Chiba (prefecture) - travel guide, holidays in Chiba (prefecture) -

Travel in Chiba (prefecture)

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Chiba prefecture (??? Chiba-ken) is located east of Tokyo, and bordered by Ibaraki prefecture to the north. A large part of the prefecture is the B?s? Peninsula (???? B?s?-hant?), which shields Tokyo bay from the Pacific Ocean.

Table of contents

Cities

Chiba is the eponymous capital of the prefecture, which doesn't bear much resemblance to William Gibson's depictions but has a few points of interest for would-be cyberpunks.
Narita, a small town overshadowed by its huge airport, is also home to the Narita-san Temple.
Kisarazu is the largest city on the interior Boso peninsula, and connected by tunnel to the Tokyo side.
Katsuura is a small city on the outside (Pacific) Boso peninsula
Ichikawa is a small city immediately across the Edo River from Tokyo
Onjuku is a small town on the outside (Pacific) Boso peninsula.
Yachimata is a city next to Chiba city and Famous for production of peanuts.

Other attractions

Kujukurihama beach in winter

Nokogiriyama (??), meaning "sawtooth mountain", is a group of Buddhist temples cut into sheer cliffs. A rope-way gondola will take you up to the top, and on a clear day you can see all the way to Mt. Fuji. Even on a so-so day, Yokosuka should be visible across Tokyo Bay. The most popular vantage point is Jigoku-nozoki (????, "peering into hell") a small rock platform which sticks out over cliff.?In the other direction you can see the low mountains of the interior Boso peninsula. From the peak, paths descend inland through the woods down to Nihonji (???). The temple, built in 725 C.E., has a stone buddha statue that, at at total height of 31.05 meters, is in fact the largest buddha statue in Japan - 1.05 meters higher than the one in Nara. From the Tokyo area, you can get to Nogokiriyama via the Tokyo Bay ferry from Kurihama (south of Yokohama). Kanaya, on the Chiba side, is at the foot of the mountain.

Kujukuri-hama (?????) beach is, for many travelers, their first glimpse of Japan: it's the long coastline you see from the plane coming in over the Pacific into Narita. The name means "99-ri coast", where a "ri" is an old unit of length equal to about 654 meters. The coast is in fact around 60km in length. There are numerous small towns along the coast, from Iioka on the north to Ichinomiya on the south.

The lower Boso peninsula has several artificial attractions that are popular for family excursions but probably of limited appeal to travelers: the Kamogawa Sea World (????????) marine park, Mother Farm (?????) where kids can pet farm animals, and strangest of all, the Tokyo German Village (??????) 1 (http://www.t-doitsumura.co.jp/), with reconstructed half-timbered houses and bratwurst meals.

Tokyo Disneyland is also technically in the prefecture.

Understand

Many parts of Chiba can be visited on a day trip from Tokyo. The Pacific coast is dotted with many traditional fishing villages, and young surfers from Tokyo are attracted by the waves. The inner coast is less picturesque, but the cliffs of Nokogiriyama are a popular tourist attraction.

Get in

While JR trains run the entire coast of Chiba, the inner coast is just a 30-minute ferry ride from Kurihama, south of Yokohama. 1997 saw the completion of the Aqua Line tunnel, which burrows under Tokyo Bay between Kisarazu and Kawasaki (on the Tokyo side). At ¥4000 for a passenger car, almost nobody uses the tunnel though, and it's bleeding government money. You can take highway buses from Tokyo that take the tunnel for ¥2000.