A Train Trip to Underrated Coastal Spots Near Tokyo!

A Train Trip to Underrated Coastal Spots Near Tokyo!

All right, good morning everyone. Hope you’re having a fantastic day so far. In this video, I’ll be heading out to explore the quieter side of Chiba Prefecture. For those who don’t know where Chiba is, it is the prefecture just east of Tokyo. This video is actually a collab with Craig from the Chiba Prefectural Tourism and Local Products Association. He will be joining along with me and taking me around underrated and lowkey areas. Uh it’s on this platform. Okay. Oh, it’s here. This is the Wakashio E257 series and the destination Amma Kamogawa station. This is my first time riding this train, so I’m very excited. Okay, we’re open [Music] 12. [Music] We are taking a limited express called the Wakashio that runs between Tokyo and Awa Kamogawa. It first runs through the KO line until SOA station and then from there it goes through the STO line which loops around the right side of the Boso Peninsula. It’s actually been a while since I rode the KO line. Most people take this train to head over to Myama, which is the closest station to Tokyo Disneyland. It’s actually in Chiba, but they probably changed it to Tokyo for marketing reasons. Well, anyway, we’re about to pass by Kasai Park Station. It’s like the cheaper alternative to Disneyland. They’ve got a ferris wheel you can ride to look over the expensive Disneyland next door since it’s literally just one station away. And the next station we should be passing by is My Hama, which is the station people get off at to go to Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disney Sea. I think this is it. But the weather today isn’t the best. I think that is Journey to the Center of the Earth. That is the Disney Hotel. Oh, there’s the castle. Oh, this is my Hama Station. Oh, that was the Disney Resort line. Oh, another Tokyo Disney Resort line. Oh, that’s the journey to the center of the that mountain before that. And then there’s Tower of Terror. Ah, this is fun. We’re passing through Chiba City now. And if you look closely, that’s the Chiba Montreal, which is one of the only two suspended Montreals in the Tokyo area. And a fun fact for Americans, Toys R Us still exists in Japan. When the US company went bankrupt, the Japan side stayed open because it was still doing well. Ended up being run by a different company and just kept going. I’ve also seen the sports authority here, too. We’re now at Soga Station, which is the last stop of the KO line, which means we’re switching over to the Sotto line. On the Bozo Peninsula, there are two general lines that loop around it. The Uchbo line and the Sotto line. They both start at Chiba Station and end at Amokawagawa station, but go in opposite directions. Icho goes left and the stobo goes right. After SOA station, you’ll start to see fewer buildings and more grass. Craig got on somewhere along here and we were just chatting because this is the first time meeting in person. I didn’t want to just point the camera at him right away. I’ll show him once we get off this train. [Music] It’s kind of hard to see. Okay, so I’m here at Katsura station and yeah, met up with Craig. What’s up? Okay, Craig, what is this area famous for? Uh, so about 10 minutes that way, there’s a morning market. Uh it’s one of Japan’s oldest continuously running morning markets. Over that way is the beach and uh a couple famous surf spots. And uh also here in late February and early March, they have a Hinamat city. The steps leading to one of the shrines by the morning market. They have about 1,800 Heinod dolls all lined up on the steps uh every day during the festival. That’s a lot. Yeah. Uh actually I can show you up here. They have a display here in the station as well. So as you can see here, the the local trains, they only come every like 40 minutes or hour. Um, so there’s like 48 minutes between local trains right now. Oh, yeah. Heading back to Chiba in Tokyo. Um, yeah. So, these are some of the Hina dolls. And then during the festival, there’s 1,800 of them. Yeah. At just one spot all around town. There’s um like a total like thousands of them all around town. Here’s what the overall vibes look like. [Music] Oh, what is that logo over there? Like the mascot. Oh, that’s um Kapi Kapi. The fishing port here is famous for katsu. Okay. He’s a hobby wearing katu. Oh, the beach right now is really cool. They have a big like athletic course set up on the beach. It’s hard to explain. So, okay, we won’t go there. Yeah, this is what happens when you come visit me in Chiba. I we get somewhere and then I realized five different things I didn’t think about till we arrived. Yeah, it’s about 3° cooler here than it was in Chiba City. They say Kasur is the coolest city in Kanto during the summertime. The temperatures here tend to be about 3, four, even 5° cooler than Tokyo in Chiba City. But I think that would be another reason why you want to visit Chiba during the summer. Definitely. I heard that Chiba is the only prefecture with no bear encounters. That is true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although we do have the wild boar here. Sometimes monkeys. Sometimes I’ll even get notices from my son’s school. There was like a monkey sighting near the school. So the kids have to be careful. Same with wild boar. What was the name of your mask called? The chiba chiba. What? The copy here. Chiba chun chibakun. The dog, right? No, it’s not a dog. It’s a mysterious creature. I am very sorry. I assumed that it was a dog. No, I thought that too. There he is right there. So, he’s actually the Actually, I don’t know if it’s a he is Chibaun, but I I think um he’s non Chibakun is non-gendered. I think technically. So, the full name is Chibaun. Chibakun. Yeah. And the shape is the shape of the prefecture. So, if you look at the shape of Chibaun like superimposed on a map, like it’s the shape fit perfectly. So like where Disney is is the tongue and like you visited Choshi recently. The uh the ear is Choshi, I believe. I think right now we’re in like around Chiba’s back area. But anyway, there’s a there’s a Tory gate there. There’s a another like athletic course for kids on the beach. Oh yeah, if you come here on the weekend especially like there’s like a shop so you can get different food. Oh, sand. Yeah, be careful. That’s a really nice beach. No waves. You often see surfers also for those surfers over there. Mhm. That’s called Malibu Point. It’s like a famous surf spot. Oh, I think they’re still setting up. It’s not quite summer vacation yet. So, once the schools are on summer vacation, like there’s tons of people here every day. Yeah. This is where I come with my family in the summers like to hang out. It’s pretty mellow here cuz they have the the tetropod break there. And over there’s like the surfing area on that side. Yeah. Yeah. Now they’re setting setting everything up. So, a lot of those like uh inflatables will be on the water during summer vacation. And uh this spot too where they have the sandbags that’ll be like a spot for kids like um they have like slides. Have you tried that before? Like the playground? Yeah. Yeah. It’s actually the one on the water was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. Oh, really? All right. We should get to the station. We have 11 minutes. Thank you. Is this the comini you’re talking about? The daily. Yeah. This will be the last one for a while. Okay. So, if you take the limited express down this way and transfer and you have time to kill, definitely hit up this Kini. Oh, this is cool. or something. So, we’re getting off at the next station called Ubana Station. Oh, over there. Okay. Oh, yeah. And then you can get the train. Ah. So, on a clear day, you can see the ocean. Oh, over there. Yeah. Okay. It’s a little foggy today. Dang it. Oh, that’s the exit. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. I like that though with the traditional style house there. And then I don’t know why, but there’s a a log cabin here. Oh, yeah. This one. Yeah. Is this like the waiting room? Yeah. You never been to a station with a post office? No. This might be the first one, actually. I actually going to Oh, wow. That’s convenient. So, what if you yell? Will you echo? Uh, what do you want me to yell? Visit Cha. Oh, that was actually a pretty good echo. Loud and clear to visit Chiba. What is that? I think it’s a some animal droppings. Don’t step on it. All right. What animal is that? It’s like There’s monkeys. There’s kil here. They’re like little deer. Oh. Um I forget what they’re called in English. Do you want to walk down to the way to or Okay, sure. Or you can if you don’t want to walk out, you can film from the stairs and we can walk since we’re here in a couple weeks during summer vacation. Like there’ll be tons of people here. What is Su Jo? Uh oh. Um jet skiis. Oh, jet ski. Yeah, that’s called I believe so. Yeah. The beach. Something you can’t see in Tokyo. For sure. Not. Yeah. The water is really clear today. Yeah. You tall buildings up there. Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now for work for a friend of mine is like a member of the hotel. Nice sunrise from up there. Imagine waking up and Yeah. at the beach. Last year for New Year’s, we we stayed down here by the beach and we um in the morning we woke up early and not these cliffs. We went to um another set of cliffs down that way and watched the sunrise over the ocean for the uh Hatsuino day. Now, I’m just going to say this, but I’m from Hawaii, but I’m not a beach person at all. Really? I’m more of a mountain. Okay. I’m sorry if I sound like I don’t know what’s going on. No. Was it Ma? Oh, wait. Ma Maka. Oh, hey. So long since I heard that word at my elementary school there used to be on the cafeteria there was like the mai side and the balcon okay. Oh yeah I don’t think I said this on camera but Craig you used to live in Hawaii. Yeah. Yeah. 4 years. Which part again? Uh I lived in Wy K mostly. Yeah. Actually I think this area is kind of similar with the sea cliffs and the ocean and that’s true. People really don’t think of Chiba as a Hawaii like paradise. But for me, I mean, I I don’t find the scenery too dissimilar. This is going to feel so weird going back home to Tokyo. Yeah. Right. For me in Chiba City, like this is completely different from from Chiba City. That’s a tunnel. Yeah. Looks kind of spooky. Yeah. Right. This tunnel is more moist. Yeah. The last one. I can’t read that kanji. Welcome to utopia. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So, this sign says, “Welcome. Welcome to Utopia.” And as you can see here, this area is called Ubara Utopia. All right. So, why is it called Utopia? Starting in the Taisho period, a lot of wealthy people had vacation homes here. So, they kind of branded this area Ubara Utopia. Yeah. So, that’s where we were earlier. Oh, wow. All right. And this is the moist tunnel. And this is the bell. The ta tawo yami dra bell. M. Mhm. Are we going to this one? The bell of happiness. Oh, that is a tombi feather. So, I don’t know if you’ve seen those kind of hawk looking birds. They’re called tombi. And you see a lot of them around here. Do they attack people? Uh, they will attack you if you have food in your hand. I’ve actually seen someone have an oniiri snatched out of their hand by a tombi uh couple beaches down that way. Okay, that’s good to know. Yeah, they they’re not they won’t attack you, but if they will steal your food, so be careful. I literally just turned my camera off. Did you get that? I got it. I think I got it. That was great. I can’t believe it. I thought I was turning my camera on and I turned it off as it was like the perfect scene of him walking by. Yeah, this was the kill and the little deer kind of guys I was talking about before. Whoa. Yeah, this is great. Look at that view. [Music] Nice breeze, too. Yeah, I think that’s the best part about this place. Damn, a cliff. Oh, see that’s a tombi up there. Oh, this one. Yeah. Okay. So, do not eat on around this. Next place we’re going to go to is the bell of happiness. It’s that thing over there. How do we get there? Like just around? Yeah, we just keep following the trails. Okay. What month would you recommend people visiting Chivbo? Uh if you’re coming to this area, um especially around here on the coast, September, October, November are really nice and you don’t have the summer crowds. It can get like late July, early August can be a little crowded around here, but once school starts back up in September, the weather is basically the same, but less people. The water, especially in like Katsura Bay, is particularly clear in uh like through November. [Music] You want to go first? I never thought a wild animal animal will be a tour guide. Oh no, never mind. You going to go there? Oh, and then we’re here. And this is the bell of happiness. Well, look at this area. I need to be happy. Oh, wait. What the heck? Um, I actually don’t know what these caves are, but they’re cool to look at. It’s good for meditating, thinking about chiba content. How can I best promote chiba? I hope this goes viral. So, the next place we’re going to go to is a Tanner exclusive. Yeah. So, one of my personal favorite spots, uh, but I don’t promote it on Visit Chiba cuz it’s, uh, it’s not the safest spot in the world. This exclusive spot that I’ve never even shown a visit. Okay. Here’s our train and Oh, yeah. I just saw the island over there. Oh, there it is. There you go. Oh, no. The houses. The next station we’re getting off at is Namigawa Island. This was a station built in 1970 specifically for Namawa Island, an amusement park known for its dolphin shows, tropical birds, and a greenhouse full of palm trees. Back then, even express trains would stop here to drop off families headed for a day by the sea. But the park shut down in 2001, and after that, the number of daily passengers dropped. In 2006, the last time the station had an official record, it averaged just 19 people a day. You can still see the old parking lot and the tunnel that once led straight to the park entrance. We can do the next island over there. I have to say officially that we do not tell people to go there cuz it’s private property and it’s closed off. But there’s this spot right up here that you can go to and it’s one of my secret favorite views. Again, this spot is very dangerous. So, uh if you do choose to go there, just be really careful and uh don’t fall down the cliff. I love hotel, too. Oh, nice. Yeah. Oh, wow. I don’t know if nice is the right reaction. Well, yeah. No, I mean it’s it’s cool. It’s cool. We’re going to cross the street here. Here. Yeah. This looks like we’re not supposed to. No, it’s totally fine. Yeah. Yeah, cuz it’s like a historical spot here. Yeah. I think this road is still only is open because of the the historic spot over here. Wow. Something in the bushes. Yeah, I know. If it’s a kon, it’s okay. It’s a a boar or a monkey. What should we do if we see a boar? Uh, I know the monkey. Don’t make eye contact, but also don’t lose eye contact. Like, don’t make direct. Don’t look in its eyes, but also keep it in your field of vision. At least that’s what the the notices from my son’s school say. Uh, wild boar. I don’t know. I was just going to throw you down and then run. So, this is the spot here. This is the farthest you can go. Yeah, we can go up here. Oh, there’s Columbia. Oh, okay. And the view is pretty spectacular. Wow. Here’s a cliff here. So, yeah, that’s so close. Stay far from the edge. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing view. Wow. If you come up just a little bit, you can like get a view of like the waves crashing down there. Very dangerous. be very careful if you come here. Don’t go near the edge of the cliff cuz you don’t want to fall down there. And this rock is loose too and years of uh wind and water erosion. Um someday these cliffs probably will fall into the ocean. So if you switch with me here. Okay. So yeah, beautiful view looking that way too. Okay. That means it wasn’t by will. Oh, okay. Okay. That’s I think they wanted to murder the father, but they murdered the daughter by mistake. Oh, so maybe she was dressed up as the dad. Yeah, that’s Yeah, that was the the part of it. It’s a long story. Yeah. This is where we started here. Mhm. We uh walked to this beach here. There’s the morning market. Came back here, took the train to here. We walked to Robario Beach, walked here, took the train two stops to here, and then went to Yeah. The ocean. Yeah. So, how often do you visit Tokyo? Uh not often. What would you say? Like once every A couple times a year. A couple times a year. Yeah. I don’t really have much a reason to go. Um, if I have like family come visit, like I’ll take them to Tokyo. I’m a big baseball fan, so sometimes I’ll go watch Chibalote. Besides baseball, yeah, I don’t really visit Tokyo too often, but I’m glad I live in Chiba and not Tokyo. I like the balance of living in Chiba. It only takes me 20 minutes to get to Chiba City, which is pretty urban. If I really want to go to Tokyo, it’s about an hour. If I want to go to the beach, a little is a half an hour. So, it’s kind of the best of both worlds. Yeah. So, I like living here. It’s cool. There you go. Go to cheapo. Please use those. Yeah, I I’ll put this P. All right, so it is 3:24 p.m. right now and the next train is coming at 3:47 and I’m going to be heading home using this train. Thank you so much, Craig, for taking me around spots. Yeah, no worries. Thanks for letting me show you around. I’m always happy to kind of show the more unknown spots along the Chiba Coast here. I’ll put the link of the association website in the description. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so the algorithm thing to like this video over here. So, feel free to check that video out as well. All right, bye-bye. Thank you for watching. Bye, Gray.

Link to the official website of Chiba Prefectural Tourism & Local Products Association:
https://www.visitchiba.jp/
Their instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/visit_chiba_japan/

📍 Google Maps Links to These Locations
I included Google Maps links for all the spots shown in my videos so you can check them out yourself!
📍 Katsuura Station
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6eGSVAtuFz4X1KP98
📍 Ubara Utopia
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PMtRtskMQ6eMsS6j8
📍 Namegawa Island Station
https://maps.app.goo.gl/duCjherEvwD918x97
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