Boso Peninsula - Another Trip, Driving Down the Pacific
Coast this Time (Page-5) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
For this trip,
I reserved a seat on one of JR's Limited Express (British English "Limited"
as in limited number of stops, not limited speed) trains. Being
a weekday and off-season, it was pretty empty. The beaches are busy
right up until August 31st, but come September 1st, they are nearly deserted,
even if the weather is perfect beach weather. Since this particular
trip was taken on September 8th, the trains, roads, convenience stores,
and beaches weren't crowded at all. The beaches were so empty, it
felt a bit lonely in a way. Nice to beat the crowds, but it would
have been funner if there had been at least a few more people about!
There are two terminal
stations on the Boso Peninsula for JR Limited trains - Tateyama on the
Uchibo Line and Awakamogawa on the Sotobo Line.
Rails follow the coastline all
the way around the peninsula, with the Uchibo Line running along the bayside
and the Sotobo Line running along the Pacific Ocean. Between the
terminal stations of Tateyama and Awakamogawa (both about two hours from
Tokyo Station) is a sleepy local line with seven stops between Tateyama
and Awakamogawa.
The roads in Japan get wider and wider all the
time, but there are still a lot of very narrow roads in Chiba, so if you
drive there in a large car, you'll have to stick to the main roads and
not get overly adventurous by driving into old neighborhoods with some
of the narrowest streets in the country. If you would like to freely
drive anywhere, then rent a K-car (1475mm x 3400mm with a 660cc engine).
Modern micro-cars have become rather nice recently, with air conditioning,
automatic transmissions, air bags, stereo systems and - vitally important
if you want to do a lot of driving - navigation systems. The Suzuki
Wagon-R I rented for this trip (above) was a pleasure to drive, with sufficient
power, able to make very tight U-turns, and an absolute joy when driving
on some of the extremely narrow streets encountered whenever the urge
for adventure led into yet another maze that would have been a nightmare
in a larger car.
Middle picture
below - the peninsula is famous for flowers, and while the weather is
warmer there than inland thanks to the warm ocean currents that flow up
from the south, still greenhouses are much in use here and there outside
of the warmest times of the year.
Far right, above
- this beach would have been full of people had I taken the picture just
a couple of weeks earlier. As it was, I and another person also
taking pictures were the only souls there. The bird below (which
I thought was a hawk, but I've been told is something else) was gliding
above me on motionless wings, riding the strong wind blowing in off the
Pacific. I would love to be able to fly like that... maybe I should
learn hang-gliding.
Further down the
coast, I came upon one of the peninsula's lighthouses (above left and
below left). The spiral staircase leading up to the top goes around
so many times, that you find yourself getting impatient for the top or
bottom as you wind around and around going up and then coming back down
- but the view from the top is worth it!
The lighthouse
and views from the top. The photos would have been better had the
wind not been so strong, as the salty mist in the air from the strong
winds cut visibility a little.
Left - looking
out to sea from the top of the lighthouse. Middle - looking inland
on the other side of the tower. Right - back on the ground, looking
across a park towards an empty bandstand (on the left side of the picture).
There are several
small fishing towns along the coast, all with boats like the one above
in their harbors. This type of boat is also chartered by groups
for sport fishing.
Copyright 2006 by Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon,
Images Through Glass, Tokyo, Japan
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