This past weekend marks the last weekend of winter vacation. With that I did some traveling to see my friend Ippei in Chikura. Chikura is about 3 hours from my dorm and about 100 kilometers from Tokyo. It is located in Chiba Prefecture on the Pacific side of the Peninsula that is Tokyo Bay towards the tip.

Going to the 田舎 (inaka (country side)) was a really nice get away after being in Tokyo for 4 months, even if it was only for a weekend. I could actually look in any direction and not see other people!

On Friday Ippei and I just hung out and his house, climbed hills, looked at views – took it pretty slow. I had this great idea of waking up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean with some coffee. Though we had to do it elevated a bit so we could see more of the ocean. As luck would have it the sky was too cloudy. We went anyway. It was peaceful though. Looking out over it was still pretty.

Clouds!

Later in the day we went to an art museum, which while neat was sadly quite small and full of “fine art photography” that was something I could take. We also went by a temple and 館山城 (Tateyama Castle). It is on top of this huge hill (the best spot to build any palace so you can see the enemy coming miles away.

Tateyama Castle

As we were going to this lighthouse we walked through the shrine right before it. I thought noting of it until I looked off to my side and to my surprise I see the following:

There was no explanation as to why it was there. During the spring there are some fertility festivals (which Japan needs badly what with its shrinking population), but in the middle of winter…either way – worth a photo!

Last but not least we found some huge beautiful rocks near the ocean. Climbed them (while singing the Mario songs with mario sound effects of course) all to end up doing the thinker pose.

When it came time for my return to Tokyo I didn’t want to quite yet. It was too beautiful. It was then that I realized the answer to a question I was thinking about on the train ride to Chikura. People can live an entire lifetime without leaving the city they were born. I want to go halfway around the world to do the same. How can they do that? It’s their home.