One Week in Chiba: Part 1 ~a natural kind of luxury~

Like I mentioned in my previous post, last week my parents visited me here in Japan.

It was their first time visiting me since I've actually started working here a little over 3 years ago, and I really wanted to show them my life here, and just why I love it here so much. We spent the whole week exploring a bunch of my favorite places in Chiba (and Chiba only!!), so I'd like to share the some of the places we went/things we did/people we met here as well!

I wound up collecting about 600 photos over the whole week, so I'll be sharing our trip through multiple posts.

So...here we go!

Rent-a-car, go!!!

My parents arrived late Monday evening, so we headed straight down to Kamogawa, our first destination! After a good night's rest at the Hidamari Inn, we headed out bright and early the next morning to check out some of my favorite spots around town.

ママと一緒♡似てるかな？？

 This first post will focus on our morning activities, which were centered around the Kominato district of Kamogawa~! Behind us in the photo above is Kominato Bay.

Dad looking across the bay...

We then went to the 鯛の浦遊歩道 (Tai-no-Ura leisure path?) - this has been a long time favorite place of mine, because it's like the perfect place for strolls as you enjoy views of the Pacific Ocean and downtown Kamogawa in the distance.

This area's name, "Tai-no-Ura (lit. "Sea Bream Bay")," originates from a legend related to Nichiren Shonin, who was said to be born in this area. The legend states that when he was born, three miracles happened - one of them being that sea breams, which are a deep water fish, suddenly appeared in this shallow water bay. Even now they thrive there, and you can take a short ferry trip around the bay to see them!

The skies were a bit foreboding at first, but it cleared up later on in the day!

There were a bunch of people fishing on the rocks, as well as this person who kept diving in and out of the ocean - perhaps fishing for seaweed or something???

Downtown Kamogawa in the distance!

The tall white building in the middle of the above photo is the Kamogawa Grand Tower, where we stayed that night - but that deserves it's very own post, which I should be putting up next.

Hallo! At the monument at the end of the path.

Next, we went to 誕生寺 (Tanjoji Temple), which was built to honor the birth of Nichiren Shonin.

Powerful carvings decorating the temple hall!

A statue of Nichiren Shonin.

Also, we still had some time before our lunch appointment, so we also drove by the Osenkorogashi cliffs which are located right along the edge of Kamogawa leading into the neighboring Katsuura City. It looks kinda like Cali's Route 1 (except the grass is crazy overgrown - I think it looks much prettier here in the winter~.)

The restaurant 蔵 ("Kura") located inside the ryokan.

Deep in the mountains of the Kominato district, you can find this gorgeous ryokan, the 緑水亭 (Ryokusuitei). I'd heard of it many times during the three years I lived in Kamogawa...and just how much pricey it was too - I believe the usual rate is 100,000 yen per night (over US$1,000).

Here is the Ryokusuitei website: http://ryokusuitei.jp/

Once, some friends and I had toyed with the idea of just going there for lunch. Finally, we decided to call the Ryokusuitei to see how much lunch was. We were kinda expecting it, but we were still floored when we were told that lunch starts at 10,000 yen = more than US$100. Needless to say, that idea died out pretty quickly.

The entire restaurant is solely made up of private dining rooms!

We were able to have lunch at the Ryokusuitei this time around thanks to Saito-san and her husband, who both took good care of me when I lived in Kamogawa. I had originally planned lunch at a different place, but when Saito-san heard I would be visiting with my parents, she offered to take us. I may not ever have the chance to go again...but omg, it was amaaaazing!

Garden within the ryokan.

The whole reason we had lunch here!

My only "requirement" for lunch was to go to a place where I could feed my parents this - one of my current favorite foods, 金目鯛の煮付け (Golden Eye snapper cooked in soy sauce blended with sake and sugar). It doesn't look so big here, but this was actually as long as the tip of my fingers down to my elbow...and each person got one of these babies to ourselves. I've had this at a number of places, but this is by far the best I've ever had.

On another note, the paper at the bottom of the photo is the menu for our meal! I even kept it as a souvenir because it was so EPIC. If you count, we had THIRTEEN different dishes in our course.

Here are just a couple photos of some of the other dishes:

Appetizers (...and oolong tea in the middle).

Delicious sashimi *drool*

(front) Chilled fruit/vegetable dish, (back) round eggplant topped with miso and vegetables

Group photoooo!!!

Sorry for the blurriness...but both of the photos we had taken turned out like this ;_;. Anyway, the couple to my right is Saito-san and her husband. I know they won't read this, but thank you for an amazing time!!!


This is just the beginning - there's still a lot more to come in upcoming posts!