having so much fun. I love mushrooms.
So, then, these ones are also shiitake, but they're like a slightly different variety. I think these are the more than ordinary shiitake and the other ones were the more specialty variety. So cool! It's so tiny! Next to my thumb.
Holy crap, so good. Wow, wow. That's really good. It's so, yeah, I don't know, I guess "meaty" is the word and juicy. It's just like this is like the definition of umami. I think when I think of umami, I think of this. I will compare it. This is just one of the regular shiitake,
so see how different it is. Interesting, very different. This one is nowhere near as chewy, like it's like easy, like way easier to just bite into. The flavor is not as strong, it's just kind of like airy-er. Interesting. Wow, I didn't really know that there were multiple varieties of shiitake mushrooms, so this is all very surprising for me.
There it is. This SP has been on my list for a while, actually. I had it in my train video, This spot has been on my list for a while, actually. I had it in my train video, yeah. It's a suspending monorail. It's actually the longest suspended monorail in the world, which is pretty cool. Yeah, it goes for like 15 km or something through the city. There should be one leaving here soon. Very exciting.
It's so trippy to watch because normally there's always like that train track underneath but then it just feels like you're kind of flying over the top of people and pedestrians and cars and stuff like that. And they've even got these little windows in the floor. So if you catch the monorail and then you get off at Chiba Koen station, like Chiba Park which is right next to me, there's a cafe here called the Tree House that I'm heading to right now. It looks awesome. Well, that's adorable. Well, this has been lovely actually. I've been very, very, very surprised at the variety of things that I've seen and just how lovely they've all been. Yes,
this is the end of my trip around Chiba. I think that this is like a very, it's an overlooked area that's very close to Tokyo and it's all very accessible with public transport or without. Future Hannah is going to tell you a bit more about that in a second. Yeah, I've been very pleasantly surprised by all the places that we've been to, especially like the mushroom farm today. I've never seen that anywhere like
this. The monorail is super unique. Even this cafe is really cute. I don't know, I don't hear much from Tokyo's neighbors, I think because Tokyo is just so loud and obvious that yeah, it's nice to see something a little bit different. But anyway, enough rambling from me, Future Hannah is now going to tell us how you can also get there and any other helpful information you might need to know. Take it away, Future Hannah. Hello, Hannah from the future here with brown hair. So yeah, here's how you can visit all of the places that I went to using just public transport alone. They are really accessible; some of them are a little bit complicated, but I'm here to explain it all to you. So, starting with number one, which is Umi Hotaru Rest Stop,
this is accessible with a bus that leaves from Kisarazu station on the Chiba side and goes through to Kawasaki station on the Tokyo side, or you could do it vice versa. Not every bus will stop at the rest stop, so make sure to check the timetable in the description down below. All of the links to everything are in the description below. There's a bus that leaves every hour and will allow you about 14 minutes on the viewing platform. But if you want to stay for
a bit longer, you could catch the next bus, so that will be like an hour and 14 minutes. The next one is Mount Nokogiri. To get here, catch the train to Hamakanaya station and then from there, it's a 20-minute walk to the trailhead for the Sharikimichi trail, which is the one there and I took this time. It didn't take too long, maybe I want to say like an hour if you're just walking at regular pace. But if you don't want to do that, you can just walk 10 minutes to the ropeway to get to the music and coffee shop, which is that little cafe that was really adorable. I
wish I had more footage of that, actually, but anyway, that was only an 18-minute walk away from the ropeway. So you might want to hike up, catch the ropeway down, walk to the coffee shop, get a cute little coffee, and cake or something, and then go back to the station. The next one is Tokyo Wan Kannon, and that was that big white statue. A little bit awkward to get to with public transport but technically possible with a 30-minute walk from Sanukimachi station, Naritasan Omotesando, and the temples nearby. Extremely accessible, 5-minute walk from Narita station. The Sakura mushroom farm is another one that's a little bit awkward to get to, but trust me when I say that it's worth it. There are kind of like three ways to get there, the
first one being catch a train to Monoi station and then catch a bus 3 minutes to Nishimikado station, and then it's like a 20-minute walk to the farm. Or you can just walk 36 minutes from Monoi station or you can catch a taxi 10 minutes from Monoi station. So where there's a will, there's a way. It's worth it, a little bit awkward to get to but is technically possible.
The final location being that Treehouse Cafe that I went to at the end. It's called Tsubaki Mori Komuna, and this is just a 4-minute walk from the Chiba Koen station, which is accessible via the Chiba monorail. And yeah, that's all of the places that we went to. I really hope you liked this video. If you did, please give a big thumbs up and subscribe. Again, thank you so much for Chiba tourism for sponsoring this trip. I had a really, really wonderful time. I was pleasantly
surprised by all the little things that we got to do. I especially really liked Nokogiri. I think if you're in Tokyo and you want to do like a day hike somewhere, everybody tends to go to Mount Takao and Mount Mitake because they're technically still in Tokyo and they're nice, don't get me wrong, but they're very busy because it's in Tokyo. Really not even that far away from Tokyo is Nokogiri, and I think it's just an amazing hike considering how close it is to Tokyo. So I can highly recommend that. It's got a lot of really interesting things there. And of course,
the mushroom farm, definitely my favorite. The monorail was sick. Honestly, everything, it was all really good, a really great trip. If you liked this one, you might enjoy my video where I went to the Oki Islands. This one's way more off the beaten track. Definitely, it's quite a
bit away from the city but so amazing. There were wild horses living on this like beautiful green rolling hills and massive cliffs and all of that. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that video and yep, that's all. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you guys next time. Bye.
2024-03-26 13:14
