2012 CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors in Choshi (Part 1)

Last Sunday found me bright and early near my work, where I hopped on the bus for a day trip to Choshi with this year's CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors! We usually call them the チーバくん大使, which is an abbreviated version of their loooooong official project name. It gets even longer when translated into English.

The 2012 CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors! (or if they become a taiko group!)

CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors are exchange students and other foreign residents living in Chiba Prefecture who have been appointed to promote Chiba Prefecture!! Specifically, they do this by writing Chiba-related articles in their personal blogs/websites, facebook, Twitter, etc. We have 20 ambassadors this year, hailing from China, Korea, Taiwan, US, UK, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Italy!

English page about the CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors on the Chiba Prefecture website:
http://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kokusai/english/information/residents/ambassadors.html


Our merry crew was officially appointed ambassadors a couple a weeks ago, and the trip to Choshi was our first outing together. These tours to various famous places/events throughout Chiba Prefecture are just one of the perks for the CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors.

Choshi's Hanryu-kai (阪流会), a member of the Choshi Hane-daiko Preservation Society (銚子はね太鼓保存会).

After a 2 hour or so bus ride from Chiba City, we arrived at Choshi City Hall, where this fantastic group awaited us! Yes - that's right, we had a special taiko performance arranged only for us!!! The sounds of the taiko really resound through the area, so before we knew it we had gathered a decent amount of curious onlookers.

The Ambassadors getting straight down to work!

Unfortunately, I'm not 100% confident about this, but if I remember correctly, I think this group, the Hanryu-kai, is just one Choshi Hane-daiko group amongst a handful of groups that make up the Choshi Hane-daiko Preservation Society.

If you'll remember, I actually saw a different group perform the Choshi Hane-daiko at the Narita Taiko Festival earlier this year! Of course, this time around we got to see this style of taiko drumming up close and personal, so let me share some photos and video so you can enjoy it too:




The Hanryu-kai was absolutely fantastic and they played us all sorts of pieces! All this taiko makes me itchy to join the matsuri in the fall.

See this older man with the hand drum? He seemed to be the pace keeper. He came up her and yelled at everyone for going too fast! So adorable~.

Aaaaand another super adorable scene. Apparently, there is a folk dance that anyone in Choshi knows how to do it, so the super cute old man demonstrated for us!




My favorite, the actual Choshi Hane-daiko! They weren't nearly as fierce as the performance I saw in Narita, but it was still awesome anyways. It must be extremely painful to play the drums in such an uncomfortable position!

"Hane" means to hop or skip...how fitting!

We also had a chance to try out the different instruments~!

Person from Choshi City Hall explaining our souvenirs...thank you!!

Choshi City Hall also prepared welcome packs for everyone! They had lots of awesome info pamphlets (my favorite is this really artsy photo collection of an area in Choshi called Togawa (外川). The packs also contained soy sauce, sardines, and noodles (with sardines in them!)...also Choshi-related stuff.

After lots of taiko excitement, it was time for lunch!

We had lunch here, a Japanese restaurant called Kamichi (かみち), located right in front of Choshi Station.

Sardine set meal that a couple of my coworkers got.

Choshi boasts some of the highest catches of fish in the country, so it's super famous for delicious, fresh fish! Right now it's the season for sardines, hence the let's-put-as-many-sardine-dishes-into-a-single-meal as we can. (Can you tell I am personally not a fan of sardines? But I think because I was force fed the gross canned kind as a kid...I got to taste some of this meal, and it was quite good!)

Sashimi set!

I got the sashimi set (sorry, it looks kinda lonely because it was before my rice and miso soup came along) - always forget exactly what fish there was. The dark red sashimi is maguro, and one other was supposedly kanpachi, so I think the remaining one is some type of tai.

Dried octopus (not squid!)

After lunch, we had some time to wander around the nearby souvenir shops. I wandered into one, and the super cute old lady working there latched onto my friend and I, constantly forcing samples on us. It was really sweet, but we were stuffed after lunch! 

Soy sauce soft serve ice cream!!!

Choshi also is home to two major soy sauce makers, Yamasa and Higeta! (Kikkoman is in another city in Chiba, Noda.) So someone came up with the genius idea for soy sauce ice cream!

There's always room for dessert~.

There was a lot of good debate about what the ice cream tasted like. Yes, it did taste like soy sauce, but the salty + sweetness made a lot of people think of caramel...until someone mentioned cheese (somehow, yes cheese!) and I actually have to agree. It might sound crazy, but try it and you'll be a believer!

Anyway, for easier viewing purposes, the second half of our tour will continue in the next post!