Nokogiriyama - day trip

Emerging from under the weather. After staying indoors for 2-3days, what better way to break the routine than a day trip.

Nokogiriyama (Mt. Nokogiri) is in Chiba prefecture, very close to Tokyo, Japan.

Chiba is one of the lesser known places for tourists, even if it is probably the first place they see after arriving in Japan (Narita airport is in Chiba).

Surprisingly, not many locals know about Nokogiriyama either! Notwithstanding that the great Buddha of Mt. Nokogiri is more than two times that of Kamakura, the much more popular destination.

As I wanted to see the Aqualine (which has a 9.6Kms undersea tunnel built at the cost of ~USD11 billion, but didn't get much used due to high toll-fares). So I took the bus.

From JR Tokyo station, if you take Yaesu central exit, cross the road and walk to your right for 2-3mins you'll find a NTT Docomo shop. You can get bus for Kisarazu from here. One way fare is 1300Yen and this bus goes via the aqualine.

Once you alight at JR Kisarazu station, take the Uchibo line to Hamakanaya station (570Yen for the regular train, extra for express).

From there you can take the ropeway to Mt. Nokogiriyama (900Yen two way).

But that's not what I did. Being the "born explorer" (chuckle) that I am, 'alighted at the next station from Hamakanaya, called Hota (little more than Hamakanaya, 650Yen). From there I walked towards Mt. Nokogiri. A mountain driveway takes you to the entrance. Entrance fee is 600Yen which covers the whole area.

Ask for a English map. There are three observatory points in addition to the attraction of Buddha statues (One big sitting stone-statue, ~1500 small stone figures) and you have to ascend, descend multiple times, checking your map, to cover all of them in time.

Lot of steps to be climbed.

The sitting statue of Great Buddha, at 31.05 mtrs, is said to be the largest in Japan!

Kamakura Great Buddha is 13.35 mtrs and Nara Great Buddha is 18.18 mtrs (got this from the pamphlet they handed over).

The views of the ocean and villages below are splendid. 

I could see the Tokyo bay area, but even if it was a clear day, couldn't see Mt. Fuji!

The other main attraction of this place is Ruriko Observatory. A protruding piece of rock from where it is scary to look down. Known as the "jigoku nozoki", looking into hell. This is very popular and the most crowded of all spots, maybe people are curious what they will look at after they die ;-)

I liked the huge stone carving of Buddha (which I would have missed had I not decided to hike on my way back too!). Hikers will like the trail from Mt. Nokogiri to Hamakanaya station as it is more through the woods and gives better experience than walking on the driveway! To enter the trail, you have to look for the "Hundred-shaku Kwan-non" on the map. This is the place where the big-carving is too...

Reminds me of a scene in Tomb-raider!

It was ~1hr hike back from this place to Hamakanaya station (I walked down to the beach close to the station too, but apart from the nice ocean view, the beach itself is unclean).

Kanaya port is close to Hamakanaya station and for people who want to enjoy a ferry ride can take one to Kurihama port (and get train to Tokyo from Kurihama station). Time-wise, this should be fast too, maybe almost the same as if you take the bus from Kisarazu which goes via aqualine. 

I hopped on 3.30pm Boso-express at Hamakanaya station 'coz it looked exotic (and had "view-train" written on it). Fare to Tokyo is 1750Yen (+900Yen express charges). Makuhari was on the way and I was half a mind to get off as plenty of daylight was remaining, but after all the hiking, the legs voted against it. So that's for another day...

Ah! don't forget to take packed lunch and snacks..

Lack of restaurants and widespread advertising might be the reasons for Mt. Nokogiri not catching on popularity. Good for travelers in a way - no mad rush :-)