#29 Inohana Castle Ruins in Chiba, Japan

Transcript

And I just walked by a spot in Chiba where there's a crap ton of bicycles everywhere. It reminded me a lot of what it looks like in Amsterdam when people just park their bikes and it's like a sea of bikes. I mean I guess it wasn't quite that many, but it was a lot.

Okay, here's the choice. Do I get Suntory, Super Caffeine Coffee, White Caffe, or Caramel Caffe? Design for caffeine. 200 milligrams.

I don't remember my caffeine theory, but isn't like a can of coke like 80 milligrams of caffeine, 200 is insane, but here we go.

But yeah, I think that's kind of interesting because it does show that there are bicycles everywhere, everywhere I've gone. There've been people riding bicycles. Clearly the bike culture in Chiba say is huge, tons of bikes. But the only place where I was like feeling oppressed by the bicycles where I had to dodge them and constantly be worried about them was Sang and Jaya. So I mean maybe it's just because it was too central, too close to Shibuya, too close to the center, everything was just a little too compact. Because yeah, there's been bicycles all about, but it's no problem. It's a nice coexistence with the bicycles.

Anyway, it's an insanely beautiful day again. What even, what even day is it? I don't even know. I'm in a guest November 16th. Let me check. Indeed, it's a Thursday. Oh, it's nice, too. Wow, this pixel phone really is a heck of a phone that it actually says the day of the week. Because I'm shocked how many things do not. My laptop, you got a dig to find out what day of the week it is. My other phone doesn't say. They really presume people know what day of the week it is. I mean, I guess people do, but I don't. I want to know. Just tell me what god damn day it is. But yeah, I feel like I've dodged the winter time yet again. Totally crazy. And I think this is unusual because the reason I got trouble ill advised for me to get the super caffeine coffee. But one of the reasons I went with that one is actually had to try a couple of machines. It was like my third machine I checked because they don't have cold coffee. It's all hot coffee. It's like, what the heck is going on here? It's supposed to be cold. But it is so warm out. I had a hoodie on and I had to take it off. It's t-shirt weather. It's crazy. And since I'm heading down south in a few days to Fukuoka, man, oh man, the summertime never ends. This is insane how awesome this is.

Yeah, my plan is to not go too far today because the guy, the nice old fellow who runs this Airbnb invited me to an izakaya tonight with one of his friends who lived in America and speak English. He can speak English too. Maybe I have no problem communicating, but he's very hot. He's like, hey, don't sweat it though. This other guy, he can really speak English. It'll be all good. So I got to meet up with him in a few hours so I don't want to go too far. So I was just going to go to the tullies in here, my Airbnb, because fuck it. Sometimes it's fun to just sit down at the coffee shop and do a bunch of editing. But this weather is so good. I was like, well, I can't do that. So instead, there's these castle ruins, which I guess we'll see how they compare to the ones that I saw last week where, in that case, it was like the grounds. And it was pretty nice, but it's essentially a park. Castle ruins don't mean the same thing, you know, as they do. I mean, I say in England, I've never been to a castle ruin in England either, but I feel like I've seen pictures where it's like a castle, you know. There's so many traditional buildings all over Japan that in some ways it seems like ancient ruins. They're kind of, maybe that's one reason why they don't stand out as much, because it kind of seems like you're seeing that stuff all the time. But anyway, this is really close. I'm almost there. And it's so freaking warm out. I could probably just sit there and do laptop editing in the outdoors today. This is like ludicrous. How nice this is. I'm not quite sure what the weather is back home, but I mean, it was snowing in Calgary when I passed through there. New Brunswick's probably not snowing yet, because somebody probably would have told me. But I bet it's freaking cold.

No one's walking around in t-shirts. I'm willing to wager.

Another random dumb thing is, so yesterday night I went to, I think it's called daily Yamazaki. It's one of the last major convenience store chains I didn't go to yet. And they had tons of bread stuff in that unlocked memory of like, did I read that somewhere? Is it true that this place specializes in bread? Because they do have a lot of bread. And what kind of made me think of it is because this morning I was at a 7-11 and I just got, just that I'd never seen it before, was like a roast beef and wasabi, little mini sandwich. And it was, you know, a little bit bad. The bread was just really spongy. Where the melon bread I got at daily Yamazaki was really good. So it's like, oh, that's pretty cool. That does seem like it is, in fact, a market that could be cornered is the bread market. And it's just neat when these convenience stores, you know, just have things to differentiate themselves. Because that's not always the case. By and large, I mostly could still, you know, I'll just take whatever I happen to wander by. But it's cool. Little stuff like that. Like next time I see a daily Yamazaki, might as well try a sandwich item, a bread item.

Because the other place is might not have it. And now that I'm away from the waterfront, I'd say Chiba seems, it's very similar to the other mini cities I've been in within the Mega City of Tokyo. It does feel like a little different, but it's subtle enough that I can't really put my finger on it yet. I'm not quite sure what it is about this place. But I think it's possible if you just woke up randomly in a random part of Chiba, I get the sense maybe you'd be able to guess. If you're from Chiba, you might be able to look around and just say like, oh, yeah, this specific composition feels like Chiba.

But I've only been here one day, so I can't really say what that specific composition is.

It seems like I'm circling around the outside of this place. There's a huge building here or a wall or something. I don't know what this is. All gated off.

If I keep going around this loop, I'll get to the Chiba City Folk Museum. And then maybe, maybe the ruins, I don't know, I don't really know what it is or what to expect.

It's just the closest thing. But yeah, this little Izakaya invite. I mean, it'll be a useful thing. You know, I really do feel though like it's worked like I sang last episode. Fun's not really fun for me. Walking around by myself, being boring as shit is fun to me. Fun stuff is a bit stressful and pressure-filled. But what'll be good about it is it seems that like systems in Japan are pretty like regimented. Like if you know how it works, then you know how it works. I mean, my experience is mainly just subways, convenience stores and cocoa curry. But once you know how it works, it doesn't even matter so much that you don't know the language you can make your way through the system because it's going to be the same each time. So I suspect it'll be similar here. I mean, I don't know when I'll ever be in another Izakaya, but now I'll have something under my belt to have some sense of at least how it's supposed to go, you know, for the future.

I can see a way bigger building poking out. Looks like Revenge of Shinobi again with my video game fucking relating everything to video games, but it's a lot bigger than any of the stuff at the other castle ruins site. But yeah, it's one of those things that's easy to take for granted of like, what do you mean? How does it work? You just go to the Izakaya and you get some food and you pay at the end of it. I don't know what you're talking about, but when you've never done a thing, there's so many weird details. Like it's better if I just don't even think it through. Because yeah, on the surface, it's just some place you go and get food and beer and then you go the fuck home. But like, for instance, what is the etiquette of? So they invited me to this thing. Who pays for what? Like, ideally, if we just split it, that'd be awesome. That'd be the best for me. But are they going to want to pay because they invited me? Am I going to have to do some kind of weird dance of like, oh no, no, please allow me, you know? Because I just hate that stuff. And just the very, the very act of small talk at the best of times. I just don't know what to say to people because I get this weird life where I just have inheritance money and I just wander around. And nobody wants to hear about your novel when your novel's not finished. So I'm just kind of stuck. It's like, I got nothing. I don't know what to talk about. Can we talk about the weather, please? Because I have nothing else I can talk to you about.

And then when there's a language barrier, that's yet another thing. Remember there was a way back when I first moved to Vancouver. I worked at this coffee shop and there was a girl from Japan who definitely was interested in dating. But I just couldn't pursue it because we just couldn't talk. We could barely get through a shift at a coffee shop together. I don't know, maybe if I had Google translate, like they have now, maybe.

But I have a hard time talking to English speakers. We just run a ground immediately because we just have nothing to talk about. In this case, who knows? There are some more, I think, two more Airbnb people that are supposed to be showing up today. Hopefully it's the whole lot of us if we all go. That would be, that would work for me. Defuse the situation a little. If I can just sit there and sort of passively soak in information, that would be the best for me. Because like, I legitimately, again, this has nothing even really to do with being from a different culture or a different language even because you could be, you could be from the same block as me in Canada. You could have grown up next door to me. I still just don't have anything to say. I just still don't know what to talk about. It's like, okay, I don't know, let's try it out. Again, if you're like older, maybe we'll talk about the weather. If you're younger, it's like, I don't know, you watch Marvel movies. Let's just find something, please.

Throw me a life raft. Because beyond that, nobody's fucking interested in the shit that I'm interested in, which is just to walk around and do nothing and pontificate about stuff.

At least with a podcast, it's optional. You know, you can decide if you are interested in this or not.

I don't want to be one of them folks that is just constantly haranging people about boring shit, you know. I don't know. What am I talking about? Who cares? So here we go. I met the castle. It is pretty big. This is actually really cool. One, two, three, four stories end up peaked top.

And there's a statue of a samurai looking guy with a bow and arrow on a horse. No English on the sign. Yeah, I'm not even sure how to describe the building besides just traditional, you know, in any ninja movie, in any ninja video game. Imagine the building with the kind of curved roofs in layers and it looks super cool. This is the Inohana castle ruins, I-N-O-H-A-N-A. I'm going to a little windy up here. Yeah, this is dang nice. So I'm going to hang out here.

Oh jeez, as soon as I stopped recording, immediately, immediately there was a perfect example of not knowing how stuff worked, so the building is generally pretty blocked off, so I was like, hey, maybe this is it, maybe you just see it from the outside, that's cool. But then as I walked around, there was an entrance and there was like a guy manning a booth and I was like, oh, here we go, I've just fallen into the slipstream of, oh no, I don't know how this works, but it's like, I write them in the tractor beam, just do it, just go find out, just go see how this works, if it, if it's free admission, that's great, but if it costs money, whatever, just pay it, just go in, just don't be a weirdo who just doesn't go in once you've made eye contact with the guy, act like you know, you know, and this is similar to, I met some folk when I was hiking around in Fukuoka who asked me if I was bird watching and I had to ask them a couple of times, I didn't get what they were saying and then all of a sudden they clicked, but that was like two or three times and that was getting pretty uncomfortable, socially awkward that I'm like, fuck, I'm so sorry that I don't understand. Where this poor guy had to ask me what country I was from, like six times, I just didn't know what he was asking, I guess because he gave me a pamphlet, so really he's like asking what language do you need, what country are you from, so you know, it's not like you wrote it down or anything, so I just didn't clue in, that's what he was saying. So again, not the biggest deal in the world, slightly awkward initially, but then he gave me some pamphlets and stuff, said it was free, now I'm in, now I'm in this, it's like this five floor Chivas City Folk Museum, and like I said last episode, museums don't do a ton for me, but it depends, 15:00 you know, if it's like the Museum of Modern Art, you know, it's just nothing's gonna stick with me, I just, nothing works, I don't care, where at least this is an art, this is a historical stuff, you know, it's like samurai armor and old, I mean they have like these guns, I don't even know how those work, and you know, the stuff in the actual museum is not in English, so maybe I'll look that up later, but they have the swords, they got all the stuff and it's cool as shit, so I'm gonna vary again with my, on my shallow level, this is kind of cool, and at the very least I did learn one thing, I had no idea why this city's called Chiba, I was just think of there's a character from the music manga back named Chiba, I always think of, and I guess weed, I don't know, I'm not a weed guy, but it's named Chiba after the Chiba clan, which I didn't know, so this museum, the Chiba City Folk Museum was constructed in 1967, on the former site of Chiba Castle, and is modeled after a traditional Japanese castle, you have heard that a lot of the old buildings don't exist because they burned down, because they're, you know, their wood, the Chiba clan ruled the area between the 12th and 16th centuries, it says there's a model of a traditional Japanese home, so I guess fourth floor is the modern history of Chiba City, maybe that's where that is, that sounds really cool, that I am legitimately interested in, I mean I'm interested in all the samurai stuff too, but it's you know it's very abstract, it's hard to wrap your head around, so yeah I'd say this is a perfect example in both ways, perfect example of like oh man these awkward how does stuff work, now that I know how it works, it's the easiest thing in the world, you just walk in and you get some pamphlets and you see the museum, there's literally nothing to it, it's just being on the precipice at the start, it's like I have no idea, am I allowed to go in here, is it free, do you pay, how does it work, what's going on, but then you get over the white water rapids and then you're in the nice calm placid, nice and easy, anyway where I am right now I went down and looked at the first floor and there was a washroom down there, so I still had that super caffeinated coffee, I hadn't drank it, so I hopped in the bathroom and I just shot gun the coffee in the bathroom and then rinsed out the can and just put it in my book bag, it's funny because it's like you know the opening of the can is very much like a beer can but I'm not drinking beer, I'm sneaking in there to drink a coffee so it's just like get me over this hump, get me over this feeling that I feel bad for the guy, I was thinking with the guy who has to deal with idiots like me at the front door, he knows an older Japanese guy, so I like to imagine he'll go home after work and get a beer and some of those like dried squid, tentacle arm things from 7-11 or the thing that's like almonds and little dried fish together, you know he'll get something like that and he'll just eat it and drink the beer and just think like these dumb foreigners fucking can't understand one word, I don't know what I'm a rune because I have no problem with people making fun of me, I just don't want them to feel bad, I'm sure he doesn't, I'm sure I just have a guilt complex but I'm always afraid that when I can't understand somebody that they'll think they did something wrong but trust me, it's me, it's me guy, maybe I could learn that one phrase in Japanese, don't worry it's not you, I'm the fool who did not learn anything, but where I'm right now on the second floor is just this little area with little seats, you can just look at the window because there's a drink machine, God bless Japan, even in the recreation of the traditional Japanese castle, they did have a squat toilet for anyone interested but they also had a western toilet, they had both but there's a drink machine so even though I just gunned down that super caffeinated coffee, I was like ah here that's how I can uh, a swage my guilt a little, I can buy a drink, it's like I roasted green tea and I figure I shouldn't walk around the museum drinking this thing so I'll drink it here and dispose of the bottle and uh continue on, speaking of though that's one thing I saw at uh one of the stations, was it Chiba station? I had to change at some point, it might have been a smaller station than Chiba station, but this sign that I'd forgotten all about, I did see this in 2019 but this is the first time I've seen it here, it was a western style toilet and again to my western mindset when you see the Japanese style toilet that's where you need a diagram, that's where you need an explanation, like am I doing this right? How does this work? 20:00 But this was the reverse, is uh, I guess it was a little weird because it's a western style toilet but it didn't have a tank on the back so it was just the seat part, so there was a diagram showing that you're supposed to sit on it, you're not supposed to squat because technically you could, it would be a little bit of a tight space but you could put your feet on the toilet seat and use it like a squat toilet, so there's that little diagram explaining that you don't do that and that toilet paper doesn't go in the garbage can, it just goes in the toilet, all the stuff you would need to know if you were a Japanese guy from 1940 who doesn't know how the western toilet works but I am surprised to see it in like a uh more modern setting, that's what made me think maybe, I mean again I'm just drawing, I'm inferring stuff from very small amounts of information but uh but I didn't see that anywhere in Tokyo and I was like uh maybe it's not coincidence maybe Chiba is older folk who are uh more in an older mindset, maybe again I'm just I have no fucking idea but I didn't see that sign anywhere in Akiruno and that's pretty far out to the edges but anyway now that I'm here, now that I'm here this seems really cool, I would recommend it, Chiba City Folk Museum open till five o'clock last admission 430 very close to Chiba station and yeah I'm only on floor two of five, on floor five is an observatory, you can see all the Chiba City from this floor and on clear days you can also see Mount Fuji, well you know what, it is clear as fuck today so I predict I got another Mount Fuji sighting in my future, yeah now that I'm in here it's fucking cool, this place is actually kind of great, I'm gonna drink this tea and then see if my stupid brain can possibly absorb just any amount of information so far besides the uh learning that the clan is called the Chiba clan, I did notice that the samurai armor they have about half of them have artificial moustaches, big brush like moustaches which I guess is kind of intimidating in a weird way, it's like the 12th century Japanese version of your angry stepdad, like I don't want that guy to stab me, fuck, okay T10,

so from the top of the museum at the observation deck I could not see Fuji, I think I was pointed in the right direction, I even tried using my phone where the little blue dot you know can show what direction you're facing, says like okay this way is Mount Fuji and that didn't work, as a secondary thing I tried the sky tree and pointed myself in the right direction but I think the sky tree is behind a bunch of buildings and Mount Fuji you know even when I saw it yesterday it was through all of the equipment down by the waterfront all the shipping container stuff and giant cranes and things so I guess it's in there somewhere but I think even though this is a pretty dang clear day I think maybe it needs to be ultra clear, I feel like I probably got pretty lucky yesterday that I just accidentally saw Mount Fuji because I know that was kind of a recurring thing for Chris Broad of Abroad in Japan, he didn't live in Tokyo so that's a big reason why he didn't see Fuji for so long but it was like a running gag that for like the first eight years he lived in Japan he never saw Mount Fuji, he climbed Mount Fuji without you know seeing a picturesque view of Mount Fuji in the distance because it's just hard to see sometimes so I did not see it but the view was pretty cool and I feel like the little live absorb of Tiba so far it seemed extremely representative of Tiba where on one side was all the big crazy seaside machinery and giant tall buildings and stuff and then on the other side it was nice and calm and just a nice just a nice calm city you know that does seem to be the two sides of this place and the fourth floor of the museum oh I should say I mean I do think this museum if you're in Tiba totally worth checking out it's closed on Monday good to know but definitely don't use this podcast as a source of any information because it's automatically out of date but as it stands it's closed on Monday so make sure to double check check on the website before you come visit just to make sure what's going on but yeah when I got to the fourth floor which was the more modern day you know what's the Tiba clan up to these days and I was surprised because they had the recreation 25:00 of an apartment and I was like wow this I've definitely experienced this just the way this looks and the way the sink is and the appliances there was stuff like the phone was an old dial phone and the iron was older but in general I was like this doesn't seem that this is the 1930s this seems very similar to what I've experienced in Japan then I noticed the sign now this was the they set up for the 60s in the 70s and the Airbnb I stayed at in Itabashi was building from the 70s so that's cool like I really did get to experience here's what an apartment from the 70s was more or less like except now with a remote control for the lights and a new TV and internet then I got to the 30s and 40s set up and that was definitely a line in the sand that's like oh yeah I know this is a different world now this looks way different than anything I've experienced and even if you go back to you know little house on the prairie here the Walton's or something like our old school houses it's not the same as that either it's very you know so it's where my words fail me it's one of the the potential downsides of this podcast as I'm not exactly great at describing this stuff but the good thing is that's where I that's where I felt okay about the idea of doing an audio podcast as opposed to video is because you know everyone has Google at their fingertips so if I say something like a a Japanese living room from 1930 you can just google image search it now I don't need to try to describe it doesn't matter good old the good old internet has got the backup and of course being scared of heights I was a little teeny bit scared up there but it wasn't too bad pretty cool all in all oh yeah one weird little thing I forgot to mention too right at the start when I was feeling all bad because I couldn't understand the guy who was manning the door who I made sure to bow very deeply too on the way out and say thank you although even that my idea of a deep bow is probably offensive it's probably offensively shallow in Japan but I guess by North America's standards it's a hell of a head nod it's the head nod to end all head nods but here yeah it's probably not enough but yeah when I went into the washroom to just drink a coffee get my caffeine going get myself feeling right a guy came in just some older guy wearing a scarf and he just brushed his teeth in the sink and he really took his time doing a good old brush and I was like this is so weird like it the whiplash effect if I in this place that I'm like trepidacious and like am I allowed to go inside am I supposed to be here and then I get through the initial gate and I'm feeling a little rattled because I couldn't understand when the guy asked me what country I was from and I was just feeling shook up and then all of a sudden this guy comes in and just brushes his teeth like we're at a fucking bus station I was like who is this guy this guy just acting like he lives here this is fucking I mean it brought made everything feel more comfortable in a hurry you know what the heck But the other nice thing about this is now, oh, she only got a couple hours, till he's a kind of time, so I guess I should just start mosey and back that way. So I'm in the neighborhood.

But another nice thing about this is I have something to talk about, so that's good. At least this gives me something I can talk about that these guys from Chiba will be able to relate to on some level. At least I have something I can say that I did today, but not only did the guy who owns the Airbnb, the pointed me in this direction, saying, hey, thank you, I did this thing. That was a good suggestion. And wow, the Chiba clan in the 1930s, Niyadiyada. This is some stuff I can talk about, so that's good. That's good. It's like when you got to push off from the shore, push your canoe off from the shore. This will help me get going.

Oh, also, I mean, when I saw, because I guess it is probably a little weird to walk down to the docks and then to where everybody's fishing, especially on foot. I noticed coming back last night that it was a little awkward. There was a lot of places where it's all vehicle traffic down by the waterfront. So it was a little awkward trying to cross streets and stuff on foot. Not really a pedestrian zone. So when I saw the Airbnb guy, I was like, oh, instead of trying to describe what I did, a picture is worth a thousand words. Hold on, let me get my phone. Look at this, look at this cool picture. I guess I saw Fuji through the fucking sunset and everything. And he said he didn't know you could see Fuji from there. And I mean, it could be, you know.

As a thing that I've noticed a lot is that it's interesting that even if you're from a place and you've been there for a long time, sometimes that can make you not experience these things. Because if you lived near where he lives, a 10 minute walk from the seashore, you know that you don't want to go there, I guess. I went once, it was kind of cool to see the tower, but you're not going to want to go there if you're not a tourist. You're not going to want to go down to where all the shipping containers and stuff are. You're not going to go down to where everyone's fishing if you're not fishing. You just wouldn't go there. And it's like ironic that being from a place can make some parts of the place a little bit invisible to you. Like I remember my friend Doug from B.C. He's not technically from Vancouver, he's from New West Minster, which is two cities away, but it's all connected. It's all connected on the sky train, the monorail system. But there's this big part of Vancouver, it's called Stanley Park, and there's this thing called the sea wall, where you can walk around the edge of the sea wall. So when I first got to Vancouver, it wasn't long before I went there just by accident, just walking around, you know, and it's just like, oh, this is pretty cool. But because Doug was from the area, he just kind of took it for granted his whole life. You know, the sea wall was just some thing. It wasn't important. He said he hadn't walked along until he was in his mid 20s. And then when he did it, he's like, this is actually pretty great. How weird that I've never been to the sea wall. But yeah, it's like you get a blind spot if you're a local sometimes, where you just need some tourists to come in and just be ignorant and just wander around not knowing what they're doing, and they can make discoveries. You know, like holy crap, you can see Mt. Fuji. From this weird, industrial dead end, no one else would ever come to. No reason to be here.

But yeah, I'm really feeling like I think I got the right amount of time in Chiba. I do think that if I was here, you know, if I pulled one of these stunts where I'm here for like three weeks, I bet it would get a little weird of like, what the heck am I doing here? It really is just kind of a city. But for this little few days that I'm here, I mean so far, saw Mt. Fuji yesterday, went to an ancient castle museum today, like BingBing Boom. I guess the other thing that I had in mind, just looking at the map, the thing that draws my eye are obviously the, what do you call those? Not the pinnacles, the peninsula? The points on the map where you get to the edges. Like if you go east past the airport, well done again through the magic of actually having a phone with a map on it, I can tell you what these things are called. So to the east, there's Choshi Station, Choshi Marina Beach, and Ino Bosaki Lighthouse. And it's like the farthest east point from here out in the water. I have no idea what's there, but I bet it's cool. And if you go south, it's Tatiyama Station, Awa No Kuni Ichinomiya, Tsunosaki Shrine is way at the tip and Nojima Cape Lighthouse. Maybe Chikura Station is closer. I don't know, I'm so curious because both those places look really interesting, but the map is deceiving. They look like they're in the area, but if I look at the distance between Tokyo and where I am, the distance from here to either of those places is quite a bit further than that. So basically it's a two-hour ride to either of them. It costs about $15. It's not a short trip, and I have no idea what's there. So I don't know, I mean I'm curious, but I think maybe I'll save this type of thing for at the end of my trip. I'm going to Yokohama, and it's similar. I can take trips down south, see what's down there. Around here, I'm not sure what I'm doing, although maybe just as a goal for today, what was that other park? Inage seaside park. It's not too crazy far from here, I keep me in the neighborhood, so maybe I'll just mosey in that direction, see what happens.