Chiba Clouds

The longer you live in a place, the more local your concerns become. At least, that seems to be my pattern. When I first arrived in California, I was interested in large trends moving the entire state or famous places; later, I was interested in community-level planning for new developments. In particular, with the expansion of mass transit, its impacts on communities were studied closely and written about extensively.

During August, I spent a weekend in Tateyama, Chiba. It is a town in the prefecture east of Tokyo. I stayed in a tiny pension which is a family run bed and breakfast. Sometime these places are called ryokan, but I don't really know the difference. Mine was called Nanohana.

The walk to the beach was about five hundred meters. Along the way, I passed other pensions and some small farms. What impressed me the most was the sky. On the other side of Tokyo bay, the development is much less intense. As a result, the sky is less polluted, and at night, stars can been easily seen.