Daisy exploring the Kemigawa seashoreToday we took Daisy to the ocean for the first time. She ran up to the water without much hesitation and jumped over a couple little baby waves at the shore, but we had to force her to swim later on. She seemed to take to it well though and I suspect she will really like swimming when she gets older. The water was surprisingly warm.
I have included pictures below (click to enlarge) but keep in mind, these were taken about 2-3 weeks after a nasty typhoon hit the area and I bet there is not this much wood and debris up on the beach normally.
I have provided below, alot more info on this area than most of you lovely readers might want or need but I hope it may help someone out in the future who wants to enjoy the beach at Makuhari. Before we set off on this adventure today we tried searching on the internet and in all the books we have with info on Chiba, details for or directions to this beach area, but could find nothing other than a comment "Kemigawa Hama, bathing beach 20 minutes from JR Kemigawahama Station" and a photo (that is ONE photo) of one of the walkways that jet out into the bay (we tried searching in Japanese as well as English). We really didn't know if we would be successful in finding this place today!
It's still like summer here right now (this not usually the case, it was in the low 80's today, about 28 celsius) and we wanted to try to enjoy it, despite it being an insane plan to hit the road on a Saturday (which normally would mean being tortured in traffic for quite a while to just go a short distance). So off we went to Makuhari, which is about 15 minutes by car (when there is no traffic, today was 27 minutes). Usually, the only reason we go to Makuhari is for a trip to Costco, to go to the DMV or the occasional 'show' at the convention center there (Makuhari Messe). But there is also a long stretch of waterfront that is part of Tokyo Bay in Makuhari. It is one of the few waterfront areas in Tokyo Bay that is not covered in industrial type things (such as shipping ports) and instead has an actual beach. A neighbor had told me recently that there was a beach in Makuhari where people could swim in the water (some other ocean recreational areas are just for boats, windsurfers, or clam digging) and that dogs could go too, so we were on a mission to find it today!
We once drove by about 7 years ago when we first moved into this area, but never got out of the car (there was absolutely no place to stop the car due to the crowds as I recall). From the car, we could see some people windsurfing and sandy beaches, but being from Hawaii, it was hard to get excited about. On top of that, a trip to the beach in Japan or any other outdoor enjoyment (especially anywhere accessible in a one day trip from Tokyo metropolitan area) will invariably mean that you will be joining a sea of humanity who also have the same intentions, at the very same time as you do. Having been there, done that (and narrowly surviving), we mostly choose to just stay home.
So Daisy got us out the door today, on a wonderful warm sunny day. We waited until after 3pm to go and that turned out to be a very good thing. Only a bit of traffic! When we passed Makuhari Messe we turned east on the road that runs parallel to the beach (towards Chiba City). We quickly found an area called Kemigawa Hama. Kemigawa is the name of the area and a river there, and "hama" means beach in Japanese. There is a parking area that you can turn into at a traffic signal (there is a road sign at that signal that says "Yacht Harbor" in Japanese and English). It costs 500 yen to park there (no time limit but they closed at 5pm this particular day). There was plenty of parking (but again, we arrived pretty late, around 4pm so it could have been full earlier in the day). It is about 1-2 minutes down the road from the Chiba Marine Stadium.
There are grassy 'park' areas all around and nice brick walkways to the beach. There are also restrooms and showers we discovered as we neared the sand (there are also the usual vending machines around with cold drinks). It was a pretty nice beach! Of course, there is not the wonderful pristine coral sand beach like we get in Hawaii. The other beach I've been to in Chiba had a very fine sand with a sort of blackish powdery sand mixed in. The blackish sand really sticks to your skin. The sand here at Kemigawa Hama was a bit more grainy but still some black sand. Maybe it's volcanic?
The water was fairly clean and clear and I did not have any aversion to getting into it. Again, it's not Hawaii but it was ok. There were little baby waves rolling into the shore, about 10 inches (25cm) or so high (maximum). There were many people windsurfing but it was not a terribly windy place (on this day that was the case, however I don't find Makuhari to ever be particularly windy).
Also here you will find, on either/each side of the fairly long sandy beach, some walkways jetting out into the bay from which many people were enjoying fishing, walking, etc. There was a covered area with picnic tables though my guess some of folks we saw sitting there were probably homeless (they did not appear to be actually camped out permanently here but I got the feeling that they have their digs somewhere not too far off and were just enjoying the beach area like everyone else).
Now that we have a dog, we are discovering there is quite a bit of decent outdoors not too far from us!
Windsurfer at Kemigawa Hama(jetty/walkway in the background)
Kemigawa Hama - east view (towards Chiba City)
Kemigawa Hama - west view (towards Makuhari and Tokyo,with the buildings at Makuhari in the background).
Lots of wood debris left over from a recent typhoon.
Additional covered picnic table area in seen in the background.
Nearby covered picnic table area, in front of restroom and showering area(viewed from the seashore)
Daisy heading to a grassy area that runs along the beach
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