すし勢 Gourmet Sushi Hazumi

Last night, we rented bikes from Kashiwa’s east exit bike depot, whooped all the way out to the Teganuma Ohashi Bridge to the east, over the bridge, through Teganuma Park on the Abiko side, and stopped for dinner at グルメ回転すし勢 Gourmet Kaiten Sushi Hazumi right across the road from Teganuma.
The wait was about 15 minutes to [...]

Northern Chiba Natural Beauty

There are so many beautiful secrets in northern Chiba Prefecture.  Go see!
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Tone River Jam 2009

Last year’s Tone River Jam in Abiko got typhooned on, but before the skies opened up, we got to hear some great music.
As always, the Tone River Jam on August 16th is free, hosted by local businesses. Last year, a shuttle bus from Tennodai Station took jam goers to the [...]

Where am I? Train melodies

When your train is about to depart a station anywhere on the JR East lines, you will hear a melody to tell you the train is departing. The train lines and stations have distinctive jingles which remind you where you are and whether you are on a local or express train bound for wherever.
I spend [...]

A secret garden in Abiko City

春一番 haruichiban, the first winds of spring came to Japan this weekend. Saturday was remarkably warm, and  put away my scarf and enjoyed the sunshine. On Saturday morning, when we were passing the Abiko stationfront in bright sunshine, we saw the monument to Taisho Period artists, and my friend mentioned that some of the houses [...]

手賀沼 Teganuma Marsh

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Teganuma Marsh is such a relief from suburban Tokyo, and opens into wide open spaces, views of Fuji and Tsukuba Mountains, and wooded hillsides. Today’s bicycle ride took me around the north shore of the marsh to the 安孫子鳥の博物館 Abiko Bird Museum. Teganuma Marsh has a great variety of birds, both resident and migratory, and the [...]