My parents have now visited us/Japan 7 times since I moved in March 2022. Some of them were to specifically visit us where we live and others were tourism-motivated in other areas of Japan with just a stop by our house for a weekend.
Since this will be their last visit before we move, we did a couple things they haven't done before including on trips prior to us living here and centered the trip in Kanagawa. I wanted to identify the two big highlights that I joined them for in this post :)
Minamiboso Bike Tour with Boso Adventure
I first found Boso Adventure when I was looking for other activities after our Nokogiriyama hike in July 2023. The 1-day bike tour and stay at Heguri Hub was a great addition to our itinerary and I've been meaning to go back in a different season ever since. My parents have enjoyed riding bikes during past trips at tourist spots like Hiroshima and Amanohashidate, so I figured why not go for a full tour to explore in a way they'd likely not do on their own?
We got from Kanagawa to Chiba via the Tokyo Wan Ferry Kurihama port with our car.
Setogawa-san had some helmets, gloves, course overview and safety tips ready for us when we arrived in addition to the 5 bikes we'd be renting. For this tour, we opted to all use cross bikes. M brought his own bike over.
It was a beautiful day with clear skies! We were all set at around 10:00 to get going for our tour.
And then on the other side, we found the waterfall! Not as much water in it these days, but Setogawa-san pointed out to us what it was like before. This was a cute area and nice for some nature photos and a rest stop.
The restaurant doesn't usually have non-Japanese speaking patrons, so Setogawa-san had prepared these translations just for us lol. We are very appreciative that he did because the history of the space and restaurant/house is very interesting.
There were some options related to how the egg was prepared as well as the sausage. We all went with what was recommended. Soon, the beginning of the lunch sets were brought out!
Additional plates were later added as they were ready as well as rice made on a wood burning stove and miso soup with lots of veggies in it.
Dessert included frozen rice malt and I think some kind of azuki. I have never tried rice malt before so it was interesting and refreshing!
Our third stop was at Funakata Soko which is a gallery & cafe that we had previously visited in July 2023 as well. Of course those of us who had been before had no problem stopping here again as the curator, Kaori-san, rotates the art pieces from her late father, Kazuo Mizoguchi 溝口七生, and also assists with the Minamiboso tours.
We were biking hard, so of course we had to get another treat or drink from the cafe.
We thanked Kaori-san and kept on moving with the tour itinerary. There were still 2 stops left!
One last stop at Roadside station Hinanosato. It was good to take a break from battling the wind. This roadside station has some small snacking options as well as omiyage to buy.
We had an early dinner at a kaitenzushi chain in the area called Yamatozushi. We hadn't heard of it prior, but did not hesitate to take Setogawa-san's recommendation for it. Luckily it wasn't too busy when we arrived, and we were able to fill up on sushi right away before going to Kanaya port and catching the ferry back to Kanagawa!
Returned with our snacks and carefully watched the cloud and waited for a perfect moment.
This was a lot better in person, but hopefully this photo will do.
Two cruise ships were arriving at Motohakone port with near perfect timing for a photo as well lol.
We did some quick mokuzougan 木象嵌 shopping in the Hakone Checkpoint area and then headed over to the Hakone Open Air Museum. I had previously visited this museum with my MIL & GMIL (Nov 2022) and then again with my MIL & FIL (May 2023), so this was my third time!
This tower with stained glass inside from Gabriel Loire is always a winner despite how nervous I get on the narrow winding stairs inside lol.
Unfortunately the footbath and some of the other exhibits near this tower (like one that was my husband's favorite) are under renovation/not on display.
Before leaving Hakone, we made a stop in Hatajuku which was a first for me, an area known for yosegi zaiku. My father wanted to visit a shop called Hamamatsuya 浜松屋 to see what mokuzougan 木象嵌 pieces they had for sale. My parents had already made a purchase near Hakone Checkpoint, but since this shop was featured in a show they watch, we came it check it out as well.
There was a little traffic on the way home, but we got a sunset Fuji view (or...my parents did because I was driving and couldn't look back towards it lol) which was a very pleasant end to the day trip!
We rode for around 25-ish minutes and Setogawa-san first guided us to the area by Kajika Bridge. This did include a bit of an uphill where an ebike might have been helpful for my mom, but we all made it in the end lol.
Setogawa-san introduced us to the nearby shrine which people come to to pray for successful business and academic success. It's quite tucked away on this road, so people who come on foot must be very dedicated!
We also went down to the little forested trail area where which was a bit overgrown but actually had a clear path and established stairs.
Setogawa-san told us that we had already climbed the steepest hill in the route, so we got the hard part out of the way early! Next up was getting to lunch.
Another 30 minutes of riding and we made our way to Jiroemu where Setogawa-san had arranged a lunch reservation for us. He described this restaurant as serving traditional Japanese organic lunch and being highly recommended, so we were really looking forward to it!
One of the unique things about the restaurant aside from all the vegetables being grown right outside on their own farm is that they use fertilized eggs for the dishes.
We were all very stuffed from lunch (it was a lot of food!). Once we were done eating, we were able to look around outside a bit and chatted with the owner who we discovered actually speaks English quite well on her own. She was telling us about the chicken coops and some of the land.
Soon enough, it was time for us to head out again. It got a lot windier in the second half of the day (or maybe where we rode in the second half) and I felt like I was battling to stay upright lol.
The next one wasn't too far at Haraoka Beach and Okamoto/Haraoka pier.
It was still quite windy which is not so great on a sandy beach, but we got to enjoy some nice views. This is a previous stop as well. I remember that Setogawa-san had told us that this pier is used in some movies/shows!
Let's keep going!
And then we head back to Heguri Hub! Setogawa-san thankfully routed us so there wasn't a big hill to climb at the end, so we were able to enjoy riding a mostly flat course back.
According to my Strava (which was on auto-pause for biking but may have captured some walking around lol), we did 51.2km with about 3.5 hours of moving time. In real time, with all the stops and breaks (ex for lunch), we left at 10:00 and returned at around 16:00.
This was plenty for most of us who are not cyclists at all and became plenty challenging for some of us due to the wind.
We were very thankful to Setogawa-san and Boso Adventure for putting this tour together for us! There were lots of places we wouldn't typically explore on our own, especially the lunch restaurant Jiroemu. And having a knowledgeable guide in Setogawa-san really enhanced the experience as well since he was able to explain a lot of the history to us in English. This will be our last visit to Minamiboso before leaving Japan, but the charm has really captured my heart.
Hakone day trip
Despite all their visits to Japan, including climbing Mt Fuji, my parents have never been to Hakone. Since we're already in Kanagawa, I wanted them to check it out before we left Japan, so we drove over when we had a free day.
Along the way, we got a good glimpse of Fuji as the weather was quite clear, so we decided to stop by Motohakone cruise area to get a view along Lake Ashi. We had to wait a little bit for one or two clouds to clear, so we went across the street for a snack from 7-Eleven.
We had a lot of fun walking around, looking at the exhibits and taking pictures.
Really not much at all had changed since my previous visit, but I'll say that fall is 100% the best time to visit this museum. The vegetation/foliage in mid-March was not very appealing and a little sad, but the art is still amazing!
It turns out they were filming for another feature just as we arrived which was a little unfortunate (so we couldn't see the full shop), but I did make a purchase for a gift for my grandparents.
In addition to these two days of activities, my parents also went around on their own while we were at work and spent time in Tokyo and Yokohama doing some things they're already familiar with or interested in. They went to the new TeamLabs in Azabudai, Yokohama Chinatown and a bunch in between. The weather ended up being quite cold and windy/a bit stormy some days but at least we had the clear Fuji view with a blue sky!
We were happy to host them one last time and introduce some of our favorites before we move back while still getting new experiences at the same time. I would definitely recommend a (bike) tour in Minamiboso for anyone who has been to Japan multiple times and is looking for something new and different as a day trip from Tokyo. Setogawa-san always tailors the itinerary based on what we want to see, and really came through with my request of "things we wouldn't do on our own" which makes the experience really unique and fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment