The Romance Of Choshi Electric Railway

"Just call me Yu-chan!"

Ishigami Yuko, 

our guide for the train ride 

  The open space in front of Choshi station.

After our lunch and some light souvenir shopping, we moved to the next stop. A short walk of five minutes and we arrived at JR Choshi station. However, we were there not to ride on the JR trains, but to hop onto the Choshi Electric Railway ("Choshi Dentetsu", 銚子電鉄). There are ten stations in total, which spans a total distance of 6.4 km and roughly twenty minutes to get from the starting point (Choshi station, 銚子駅) to the last station in Tokawa (外川). 

One unique thing about this railway is that it doesn't have its own station. You have to walk through the JR platforms to board the Choshi Electric Railway, which is located on an extension of the JR platform. 

 The taxi stand at the train station.

The big family of Chiba Kun Ambassadors, having a group photo before heading to board the train (photo credit: Laura Jacob).

The new boss of the International Division of Chiba Prefectural Office, Mr Toyoshima Teruo and Sikiru from America.

Look at how they simplified the Yamanote Line (left) to only six stations lol!

It reads "Beware of dolphins!". No-lar, kidding only. It actually welcomes the visitors to the city where they can spot dolphins here.

To make sure we get a clearer idea about this railway, we had a guide who tagged along us throughout the train journey. Our attendant of the day was Ishigami-san, who is one of the Choshi Tourist Attendants (銚子観光アテンダント). Most of these attendants hail from this town and their job is to act as a guide to visitors around while explaining about interesting facts about a certain area or station.

For example, there is a shop selling taiyaki (たい焼き) or Japanese fish-shaped cake with red bean paste inside one of the station - Kannon station (観音駅). It allows visitors to have something sweet to bite on while waiting for the trains. 

The cute little station building for Choshi station of Choshi Electric Railway, which was built to resemble the Dutch windmills.

The train time table. I can't imagine if the trains in Tokyo is as few as here. It will be a nightmare!

Here comes our train!

The platform to board the Choshi Electric Railway.

The train runs from Choshi to the last stop in Tokawa.

This trains on this railway stops only operates two to three trains every hour. The low frequency of the trains is perfect for visitors to hop and get down from the trains to enjoy the old towns along the journey. The ride on this unique retro trains, decorated with hand-drawn advertisement will definitely bring visitors travel back into the Showa years. 

Once the train takes off from Choshi station, a glance through the window and visitors will get to enjoy the scenery of cabbage farms and old fishing towns.

So, lets hop into the train and see how it looks like!

Basically, the interior looks nothing much different from other trains in Japan.

Our friendly guide, Ishigami-san, sharing all sorts of fun facts with the Chiba Kun Ambassadors.



We reacted at one of Ishigami-san's funny stories (photo credit: Ishizaki Masataka).

Ishigami-san told us that there are two major soy sauce makers in Choshi city, namely Yamasa and Higeta. So, I posed a tricky question to her, by asking which brand she uses at home. I was expecting that she gonna take some time to answer my question. However, guess what, not wanting to appear biased, she remained composed and told us, "Both!"

That is indeed a smart and safe reply from a pro-guide.

This is the shop selling taiyaki that I mentioned just now.

Some stations are made of wood and they are really small and cute, just like this one for example.

It was the season of hydrangea, and there were rows of beautiful hydrangea in full bloom along the journey.

This red Deha 1002 is the newest addition of Choshi's Dentetsu. It is also only at this point that trains can bypass each other before there's only one track for the rest of the rest of the line (photo credit: Laura Jacob).

Ashikajima station (海鹿島駅). A first glance at this station makes it look just like another station.

But guess what? This station boast the fact as the most easternmost station in the Kanto region.

Halfway during the train ride, a grandma in her late seventies walked to me. She then suddenly popped me a question and it went something like this, "Boy, I have a question for you. You know, I have a grandson, and I feed him with cheese almost everyday to make him grow taller. So, can I know what you eat that made you grew this tall?" 

To have a Japanese, to approach a stranger, especially foreigners or gaijin and start a conversation is something very rare. Just ask anyone who has spend some time living in Japan and I believe they will agree with me. However, probably this obaasan cannot tahan already and she wanted to know my secret of how to grow tall lol!

You can see me talking to the grandma at the background (photo credit: Ishizaki Masataka).

We continued to chat for the next few minutes and suddenly someone shouted for my name. "Calvin, bye bye, see you soon!" Yes, it was time to get off the train and I guess I enjoyed talking to the grandma too much that I was almost left behind by the group haha wtf!

Our last stop was Inubo station (犬吠駅), and not Tokawa station because we were heading to the lighthouse which was situated nearby after that.

Here we are, at Inubo station.

Trying to take a shot from a different perspective.

A photo in front of Inubo station, with some old train coaches in the background.

Our three new volunteer guides from the Choshi Kanko Sentokai (銚子観光船頭会), explaining a statue in front of the station.

Placing a dog ("inu", いぬ) on top of the "impoverished God" ("binbou-no kamisama", 貧乏の神様) will make it read as "binbou-ga inu" (貧 乏がいぬ) or "binbou-ga inai" (貧乏がいない), which means "poverty is absent" (photo credit: Laura Jacob).

Another local speciality from Choshi - nure-senbei ice cream (photo credit: Laura Jacob).

This ice cream is basically senbei (rice crackers) soaked in soy sauce. Yes, sou sauce again. This town certainly has a special love affection for soy sauce haha! It was an idea from a group of students from a local high school, to add some little bits of these rice crackers into the ice cream. That is how nure-senbei ice cream was born.

Finally, we took a group photo at Inubo station, before heading to our next destination.

Group photo at Inubo station with our guides (photo credit: Kase Fumihiko).

~ to be continued ~

Hanryukai Taiko Performance In Choshi

"Mention Choshi, you'll think of fishing port"

the first image

of the town

The very first tour of the year for the newly appointed second batch of Chiba Kun Ambassadors this year took us to a small town in the easternmost region of the Kantō region - Choshi City (銚子市). Before I go any further, just in case you aren't sure what Chiba Kun Ambassadors is all about, they are a group of foreign students and foreign residents living in Chiba Prefecture, appointed by the prefectural office to promote the wonderful prefecture. 

Specifically, they do this by writing Chiba-related articles on their personal blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This year, there are twenty ambassadors appointed from as many as eleven countries - China, South Korea, Taiwan, U.S.A, U.K, Indonesia, Malaysia (that's me lol!), Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Italy. When you have these ambassadors, who come from all parts of the world, to gather together, you can be assured that it feels like you're right in the middle of a United Nations meeting with thousand-and-one languages lol!

The journey from Chiba City took us approximately two hours. The first stop was Choshi City Hall, where we were warmly greeted by a group of taiko performers upon our arrival. This fantastic group was gonna perform specially only for us, the Chiba Kun Ambaasadors. How lucky is that, to have a taiko performance arranged exclusively for us?

This taiko group calls themselves Choshi's Hanryu-kai (阪流会).

It was not long before this taiko performance attracted several curious locals who happened to pass by the area to stop and watch the wonderful show with us. The sounds of the taiko certainly had liven up the surrounding area around the Choshi City Hall on a Saturday morning.

Choshi's Hanryu-kai is a member of the Choshi Hane-daiko Preservation Society (銚子はね太鼓保存会). This Hanryu-kai the Hanryu-kai, is just one Choshi Hane-daiko group amongst a handful of groups that make up the Choshi Hane-daiko Preservation Society.

Hane-daiko, literally means "hopping or skipping drum" has been designated as one of the intangible folk cultral properties of Choshi City. This drum culture began since the Edo period, and it was believed that the fishermen during those days held various drums festivals in hope for good catch.

These drummers, in pairs, held up a drum which weighs about five kilograms on their shoulders as they get ready to perform the "hane-taiko" (はね太鼓).

"Hane" (跳ね) in Japanese means "to hop" or "to skip", while "taiko" (太鼓) refers to drum.

This is the most senior member (right) of the group, considered as the leader-cum-pace keeper, making sure that none of his members go too fast or slow.
He'll yell at whenever someone goes beyond the speed limit lol!

Another specialty of this taiko group - the crossed-arm taiko. Notice that they have an unique way of hitting the drum, by crossing their arms.

That adorable leader, performing a folk dance that he claimed everyone from Choshi knows how to dance it. Super cute-lah this pak cik.

The special characteristic about this drummer is that they dance and jump in the air along with the drum beat, making it a spectacular taiko performance. Although I have watched many taiko performances ones in the past, this team from Choshi definitely caught my attention with their unique way of hitting the drum.

On that morning, it was the Hama-chidori-kai (浜ちどり会), one of the groups from the Hanryu-kai (阪流会), that performed specially for the Chiba Kun Ambassadors. Their performance was absolutely fantastic and we were entertained with several pieces of songs of all sorts. By the way, this taiko performance can also be witnessed at the Choshi Minato Festival (銚子みなと祭り) in August and at the Narita Taiko Festival (成田太鼓祭り) in April every year.

The Chiba Kun Ambassadors tried out on the hand-made bamboo flute (photo credit: Kase Fumihiko).

Unfortunately, none of us managed to make any sounds from it and all of us just blew empty air out of the holes, including me lol! 

We were also given a rare chance to try out hitting the drums.

Some of the Chiba Kun Ambassadors trying out hitting the drums but unfortunately, all lari tone one haha! (photo credit: Kase Fumihiko)

Being a fan of lion dance since young, I tried hitting the drum following the tunes of lion dances haha!

Had to get Sikiru, who shares the same height as me to carry the hane-taiko. It wasn't as heavy as we first thought.

 In less than an hour, the Chiba Kun Ambassadors had performed a taiko group, but how well can we play the instrument is another different story lol!

Finally, a group photo with the awesome drummers from Choshi (photo credit: Kase Fumihiko).

And ohh, by the way, we were given some souvenirs by the Choshi City Hall staffs before we leave. 



Inside the goodie bags were information pamphlets on Choshi, soy sauce, sardines, noodles, and not forgetting, stickers that reads, 
"Choshi food is sooo good that you will shed your tears when you taste them" haha wtf! 

After enjoying the awesome taiko performance, it was time to take our lunch. We had lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant called Kamichi (かみち). This restaurant specialises on fish dished and situated just about a minute walk from Choshi Station. We were given choices between three kinds of set lunch - sardines, tempura or sashimi. 

Just for your information, Choshi is one of the fishing towns that boasts the highest catches of fish in Japan. Therefore, the town is famous for its fresh and delicious fish of high quality, such as sardines, bonito and tune. As July is the rainy season here in Japan, it is also the season for sardines, the most famous fish related to Choshi. That made some smart fellas into creating a set meal which is full of sardines, prepared in different cooking methods. Unfortunately, none of the Chiba Kun Ambassadors requested for sardine lunch set; all went for either tempura or sashimi lol!

Super wide roads in the town. The sea is just in the far background and the surrounding does make feel that you're in a fishing town.

I guess this is the first time for the locals to see so many aliens invaded their lovely town lol!

Kamichi (かみち), the Japanese restaurant we had our lunch.

Iwashi (sardine) lunch set (photo credit: Kase Fumihiko).



A closer look at the bowl of rice with sardine topping.

Sashimi lunch set, which has maguro, kanpachi and some kinds of tai.

Tempura lunch set for me, which has ebi-furai (fried shrimp) and vegetables tempura.

A common ritual for the Chiba Kun Ambassadors before they take their lunch lol! (photo credit: Ishizaki Masataka).



Ohh hi! The excited Malaysian Chiba Kun Ambassador with his tempura set lunch.



We stopped by a souvenir center - Choshi Serekuto Ichiba (銚子セレクト市場) to have a look at the local specialties inside.



The super long soba noodles!

One of the famous thing about Choshi is being the centre of soy sauce production; where it is the home to Yamasa and Higeta, the two major soy sauce producers. That prompted someone to come out with the genius idea of selling soy-sauce flavoured soft cream. Sounds like it gonna taste weird, isn't it?

We were curious to know how does the soft cream taste like, which made each of us decided to get one each. My initial guess was that the soft cream might taste a bit salty, because after all, it's a soy sauce flavoured soft cream. However, a first bite on the soft cream brought out a slightly different taste. The soy sauce flavour was hardly present. Instead, the combination of salty and sweetness made us thought of caramel.

The legendary soy sauce flavoured soft cream from Choshi.

The colour of the soft cream is brownish, resembling coffee flavoured soft cream. Therefore, one might not know it is a soy sauce flavoured soft cream if not told. This flavour of ice cream is only available in Choshi, and I guess it is worth a try if you happen to drop by this town.

Since the Japanese has come out with soy sauce flavoured soft cream, I am wondering if it will be possible to sell budu flavoured ice cream in Malaysia lol! Do you think it can laku or not?

~ to be continued ~