Adventures in Japan – Boso Peninsula Staycation

The Art of the Staycation

Staycation

Being six plus months into a global pandemic can make anyone feel antsy. Even if you’re not the sort of person that takes longer vacations, you still probably have lots of short trips, day trips, etc. throughout any given year.

For us, since March of 2020, we’ve been on lockdown, which is partly self-imposed. We don’t go out to see friends or have people over to the house. No day trips into the city, going to bars, eating out, or even going to our favorite gelateria in the city center. In a word, we’ve become hermits.

Getting Started with a Staycation

Even though there are some extra steps you have to take; having a mini-staycation is very doable. While we not rushing out to do these staycations every weekend, they are nice to do every month or so.

Having a place in mind to travel to is preferred, though there is nothing wrong with just winging it. We’ve actually wanted to explore the Boso peninsula in Chiba prefecture for a few a years, but other trips kept getting in the way. This year seemed like the perfect time to make this happen.

Next, consider some targets dates for your trip. There is nothing wrong with spontaneity, so feel free to just wake up and decide to go somewhere that day. We wanted to limit our exposure to other people, so we decided to take a working Friday off. We rented a car for half a day, packed a bunch of snacks, and we were off. All these preparations were designed to limit our interaction with other people.

Going Beyond Just a Destination

Our main plan was to visit Nihon-ji temple to see the gargantuan Buddha. Beyond doing that, we actually did have any set plans. We just planed to drive around aimlessly and see what we could find off the beaten path. 

What we found was a faded snapshot of Japan’s yesteryears, in all its dilapidated glory.

Things started off slow, literally. Rather than taking the highway, we opted for the smaller roads so we could soak the local flavor. The morning rush hour traffic was terrible. We didn’t expect the Boso peninsula to be all that traveled but as we soon discovered, there are a lot of shipping facilities there. Once we got about half down the peninsula we had escaped the 18-wheelers and container trucks and had the roads almost to ourselves.

What we found was a faded snapshot of Japan’s yesteryears, in all its dilapidated glory. Once upon a time, back in the bubble era, this area was a playground with its love hotels and pachinko parlors. These days it doesn’t seem like many young people live this far south on the peninsula. It’s just a touch too far away to commute to Tokyo.

Since we didn’t want to be around crowds of people, this type of setting was perfect for us. This is also why planned this trip for a Friday, rather than going on a Saturday.

Ancient Temple

Nihon-ji temple was fairly empty, with just a handful of people. Considering the effort you need to get out here, we were a little surprised anyone was here. This is Japan, however, and you can rarely escape people, especially at a temple within close proximity to Tokyo. That being said, there were only a handful of people and it was easy enough to shoot photos without bystanders getting in the way.

Read our review of Nihon-ji here.

Back on the Road

After we had our fill of the Nihon-ji we started heading back towards Tokyo but made it a point to stop and take a closer look at some of the abandoned places we saw on the way down.

It was fun to imagine what life must of have been like when all the love hotels and pachinko parlors were new and hopping. It was also liberating to just wander around some of the back roads finding little surprises here and there.

Speaking of little surprises, we didn’t realize there is a Costco located in Kisarazu city. We popped in there for gas and some treats. Having the whole weekend still ahead of us meant some serious eats were in store for us.