Nokogiriyama (鋸山), meaning "sawtooth mountain", is a group of Buddhist temples cut into sheer cliffs. A rope-way gondola will take you up to the top, and on a clear day you'll have a spectacular 180-degree panorama spanning Chiba, Tokyo, and Yokohama to the north, Mount Fuji to the west, and Izu Oshima and Niijima to the south. Even on a so-so day, Yokosuka should be visible across Tokyo Bay. The most popular vantage point is Jigoku-nozoki (地獄覗き, "peering into hell") a small rock platform which sticks out over cliff. In the other direction you can see the low mountains of the interior Boso peninsula. From the peak, paths descend inland through the woods down to Nihonji (日本寺). The temple, built in 725 C.E., has a stone buddha statue that, at at total height of 31.05 meters, is in fact one of the largest buddha statues in Japan. From the Tokyo area, you can get to Nogokiriyama via the Tokyo Bay ferry from Kurihama (south of Yokohama). There are buses from the JR and Keikyu stations to the Tokyo-Wan Ferry Terminal, or you can walk (20 minutes). On the Chiba side, Kanaya is at the foot of the mountain. It should be taken into consideration that if you choose to descend the entire mountain on foot there is a long walk to the nearest rail station, the Hota JR station, with very infrequent service.
Kujukurihama beach in winter
Kujukuri-hama (九十九里浜) beach is, for many travelers, their first glimpse of Japan: it's the long coastline you see from the plane coming in over the Pacific into Narita. The name means "99-ri coast", where a "ri" is an old unit of length equal to about 654 meters. The coast is in fact around 60km in length. There are numerous small towns along the coast, from Iioka on the north to Ichinomiya on the south.
The lower Boso peninsula has several artificial attractions that are popular for family excursions but probably of limited appeal to travelers: the Kamogawa Sea World (鴨川シーワールド) marine park, Mother Farm (マザー牧場) where kids can pet farm animals, and strangest of all, the Tokyo German Village (東京ドイツ村) , with reconstructed half-timbered houses and bratwurst meals.
Don't Miss:
Nokogiriyama - huge mountain temple complex with Japan's largest pre-modern Buddha statue and gorgeous views
Narita Shinshouji Temple and surrounding traditional shopping streets
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Chiba (prefecture) - updated May 2024
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Chiba (prefecture) Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
