Seeing the first sunrise of the new year is a popular tradition for some Japanese people. As you might expect, some of the most common places to be in the very early hours of  January 1st are by the sea. Kasai Rinkai Park, Umi-Shibaura station, Jonanjima Seaside Park, Osanbashi (Yokohama), Miura Beach (Kanagawa) and Cape Inubō (Chiba) are all quite popular. They all take a bit of effort in terms of going to bed early on New Years Eve  ready to rise in the dark very early the next morning to get to the destination of choice ahead of the sun coming up at around 6:45 am.

Up until last year pretty much all I knew about the one in Chiba was that it was in Chōshi which is the most easterly point in the prefecture. I wasn’t in Tokyo on New Years Day and even if I had been there’s no way I’d bother with such a thing to be honest! However, a few days later I actually did embark on a near-four hour local train journey to this north-eastern part of Chiba Prefecture. It was a very early start as I left the Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre in Itabashi-ku just after 5:00 am in order to get to the spit of land which is home to the fishing port town of Chōshi.

With only one train an hour running in the daytime, leaving home so early was the best scenario for getting there (no room for error with the connections in Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Chiba) and being able to see all ten stations on the quaintest rural line in the Greater Tokyo area in the morning.

Whilst I was in the area though there were a few little side-trips, and the first one was the unique fish shrine just south of Tokowa which is the end station on the Choshi Electric Railway.

Just beyond Ckokuro Inari Shrine was the coastal edge looking out to Cape Nagaski Ichinoshima island lighthouse. This particular hill on the coast is something of a rare spot in Japan where you can worship the sunrise before others on the mainland.

The Choshi Electric Railway Line was my main aim of the day, and just a short distance east of Inubo Station (CD09) was an exhibit-of-sorts which is called the former Inubosaki Marine Park dinosaur statue. It took me a while to even realise that it was a dinosaur being hatched from an egg!

A little further to the east is the symbolical Inubosaki Lighthouse (open from 8:30 till 5pm everyday) which was built in the late 19th century, and is a climbable tower (300 yen) with panoramic Pacific Ocean vistas from the top. There were some exhibits and a cafe at the base of the historical lighthouse as well as some coastal walking paths nearby.

Despite what I said earlier in this post about not knowing much about Chōshi I had actually been here onec before. That was way back in August 2004 when my friend Kerry (an American guy by the way) and I went there in search of a beach at Cape Inubosaki. However, it began to rain within a minute or two of our arrival so, after a beer in the rain, we gave up and went home vowing to get to a beach the following week. I don’t think that ever happened and our chance had gone! Nearly two decades later and I was back and this time I spent even less time on Kimigahama Beach than that previous visit! To be fair, it was a January morning when I was there so I just looked out to sea and along the coast  before deciding it was time to move on.

Chōshi Port Tower (open from 9:30 till 5pm everyday apart from Thursdays when it’s closed) is a 57 metre tall observation tower and that was my final side quest in this town.

Of course the main reason for my trip to Chōshi was to visit all ten of the stations on the Chōshi Electric Line.

A lot of the signage at the ten stations were of great interest.

I kept a little diary back in 2004 which is pretty much the only reason for knowing I even went to Chōshi then. With almost no memory of that previous visit it was good to explore the area again and (presumably) see far more of the place than before.

Click here to read ‘Visiting Every Station On The Quaintest Rural Line In The Greater Tokyo Area’

Click here to read ‘This Unique Fish Shrine Is A Great Plaice To Visit’

Click here to read ‘Tokyo Daytripper: Chiba-jo Castle’