Chiba Take Two

Today I spent the day in Chiba. This time I’m happy to report that there wasn’t a rain drop in sight, so I was able to fully enjoy the area. In fact, it was one of the first blue skies in weeks. This meant of course that there was no cloud cover and it was a real scorcher. It was easily over 90 today with full humidity. Ugh!

I first made my way to Chiba Minato (Chiba Port) via the inverted suspended monorail that I posted a picture of earlier. Evidently the monorail is primarily for transportation purposes, but it doubles as a fun tourist attraction! The monorail car actually swings side-to-side quite a bit while traveling.

There might have been a sightseeing worthy spot or two in Chiba Minato, but I couldn’t find too much of interest other than a church and children’s play park. There was also a group of skateboarder punks practicing tricks outside the monorail station. Some of them took quite a few wipeouts.

I ended up taking the short train ride to Kaihin-Makuhari (doesn’t that sound like an Indian guru’s name?) and spent the rest of my time window shopping. Kaihin-Makuhari is Chiba’s version of Odaiba, albeit with less attractions. The only attraction I saw was a solitary street performer out in front of the train station juggling knives for mesmerized little kids.

The main tourist pull of the area was a large outlet mall. Now Japanese people don’t have to travel all the way to America for their favorite clothing and accessories! I actually saw quite a few Westerners lugging around bulging bags. The stores were mostly selling the same brands we have in America, such as Nike, Coach, Adidas, and Billabong. There were also quite a few stores that I had never heard of before. For instance, I wonder if “Franc Franc” is actually from Paris or just a Japanese original.

There were several other shopping centers in the area that I peeked around in, but since I had actually spent all the money in my wallet (there wasn’t much), I literally had only a few hundred yen left. Luckily, I had loaded up my Pasmo beforehand so I was able to get back to Asakusa alright.

B.E.W.