Chiba is a prefecture less than an hour (by train) east of Tokyo. And it is known for its beaches, factories and rice fields. It is also where my mom lives and where I spent most of my stay in Japan. I particularly like Chiba because it's near the sea, mountains, rice fields... haha ;) and since it is a suburb and not an area that tourists visit, there weren't a lot of people - which is always nice during a vacay cos I got all the beautiful places all to myselff!!
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| Field 5 minutes away from my mom's place |
My day started with a McDonald's breakfast. Their menu is quite different compared to the other South East Asian branches. I ordered shrimp burger (it has whole small shrimps inside!), risotto balls and cold tea. Their meal prices are more than twice of those in Manila. I wanted to order those soccer burgers but they're so big! haha
I absolutely love gardens and fortunately flowers in Japan sprout everywhere so my mom made sure we visited parks and flower gardens in the area. I must say tho that the photos do not do justice to the real thing AT ALL.
First stop was Sodegaura Kouen, it's a very a small park and many of the flowers were yet to bloom but it's beautiful nonetheless.
About 15-20 minutes from the first part is the Deutsches Dorf Tokyo (or German village in Tokyo - but im not sure if it's really in Tokyo or Chiba :O ). We were greeted by maybe a hundred different species of roses - with different colors and sizes. It was my first time to see roses as big as my hands. There were also Ajisais that were about to bloom at that time- I can only imagine how gorgeous it would look once they're all in full bloom.
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| Make a wish and ring the bell five times! |
The place is pretty big - they have rides, a nursery (with herbs and plants that are so hard to find in Manila) and a store (located uphill - such tiring walk!) where you can buy both Japanese and German products such as baumkuchen, sausages and other pastries.
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| Is this a water turbine? |
We got back to Ichihara (part of Chiba where my mom lives) a little past 4pm where we ate Yakiniku for a very late lunch ! (Yaki means grill and Niku means meat, but you probably already knew that).
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| Yakiniku and egg soup |
And of course, we could not miss the beaches! We went to some on my second day. They don't really have a shore with sand in this area and it was too cold to do more than dip your feet in the water. Although the scenery is nice for picture taking.
After the beach and on our way back to Ichihara, we passed by another flower park, Futomi Flower Paradise Center. Not only do they have a lot of different types and colors of flowers outside, but they also have green houses filled with different plants (even one that's extremely hot and suffocating that contains gigantic cacti) a dog room and a cat room.
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| Such cuties! wanted to take them home :( |
Our next stop was at Rosemary Park for a bit of Europe in Japan. It's a re-creation of Shakespeare's home and village.
Another park with the view of the Aqualine! Half of the bridge is above water and half is a tunnel underwater. I don't really know why half has to be underwater but hey, nobody quite understands the Japanese very well anyway.
And just a compilation of the Japanese (and some not-so-japanese) dishes we've eaten for lunch / dinner :)
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| Sukiyaki! |
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| Shabu-shabu at home! |
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| Beef Sashimi (Not really raw, this is the inside of a huge cut of blanched beef) |
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| Korean Yakiniku |
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| Kaiten Sushi or Sushi-go-round! |
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| Typical izakaya meal |
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| So good, so crunchy ice cream! haha |
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| Burger and prawns fried in butter! so yum! :) |
I love the Chiba vibe, it's so chill and while things seems slow-paced, everything is still efficient. And it doesn't hurt that it's a short drive from the sea and other beautiful nature places.
