Places in the Tokyo/Kanto: Chiba
[Chiba] [Inage] [Kichijoji] [Shinjuku] [Shibuya] [Harajuku] [Yokohama] [Asakusa/Ueno][Ikebukuro] [Other places]
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Chiba isn't really a place renowned for anything famous and it doesn't have the best image among people from Tokyo. It is basically a satellite city of Tokyo and the majority of people commute there. Apart from Narita Airport and Disneyland there is little that is particularly famous here. As for food, Chiba is known for its peanuts, which don't make for too much glamour. However, all up it is not that bad a place to be. As I have said before, it is not all that far from Tokyo or even Yokohama when things come down to it, thanks to the efficiency of the Japanese train system and if you head south or east you can see some wonderful countryside, in some ways reminiscent of the Australian coastline (see Kamogawa). As for the coastline in Chiba City itself, well I will talk about that later when I mention Inage Kaigan. Chiba City itself now has a population of around 800 000 people which gives it enough standing as a Japanese city to be divided into wards. There are six wards: Central (Chuo), my own Inage, Wakaba, Midori, Hanamigawa & Mihama, the latter of which is made up entirely of flatland reclaimed from Tokyo Bay.
The central area consists primarily of the main station area about 5 mins ride from the University and the Chiba Chuo area, a further 4-5 minutes away from there, as well as the port district and an extensive residential district. A prominent feature is the city monorail which actually hangs from its rail upside-down so to speak. The Cinemax cinema is in Chiba Chuo (incidentally named for the station of the Keisei Railway which is East Japan Railway's rival in the region) and being newer than the other cinemas around about has used up a bit of my savings (see recreation). Chiba Chuo also has some great restaurants and the department stores and shopping centres are all to be found around there. The department stores are Sogo and Mitsukoshi, probably the two most expensive chains but there is also a Parco for those more concerned about economics.
The port district is also built on largely reclaimed land and is full of ugly industrial factories with smoke billowing into the sky. There are, however, a couple of parks in the area as well as Chiba Port Tower, built a few years ago supposedly to commemorate Chiba Prefecture attaining a population of 5 million. It's a long thin building that serves no other purpose, at least that I can see. Still it gives a view of the city such as it is and provides an interesting foreground for the annual fireworks display.
Chiba is a bit of a concrete jungle but it is totally not devoid of beauty. The Uni itself is quite green (by Japanese University standards anyway) and even more impressive is Chiba Park, nestled between the uni and the station with the monorail running alongside. It gets a bit crowded in the summer with competition for the swimming pool but apart from those times it's a good place to get away from things. The city does its best to liven up its image, even to the point of painting its manholes! (Japan is often known for intricate designs on manholes but Chiba is I think they only place which takes the extra step.) There is another park near the uni's medical faculty and hospital and inside the park is Chiba Castle, a rebuilt replica of the long-lost original's donjon. It is particularly nice in the cherry blossom season but is of course nothing in comparison with places like Himeji or Matsumoto. Inside the castle is a planetarium and also an interesting photo display documenting the history of the city.
The rest of Chiba Chuo is just residential with the exception of one area not far from the station, Sakae-cho, Chiba's red-light district which is not all that seedy, more St Kilda than King's Cross, but is still well known. Tokyo has its own red light districts but also has a law prohibiting sex for money (although lesser such acts are allowed) and so Sakae-cho has long serviced the dregs of Tokyo's population. No place is perfect. Still it is also the home of Chiba's Korean community and it was there that I had an interesting experience on a class trip with uni when we went there to eat 'dog stew.' Yes that's right - dog! And I have to say it was quite nice, quite similar to beef in taste and texture. I will also add that I wasn't eating Fido from around the corner but actually a dog from Mongolia which had been farmed specifically for the purpose. Certainly gets chalked up as an omoshiroi keiken (interesting experience).
The thing about Japan that matches Melbourne but to a greater scale is that wherever there is a train station, there is a quite sizeable commercial area and there are many such places in Chiba as well and buses run from each of them to the high-rise complexes where the majority of Chiba's citizens reside. Apart from Inage which gets a space of its own in this account, the only other places of note for me are Kemigawa the next station towards Tokyo, Inage Kaigan (see Inage) and Makuhari Messe.
Kemigawa is a station area like any other and its major claim to fame is as the hometown of Kimutaku of SMAP fame (only students of Japan will have any idea about him of course) and is also the location of some of my part-time English-teaching jobs.
Makuhari Messe (an Italian word meaning hall or something) is built in Mihama on the reclaimed land and has been set-up as a techno-city, probably the greatest failure in Chiba's efforts at being a 'player' in the 21st century. As well as the exhibition space, it also home to many of Japan (and America)'s electronics and computing giants. I first went there with a Tokyo Uni trip to check out the Sharp complex which is of course very impressive but the clump of skyscrapers remains rather conspicuous and looks rather silly as a result. It is also however the home of the Makuhari school I visited once which benefited from the funds being poured into the region.
So that more or less sums Chiba City up. While there may be better, all in all it's by no means a bad place to live.
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[Chiba] [Inage] [Kichijoji] [Shinjuku] [Shibuya] [Harajuku] [Yokohama] [Asakusa/Ueno][Ikebukuro] [Other places]