tour number two, day one

Last month was our second Chiba-kun Ambassador tour, which also happened to be the first one ever with an overnight stay! Spending the night made it seem much more like a trip and I felt like I got to know the other ambassadors much better, so this has definitely been the most fun thing we've done together so far. Plus we were lucky to have wonderful weather (almost) the whole time. The destination for this tour: Minamiboso and Tateyama in southern Chiba, aka the very tip of the peninsula!

Our first stop was Okinoshima, an uninhabited island in Tateyama. After a roughly two-hour bus ride, we stepped off onto sand and gorgeous blue skies! The island is uninhabited, but apparently a popular tourist destination for exploring and collecting shells. We were taken around the island by a pair of very knowledgeable guides, who told us all about the island and the creatures living on and around it. It was really fun to explore the island, which had lots of rocky areas to explore and even a little tunnel, not to mention breathtaking views almost everywhere. I collected lots of miniature shells and tried (unsuccessfully) to make a whistle out of leaves like our guide showed us.

Having wandered all around the island, our next destination was lunch at a local hotel! The restaurant was called Ikoi no Mura Tateyama and apparently they come up with new dishes made from local ingredients depending on the season, and the two choices that we had were relatively new. I picked the hasshoku donburi, or 8-color mini rice bowls, and I am definitely happy with that choice! As you can maybe tell from the name, it was made up of 8 little donburi (rice bowls with toppings), each with a different topping and also a different salt to sprinkle on it! There was an order to eat them in and everything, which was a little complicated but delicious. :)

Then we were off even further south to the Shirahama Marine Art Museum and the Nojimazaki Lighthouse, which are located at the southernmost tip of Chiba Prefecture! The Shirahama Marine Art Museum has displays of (you guessed it) marine art, mostly of some intricately designed traditional coats that were worn, but also some old fishing tools and sculptures. The top of the lighthouse offered a fantastic view of the ocean, and there was also a little museum at the bottom explaining its history. My favorite part though, was actually the seashore in the park area nearby! There they had a marker proclaiming it as the southernmost tip of the prefecture, as well as a bench way up on some rocks that was apparently the best place to watch the sunset. But what I liked was climbing around the rocks to get a little closer to the ocean! A few of us clambered down and out and it was super fun (and beautiful and windy). Apparently most of the ambassadors didn't even make it out to the park, which I think was a real shame. The next time somebody wants to see a beautiful place in Chiba, I would definitely take them there!

 

Though I could have spent a lot more time around the shore, after what felt like just a few minutes we were off again to our final destination for the day: our minshuku (kind of like a Japanese bed-and-breakfast), Omeidosou. But the activities didn't end there! After a brief break for us to settle in and rest a little, we gathered in a room to see a performance of (o)hayashi, or traditional festival music. This wasn't my first experience with the music, but it was the first time hearing it indoors and up close! One of the members was a little boy who must have been about six or seven, who was super adorable. After the performance, they let us come up and try the drums and flutes for ourselves! I could do the drums all right, but couldn't manage to make a proper sound out of the flute (I was so bad one of the performers laughed at me, even, haha).

And then it was time for dinner, which I'm pretty sure was prepared by the minshuku owners. There was a lot of food and it was delicious, though I think a few people were a little uncomfortable because the menu included live abalone, which were then cooked in front of us. I have to admit I didn't really like seeing my dinner move right before I ate it and felt bad that we were basically cooking them alive, but then I figured if I didn't eat it, it would all have been for nothing, so I did (and it was tasty).


After that we were free to do as we pleased, so after (very slowly) finishing (all of) my dinner, I took a soak in the (hot spring?) bath in the minshuku and then showed up for the social event we had planned, which turned out to be a quiz about Chiba Prefecture! Despite doing abysmally for most of the questions (things like which countries have direct flights out of Narita Airport, which vegetables Chiba produces the most of in Japan, etc.), my partner and I managed a comeback victory with our knowledge of Chiba's sister cities! Admittedly, since we both work for the city it might have been a little unfair, but with a prize of free biwa (loquat) ice cream the next day on the line, what could we do? :)

The rest of the night was spent happily chatting and having semi-serious discussions with some other ambassadors, which was probably one of the best parts of the trip. Like I said earlier, I felt like I really got to know some of them better and it's always nice to be able to have discussions with people that at least feel meaningful, so I went to bed late but pretty happy (despite having to get up very early the next day).

And that was day one of the tour! This post is already pretty long so I'll cut it short here, but stay tuned for day two shortly. :D

Major stops (Tateyama/Minami-boso):
- Okinoshima (http://www.city.tateyama.chiba.jp/en/page003585.html）
- Shirahama Marine Art Museum (http://homepage2.nifty.com/kaibi/)
- Omeidosou Minshuku (http://www.omeidoso.com/)