This picture was taken from the lookout in Showa-no-Mori, 05/21/05. It's actually a panorama made from 3 or 4 pictures I took and then merged in Photoshop™. If you click on it you'll be taken to a page that offers a more full-sized view.
I'm not certain, but I think the lookout at Showa-no-Mori might be the highest point in Chiba Prefecture. As a whole, Chiba is a flat penninsula. There's a series or range of hills south of here, though, that might be higher. At any rate, we are approximately halfway between Tokyo Bay and the Pacific Ocean here, and about a 20 minute walk from our apartment is all it takes to see such a nice view. That is, when the air is clear enough. Most days we can't see that far. I'll have to check, but I think that the lookout is twelve miles from the beach, as the crow flies.
One weekend we decided to see if we could walk to the ocean. It took about three and a half hours at a mild pace. That was back in January.
The beach that's just barely not visible in the photo is a famous one known as Kujukuri Beach. "Kujukuri" means "99 li", and "li" is an old Chinese measurement. So Kujukuri is like saying "Ninety-nine Miles" but with a slightly literary flair. Anyway, I hear tell it's the longest beach on mainland Honshu or the longest one with nice sand or whatever. I wouldn't know. I haven't gone there yet, I don't think. The one we ended up walking to this past winter was south of that. ...Or maybe that was Kujukuri, but we were on the southern stretch of it.
In the middle of the picture you can see rice paddies that are filled with water. Just a few weeks ago the rice was barely poking through the surface, but now it's a few inches above the water level. Also worthy of note are the two twin buildings in the center-left of the picture. These are apartment buildings, and aren't anything special in-and-of-themselves, except that that's where the next town over from us is. It's called Oami. From where I took the photo to Oami's train station (which is near those two apartment buildings) is about forty-five minutes to an hour on foot. We often make the trip because right below the lookout is a park adjacent to Showa-no-Mori called Konakaike Park (小中池公園) which has a most enjoyable slide I like to ride on. The slide is as long and twisty as a waterslide, but it's not just polished metal--it's got roller thingies on it like on an assembly line. Kids bring a piece of scrap cardboard to sit on and have a great time. I usually don't have any cardboard, so my pants get a bit dirty, but it's loads of fun to go down. Also at Konakaike is a pond (you can see a section of the dam and a small slice of the pond in the photo, right above and to the right of the trees on the bottom) where we go to visit the koi. Koi are carp, but that's a bit misleading, because they are really the most colorful fish you could hope to see in freshwater. So I like the word koi better than carp. "Giant Goldfish" also has a nice ring to it. As a matter of fact, I've got a picture of them:
They love crumbs. It's very entertaining to throw them bits of food and watch them jostle around and play bumper-fish with each other.
