コロナ禍の誰もいない月の砂漠

Some photos of our trip to Sawara in Chiba Prefecture over the 3 day weekend a couple weeks back.

On the way to Sawara we stopped at Chiba Station and had lunch at a place called Common Café. I order a burger not expecting a lot, but it was the best burger I've had in a long time actually.

We arrived a bit late in Sawara and were kind of tired so we decided to just go to the hotel, shower and relax for a bit and then have dinner.
We had a reservation at a French restaurant called Mougins and it ended up being a really great experience.

After eating dinner we were headed back to the hotel and we heard some hayashi and cheering in the distance and we decided to check out what was happening. We found a dashi parading through the streets and they were stopping at different places to pick up alcohol lol. Apparently they'd been doing it every Sunday, I think since corona started.
It was pretty cool to see though.

The next day we went to check out the Sawara Historical District and after reaching our destination we decided to take a break at a cafe. We ordered a shaved ice and some sort of soda. They were both really delicious, especially the shaved ice. It was some sort of flavor using tea from Kyoto and milk. I forget what it was called exactly though.

We also stopped by the former residence of Inoh Tadataka, the famous Japanese cartographer.
It was quite interesting seeing where he lived.
After visiting his residence, we to the nearby museum and learned about his life and everything he did.

I was pretty blown away by how incredible he actually was. I was a bit surprised that I hadn't learned much about him when I was studying the history of Japan, but after visiting the museum I'm convinced he was truly a genius.

Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures inside of the museum, but seeing all of the tools that he used to draw maps and learning how they worked was really interesting.
On top of that, the maps he drew were unbelievably accurate.
I think it mentioned somewhere that his maps were used until the 1900's, despite being drawn several hundred years prior.
His cartography was only one of the endeavors he pursued as well. There were also some documents that explained how he helped his town get through the famine, and also documents detailing how he dealt with local lords imposing taxes on his town.

Besides the museum, we also took a boat ride through the canal that ran through the historical district.
The canal was quite nice, and you could see the historical buildings that lined the sides of it while going through it.
We had to lower the cover on the boat for several bridges as the water level was quite high due to the recent rains, but that just made the experience even more memorable.

The tour guide on the boat mentioned how when the canal was used back in the Edo period, it was incredibly busy and boats would have been bumping into each other constantly while passing through.

During the boat ride through the canal I noticed some interesting statues on various lanterns and decided to check them out. They all turned out to be interesting and unique.

We ended our trip by having a late lunch near the historical district.
We had planned to take a train back to Tokyo but missed it by a few minutes.
Fortunately, a bus arrived at the perfect time and so we rode that back to Tokyo. It was much better than the crowded trains.

Overall it was a really good day-trip style excursion and I definitely recommend it!
Managed to find 2 poke lids too!

娘が先月からAustralia Gold coastへ中学留学し、一年半帰って来なくて寂しいのでオンライン英語塾は勿論継続していますが、私は住み込みで宿へ働きに来ています！鴨川にある璃庵という宿です。とにかく忙しく過ごさないと娘のことばかり考えてしまうから?

宿に勤務し始めて17日。昨日は宿で使われているお猪口を割ってしまったので購入してお返したいと思い仕入先のガラス工房へお邪魔しました?✨

主基グラススタジオ（sukigalass）

山の中にあるのでお越しの際はお車で！

同じものは一つとない、味わい深い、美しいガラスが並んでいました♡
自分用にプレートも購入?

近隣の情報もたくさん教えて下さった製作者のおじさま。最初はぶっきらぼうに思えるかもしれませんが、色々とお話して下さいますよ！

是非お立ち寄り下さい?

以前行った小湊鉄道、月崎駅からの風景?
緑に囲まれて素敵な場所でした☺️

千葉県にあるあけぼの山農業公園です。

千葉県立房総のむら
今年も桜が満開です

千葉県御宿町の月の沙漠記念像
夜明け直前の撮影
早朝に人目につかないよう旅立つ二人をイメージ

成田山新勝寺にて撮影しました。?初詣のときに敷地内にある五重の塔の造形美に惹かれて撮影。1500年の歴史を垣間見ることができました。

河津桜が開花しました

船橋大神宮

日本の行事 初詣・船橋大神宮

色褪せて尚
凛とした花姿

日本の行事 成田山新勝寺

【 沈み行く満月になろうお月様 】

【雲無き夕刻】

水面に映る紅葉の水彩画

緑から赤へ
季節の移ろい

青空に映える 満開の冬桜
冬がそこまで来ています

夏を越え秋を迎えたアジサイは
時間をかけてアンティーク色に変化して
秋色アジサイとなりました

秋バラが見頃

松戸市にある本土寺で見られた紅葉の絨毯。赤で彩られた世界はとても美しく、感動しました。

Went to Chiba over the weekend and we were originally planning on visiting Mt. Nokogiri but decided to stay near the bay area instead since the weather was so nice. It really felt like we were in a resort area and it was a lot of fun. We managed to book a cruise of the nearby factories and it was a blast. They had snack bags for feeding the seagulls on board the ship that you could buy for ¥100 and once we started moving the seagulls started to follow and it just became a feeding frenzy. You’d throw the chips out to the seagulls as the flew side by side with the ship and they were really skilled at catching the chips as well. If it was a weak throw or the wind caught it, the seagull would dive down to catch it. Even if they missed it, another seagull behind it would swoop into the water and grab it. We bought two bags and halfway through the second bag you could tell the seagulls were getting full or tired because they weren’t as agile as they were at the start?. We also ate at a few restaurants. The steak and fried rice and the beef ramen was from Niku no Gyuuchu (肉の牛忠) I’m not sure if it has an English name or not. And the pizza was from a place called “Salvatore Cuomo.” Both tasted pretty good, I enjoyed the Italian restaurant more I think, but the steak restaurant had a nice, relaxed atmosphere compared to the rest of Lalaport which was pretty lively. I somehow lost the pictures I took of my pasta and the salad unfortunately.

We also went inside Chiba Port Tower and it had some nice views and a “lovers corner” for taking photos, etc. They also had heart-shaped locks that visitors could buy and lock to a wall to signify their love or something to that effect.

Overall it was a really fun experience and not too far from Tokyo. Would definitely like to go back and visit again!

赤の世界～松戸・祖光院の森～

千葉県南房総市の何気ない一枚。何となく歩いてて目に入った色の感じが凄くよくて撮りました。真夏って感じが好きです。

千葉県南房総市を散策中に木々の間から見た1枚。青葉の自然のフレームから覗いた風景がとても夏らしく素敵だったのをそのまま表現しました。

なかなか以前のように出かける事が難しくなってしまいましたが、景色は変わらず綺麗なままでした?☺️?
佐倉ふるさと広場での夕日です?

千葉県成田山のかき氷屋さんで出会ったブタさんの蚊取り線香。最近普段は中々見ることができないどこか懐かしいブタさん。これを見ると、あぁ日本の夏っていいなぁと思います。

夜景って綺麗だな、と思った街並み。思い出を閉じ込めて。

What an amazing view. I've only been to Chiba a few times, but never this far down south. This Cape Nojima looks really amazing though. I can imagine it's quite the view for anyone living near the water. I guess there's a lighthouse here as well, I'd like to see that, maybe take some photos. There's also an "Ocean Museum" near here as well I guess that looks pretty cool. They have some paintings, scrolls, ship ornaments and other stuff like that it seems. I wonder if you can learn about the history of fishing in the area or something. I always like seeing documents and materials that show stuff about how people lived in the past or how a certain region has changed. This photo feels so strange though, it feels like it's a deserted area almost, despite being modern looking. Just a weird feeling I guess lol. Great photo though!

奥さんと結婚前に最初の旅行で訪れた房総半島最南端の野島岬の夏の夕景です。あれから3年になりますが、今は息子も誕生しぜひ今度は3人で必ず訪れたいと思っている場所です。野島岬のすぐそばにある南海荘という昔ながらの宿の夕食のバイキングもまた楽しみにしているひとつです。