A Summer Day in Katori and Sawara

For our summer holidays this year we decided to make a trip to Chiba Prefecture – exploring some of the not-so-popular places in order to stay away from the crowds. And this worked pretty well. Only on one day of our five-day trip did we see some numbers of other tourists around.  

One of our destinations was Sawara, a place known for an area of beautiful historical buildings around the river. Staying over night at Narita, Sawara is just a 30-minute train ride away – but it could also make for a nice one-day trip from the Tokyo area.

We first went inside the tourism information center and had a nice talk with the lovely woman working there. We told her our plans for the day and she came up with using bicycles and making a nice tour with them, because walking distances between our destinations are quite far and the bus is running, like, only once an hour – and I really liked the ideas and I am still grateful for her nice advice. A few minutes later we had two ebikes (1,000 yen each for the day) and were ready to start.

There is a cycling road along  the Tone River and it was so nice to feel the wind while riding. We first followed this way until we found a big torii. It is a nice photo spot, because it looks so unique.

From there we left the cycling road and went along the normal streets to Katori Jingu which was our intended destination. The place is the head shrine of many Katori Jingu around the Japan and covers a quite huge area. From the parking lot you come by some small shops and restaurants and then follow along a way with many stone lanterns. The main hall is pretty and even though the place is popular there were not that many people during our visit.

We moved on to the famous area of Sawara City which took about 20 minutes to reach on the ebikes. Parking them was free and so we enjoyed walking around the city's canal. There are many historical houses to see here and it has a nice atmosphere. Some of the buildings have shops and restaurants inside.

After a kakigori lunch break we took a ride on the boat along the canal of the Ono River. Especially during the hot summer day it was nice to have the wind around you there and you could relax and enjoy the 30-minute ride.

Sawara is well-known for the two festivals that take place in July and October (unfortunately cancelled this year). Floats topped with huge figures are passing by along the canal and I would really love to see it one day. We visited the Dashi Kaikan Museum where you can watch a movie about Sawara and its festivals and see real dashi and a lot of photos.

Right in front of the museum is the Yasaka Shrine which is organizing the city's summer festival. The autumn festival is organized by Suwa Shrine located a bit further away. After spending some time along the canal we also decided to visit Suwa Shrine and the ebikes made it really easy to get up the mountain road. It is located in the forest and has a little mystical atmosphere.

After renting the bikes at 10:30 in the morning we made it back to the tourist information around 4 pm. I really enjoyed the time and can recommend using an ebike, especially in summer, because it makes it much easier to explore more rural areas surrounding of Sawara.