Circumnavigating the Boso

Last weekend I had a leftover day on my Seishun 18 kippu train ticket so I spent Sunday circumnavigating the Boso Peninsula - that protrusion of land that forms Tokyo Bay and protects it from most tsunamis.  It was an all-day affair and it took longer than I anticipated - partly because there was no through train.  After I passed Soga at the northeast corner of Tokyo Bay the trains would only go a few stations before coming to a stop.  I had to get off the train and wait 30 minutes to an hour for the next train.  At Kazusaichinomiya I had an hour to wait so I walked around the little town and past some rice paddies that had recently been harvested.  I didn't have enough time to get to the beach about a mile away so I returned to the station with an egg salad sandwich and waited.

I de-trained at Awa-Kamogawa Station and walked to the beach.  There were a few surfers trying the tiny waves, two old gaijin men lounging on beach chairs and a few groups of people huddled around on the burning hot and humid beach.  I enjoyed the sea for a half-hour before walking south on the beachfront to Maebara where I turned inland to return to the train station.  It was here that I ran into several processions of people carrying shrines.  I've seen dozens of these by now but these people looked different.  Tattoos, braided hair, partially-shaved heads - even children with designs shaved into their hair.  They looked a little rough but I followed them - taking photos along the route.  The children told their mother there was an American taking photos.

Back on the train I continued south until we hit the end of the peninsula and turned west through low mountains.  At Kokonoe I changed trains again.  At Tateyama I changed trains again but got on one that my ticket wasn't good for and the conductor made me get off at Iwai or pay about $40 to ride that train back to Tokyo.  At Iwai I got a slow train for Chiba and watched the sun go down over Tokyo Bay as we meandered north along the west side of the Boso Peninsula.  At Soga I changed to a train for Tokyo and although a train staff said my ticket was good for this train another ticket checker that came along in a few minutes made me pay about $6 extra to ride this express train to Tokyo station.  I didn't mind as it only stopped once enroute and got me back to Tokyo around 7 pm.  I was tired.  I had been on slow trains for about 9 hours and although I had a great time seeing the ocean, rice paddies and small towns that seemed a hundred miles from the bustle of Tokyo, I was ready to rest.