2012 CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors in Choshi (Part 2).

Just need to post this because of my strange obsession with signs like this...:D

So, onto Part 2 of our tour in Choshi! (Here's Part 1.)

CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors in front of Choshi Station!

After lunch and a little souvenir shopping, we reconvened in front of Choshi Station to hop onto the Choshi Electric Railway ("Choshi Dentetsu," 銚子電鉄).

Random neat thing about the Choshi Dentetsu...it doesn't have its own station, so you actually have to walk through the JR platforms to it! The Choshi Dentetsu is actually located on an extention of the JR platform. (Also, note the lone Suica ticket gate...yay country living!)

Our guide, Ishigami-san telling us all sorts of fun facts about the Choshi Dentetsu!

Ishigami-san is one of the Choshi Tourist Attendants (銚子観光アテンダント). Apparently these "attendants," or guides, have a neat system of specifically showing visitors around by explaining stuffon shuttle buses running around the city and the Choshi Dentetsu.

Here are a few things I learned from Ishigami-san:

Hopping off the train really quickly to poke around. The Ambassadors were totally filmed and on the news later on that day!

Apparently the trains currently running are originally from other railways - for instance, the train we were riding (pictured above) originally ran on one of the Keio lines in Tokyo. (I think. I don't have much confidence in my memory.)

This red train is the Choshi Dentetsu's newest addition!

I can't remember which station exactly, but I think this is the only point on the railway where the trains can bypass each other! There's only one track for the rest of the line.

Ashikajima is the station located furthest east in the Kanto Region!

Hydrangea season!

Also forgot which station it was, but one of the station had TONS of hydrangea on both sides of the tracks, and it was super pretty!! The super dusty train windows added a really interested effect to this photo.

Learning about this fun sculpture at Inubo Station.

Finally, we got off the train at Inubo Station, where we said goodbye to Ishigami-san and met our new guides, three people from the Kanko Sendokai, an organization of Choshi's volunteer guides.

Parting knowledge from Ishigami-san: nure-sembei ice cream!

Nure-sembei is another famous food from Choshi. It's basically sembei (rice crackers) soaked in soy sauce. High school students from a local high school developed a new famous food for Choshi - ice cream with little bits of these crackers mixed in! Needless to say, it's reaaaaally interesting, and actually quite different from the soy sauce soft serve in my previous post. If you're looking for an adventure, there's definitely one here.

Inubosaki Lighthouse! And also, the only white mailbox in Japan!

Inubosaki Lighthouse is another one of Choshi's most popular destinations for tourists. Take a light hike up the 99 step corkscrew staircase within the tower, and you can enjoy some really spectacular views of Choshi (and perhaps beyond, if the weather is clear enough)!

Also, the mailbox is super cool too, because it is currently the only white mailbox in Japan! (Normally mailboxes in Japan are bright red.) It was installed just earlier this year in March, for White Day!

You'll spot lots of these signs climbing up the lighthouse. They are encouraging/torturing you!

Nearly half of the sign has faded away, but it marks the 99th step of the Inubosaki Lighthouse! Goal!!

Really lovely weather from atop the lighthouse! You can kinda see Choshi Port Tower jutting out of the horizon.

Our final destination: Chikyu no Maruku Mieru Oka!

After the lighthouse, we proceeded onto our next and final destination for the day, the Chikyu no Maruku Mieru Oka Ocean View Observatory (地球の丸く見える丘展望館). As the name says, the earth (err...horizon?) looks round viewed from here!

Listening the guide's explanation. I guess it's easiest to see the round-ish horizon from on top of here?

The earth may not look so round in this photo, but it's a gorgeous view nonetheless! Spot the windmills?

They have these plates showing what landmarks are in each direction. Not pictured here (nor could we see them that day), but apparently if you are a good kid you might be able to see as far as Mt. Fuji, or even Hawaii! Thank you lovely guides~.

Anyway, it was my second time in Choshi, and with the great weather - and more importantly, meeting so many warm personalities, I feel that it really is a lovely place! Choshi, I really love that you've got a sense of humor:

The note says "take it, you thief!" :D

Tiles here and there outside of the entrance to the observatory had Choshi's famous products inscribed on them, like this cabbage tile! I love hidden surprises like this :D

Anyway, Choshi is a lovely place, and it was even more fun with the great company of the CHI-BA+KUN Ambassadors! Can't wait for our next tour!

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!