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Looking east toward Chiba. The JR Sobu Line tracks can be seen on the left going to Moto-Yawata Station.4 views
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In spring, Guhoji's 400-year-old weeping cherry blossom tree is famous. 伏姫桜4 views
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Another Monchicchi monument with seven smaller Monchicchi. These Monchicchi monuments are a good spot to meetup with friends at Shin-Koiwa Station. モンチッチ この指とまれ像4 views
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Map to Monchicchi Park, about a 15-min. walk or short bus ride.4 views
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JR Shin-Koiwa Station's North Entrance (JR Sobu Line). The stairs/escalator going up to the Skydeck Tatsumi pedestrian walkway to bus stops can be seen on the left.4 views
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Skydeck Tatsumi pedestrian walkway to the Tohoku Open Space Area (Tohoku Hiroba) bus stops is decorated with Monchicchi. スカイデッキたつみ4 views
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Skydeck Tatsumi pedestrian walkway floor tiles decorated with Monchicchi. 4 views
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Monchicchi Zone's centerpiece monument great for selfies. Meet the Monchicchi family. On January 26, 2004, the boy and girl Moncchichi got married on Moncchichi’s 30th anniversary. 4 views
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Sekiguchi Doll House monument. Sekiguchi Doll House was a small museum of vintage celluloid dolls produced by Sekiguchi. 4 views
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Sekiguchi Doll House displayed many celluloid dolls. The company got its start in 1918 making celluloid toy dolls.4 views
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Park restrooms decorated with Monchicchi.4 views
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Monchicchi playground for infants and preschoolers.4 views
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Monchicchi Park's Chibikko Hiroba, a small playground for infants.4 views
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On May 5, Children's Day, admission is free for jr. high and younger children. The tulip design pattern changes every year. These photos were taken some years ago.4 views
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The tulip is the official flower for both Tonami and Toyama Prefecture.4 views
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JR Shin-Koiwa Station south side as seen from the platform. This view will soon be gone when the new station building under construction is completed. The Lumière shopping arcade is visible.4 views
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JR Shin-Koiwa Station north entrance (kitaguchi).4 views
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Matsumae Castle's Honmaru Gomon Gate.4 views
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Approaching Yokozuna Chiyonoyama and Chiyonofuji Memorial Hall.4 viewsFrom JR Kikkonai Station, take a bus to Matsumae and get off at Fukushima bus stop. Takes alomst an hour. Open 9 am–5 pm. Admission ¥500. Cloeed Dec. 1 to March 15. https://be-happy-fukushima.com/attractions/yokozuna-kinenkan/
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Chiyonofuji's topknot is also displayed. His topknot was cut off on his retirement day in Feb. 1992 by his then Kokonoe stablemaster and former Yokozuna Kitanofuji.4 viewsChiyonofuji's topknot is also displayed.
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Chiyonofuji's motto: Shin-gi-tai or Mind, Technique, and Body. 心技体4 views
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The museum also has a replica of Chiyonofuji's Kokonoe sumo stable ring. 4 views
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Photo of actor Sylvester Stallone visiting Kokonoe Stable and Chiyonofuji practicing.4 views
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Way to Cape Ayamaru lookout point.4 views
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How Cape Ayamaru got its name.4 views
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Street sign promoting sumo wrestler Meisei who is from Amami Oshima. He belongs to Tatsunami Stable. 明生関4 views
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We had lunch here. Address: 鹿児島県奄美市笠利町用安1246-14 views
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Amami Resort Basyayama-mura has a nice, white-sand beach.4 views
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Someone had recently raked or cleaned up the pumice.4 views
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Amami Park has the Isson no Mori tropical garden area which is free admission, but other facilities charge admission like the Exhibition Hall and Amami Theater. Isson is the name of a local painter.4 views
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The park also has this lookout tower (Tenbodai) with fine views of the area. It might have been the old airport control tower. 展望台4 views
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Amami-Oshima coastal view.4 views
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Amami no Sato's Island Information Space explains about Amami Oshima.4 views
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Amami no Sato's Island Information Space explains about local flora and fauna.4 views
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Isson Tanaka Museum is an art museum showing his paintings. Isson Tanaka (1908–1977) was a painter from Tokyo who moved to Amami at age 50. Photography inside the museum is not allowed. 田中一村記念美術館4 viewsIsson lived on Amami from 1958 until his death in 1977. He painted Amami's flora and fauna. The museum has about 450 of his works and displays about 80 of them at a time. Museum buildings resemble the local Takakura storehouse for grains. Amami-Oshima, Kagoshima.
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Amami Oshima Shuzo gift shop4 views
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Amami Oshima Shuzo gift shop sells mainly shochu.4 views
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The factory is in a subtropical garden with tropical flowers and plants. Adult admission ¥500, open every day 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.4 viewsAddress: 1945 Akaogi Tatsugo Oshima, Kagoshima
Local buses stop at Oshima Tsumugimura bus stop. (From Amami Airport, 30 min. by bus.) http://www.tumugi.co.jp/
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Tie-dyed (in mud) handkerchiefs. The fabric is also dyed with the sharinbai tree containing iron and tannin.4 views
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Inside the Oshima (Ooshima) Tsumugimura fabric factory. A few workers demonstrated the production of tsumugi silk fabric. This weaving step is called shimebata to make patterns on the silk.4 views
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Loom to weave Oshima tsumugi.4 views
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Oshima tsumugi handkerchief I bought for myself. Tie-dyed.4 views
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The garden has 29 monuments for poetry and poets. 千寿庵益賀の句碑4 views
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Mukojima Hyakkaen Garden was destroyed by the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo, but was rebuilt and reopened in 1949.4 views
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Japanese bush clover (hagi) tunnel.4 views
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Japanese bush clover (hagi) tunnel.4 views
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This is a pretty white plum blossom tree. Species name is "Shirokaga."4 views
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Pine tree.4 views
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Pine tree.4 views
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These flowers were in bloom in late March.4 views
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Small gift shop and cafe with outdoor seating. 売店4 views
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Mukojima Hyakkaen is near Higashi-Mukojima Station on the Tobu Skytree Line or Keisei Hikifune Station on Keisei Oshiage Line.4 viewsEasiest way is to take the Nippori-bound bus #22 (里22) from JR Kameido Station (bus stop 6). Get off at Hyakkaen-mae.
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Shirahige Shrine in Higashi Mukojima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo is also a branch shrine of Shirahige Shrine in Takashima, Shiga Prefecture. 白鬚神社4 views
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Emperor Meiji visited here too.4 views
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Shirahige Bridge looks the same since 1931.4 views
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Sumida River as seen from Shirahige Bridge.4 views
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About Soka Matsubara. Some 60 of the pine trees have survived since the Edo Period.4 views
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Soka Matsubara is a nice, long pedestrian path stretching for 1.5 km lined on both sides with over 600 evergreen pine trees. Part of Soka-juku post town on the old Nikko Kaido road to Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture. 4 viewsDesignated as a National Place of Scenic Beauty. Near Dokkyodaigakumae Station (Tobu Railway from Asakusa).
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From Dokkyodaigakumae Station's east exit, walk on this main road to Soka-Matsubara. Short walk.4 views
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Soka-Matsubara pine tree path continues on the right going south. There's another similar arch bridge at the intersection further south.4 views
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The arch bridge is near the middle of the pine tree path. If you want to walk through the entire pine tree path from here, go left first, then backtrack and walk south until the end. Monument near the arch bridge. 4 views
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Matsuo Basho monument at Soka-Matsubara.4 views
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Soka Matsubara pine trees may have been originally planted as early as 1683 by government official Ina Tada'atsu (伊奈忠篤) in the Fudaba Park area where there was a river boat dock.4 views
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By 1877, Soka-Matsubara had 800+ pine trees. In the 1930s, Soka-Matsubara had over 700 pine trees. However, by the 1960s due to vehicle exhaust fumes, the number of pine trees shrank to 60.4 views
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Nakazone Bridge over Ayase River.4 views
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Stone bench.4 views
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The northern end of Soka-Matsubara has this ring.4 views
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Monument says 今様草加松原 mean "Modern-style Soka-Matsubara" in reference to current efforts to preserve the pine tree path in modern ways.4 views
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Soka-Matsubara pine tree path.4 views
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Pine needles and pine cones.4 views
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Back to Hyakutai Bridge. This is near the halfway point on the Soka-Matsubara path.4 views
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Hyakutai Bridge is decorated with small relief sculptures like these pine cones.4 views
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View from Hyakutai Bridge. This road goes to the train station straight ahead.4 views
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Southern view from Hyakutai Bridge.4 views
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Monument for the Japanese bush clover planted by the late Donald Keene. Flowers not in season in Feb. Donald Keene was a renown professor of Japanese studies (especially literature) at Columbia University in New York. ドナルド・キーン記念植樹4 views
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About Soka Matsubara as a Scenic Place Along Oku-no-Hosomichi. It's one of the 25 designated Scenic Places along the Oku-no-Hosomichi extending over 12 prefectures.4 views
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Donald Keene wrote the inscribed sentence: "Place of Scenic Beauty: Soka Matsubara - Scenic Place Along Oku-no-Hosomichi"4 viewsDonald Keene was a renown professor of Japanese studies (especially literature) at Columbia University in New York. Keene is revered in Soka for helping with local activities related to Oku-no-Hosomichi.
He also famously became a Japanese citizen and spent the last years of his life living in Japan.
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Harp Bridge has a harp sculpture. 4 views
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Matsubara Ayasegawa Park is a large park with cherry blossoms.4 views
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Matsubara Ayasegawa Park 4 views
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Matsubara Ayasegawa Park 4 views
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Matsubara Ayasegawa Park 4 views
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Matsubara Ayasegawa Park watchtower4 views
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Soka-Matsubara pine trees and Ayasegawa River.4 views
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Walking further south along Soka-Matsubara.4 views
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Northern view from Yatate Bridge.4 views
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Top of Yatate Bridge.4 views
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Top of Yatatebashi arch bridge.4 views
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Statue of Matsuo Basho in Fudaba-kashi Park on the southern end of Soka-Matsubara. Statue was built in 1989 to mark the 300th anniversary of Basho's Oku-no-Hosomichi journey in 1689. Built with donations.4 views
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Watchtower on the southern end of Soka-Matsubara. 望楼4 views
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Post towns along the Nikko Kaido Road to Nikko.4 views
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Statue of Kawai Sora (河合曾良), Matsuo Basho's travel companion for his Oku-no-Hosomichi five-month journey on foot to Tohoku and Hokuriku Regions. Statue built in 2008 to mark Soka's 50th anniversary.4 views
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Sora Kawai traveled with Haiku poet Matsuo Basho for most of Basho's Oku-no-Hosomichi poetry journey on foot to Tohoku and Hokuriku Regions in 1689.4 views
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How to make Soka senbei rice crackers. At least 10 steps.4 views
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Soka-juku Shinmei-an tourist info center closed on March 21, 2022. The staff moved to the tourist info center near the Basho statue in Fudaba-kashi Park. 草加宿神明庵4 views
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Shinmei Shrine 神明神社4 views
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Soka senbei shop on the old Nikko Kido Road.4 views
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Another Soka senbei shop. There are over 60 senbei shops in Soka.4 views
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Soka senbei rice cracker. ¥904 views
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Tofukuji Temple gate.4 views
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Tofukuji Temple was first built in 1606 by Okawa Zusho who once served the Hojo Clan in Odawara, Kanagawa.4 views
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Tofukuji's bell tower is noted for wood carvings. 4 views
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Honjin lodge monument in Soka-juku, Nikko Kaido Road. 大川本陣跡碑4 views
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Okawa Honjin lodge monument in Soka-juku, Nikko Kaido Road. There was also another Honjin in Soka-juku. 大川本陣跡碑4 views
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Original road marker in Soka-shuku, Saitama on the Nikko Kaido. 道標元標4 views
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Soka folk history museum entrance. Free admission.4 views
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Floor layout on the 1st and 2nd floors. The old classrooms are now exhibition rooms for local history and artifacts.4 views
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Ancient pottery found in Soka.4 views
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About the ancient dugout canoe excavated from Ayase River in 1929.4 views
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Documents related to traveling on the Nikko Kaido.4 views
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Replica scroll painting of Matsu Basho and Kawai Sora who visited Soka in 1689.4 views
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About Emperor Meiji's visit to Soka in 1876 and 1881 when he was traveling to Tohoku or Hokkaido.4 views
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Factory equipment4 views
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Senbei production equipment for mochi pounding.4 views
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Senbei production equipment.4 views
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On the 2nd floor, Hinamatsuri Girl's Day dolls.4 views
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On the 2nd floor, Hinamatsuri Girl's Day dolls.4 views
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About Heihachiro Okawa.4 views
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Pink pay phone in Japan. Now obsolete. Took only ¥10 coins.4 views
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Koga Kubo Park opened on March 24, 1975. It's quite a large park.4 views
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Pheasant bird cage. 鳥小屋4 views
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Food trucks for the balloon glow event.4 views
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Inflating the hot-air balloon.4 views
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The MC came up to the crowd and asked people to give the word to light up the balloons.4 views
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When it got dark enough, all four balloons lit up their balloons simultaneously numerous times during the one-hour event.4 views
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The balloon lights up only when the burner is shooting a flame under it. The flame illuminates the entire balloon. 4 views
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This photo was taken during the several seconds when the burners of all four balloons were flaming into the balloons at the same time.4 views
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All four balloons lit up at the same time many times during the one-hour balloon glow event. They played J-pop music in the background.4 views
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Crowd-pleasing event.4 views
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JR Koga Station (Tohoku Main Line or Utsunomiya Line) is the closet train station to Kubo park.4 views
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JR Koga Station4 views
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There were free shuttle buses from Koga Station (west exit) going to and from the park.4 views
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Free shuttle buses from Koga Station going to and from the park. This is the Kubo Park parking lot. The return bus is also here.4 views
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JR Koga Station information center (closed).4 views
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JR Koga Station east entrance.4 views
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Kamagaya Daibutsu is Shakyamuni Buddha (Shaka Nyorai). The statue is still owned and maintained by the Fukuda family. It's a longtime symbol of Kamagaya, Chiba Prefecture. Free to visit.4 views
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Across of Kamagaya Daibutsu Buddha is Kamagaya Hachiman Shrine.4 views
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Kamagaya Hachiman Shrine torii.4 views
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Dismantled torii.4 views
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Don't know why the land has been cleared of trees.4 views
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Kamagaya-Daibutsu Station on the Shin-Keisei Line.4 views
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Kamagaya-Daibutsu Station on the Shin-Keisei Line.4 views
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Kamagaya-Daibutsu Station cafe. Nice place for a coffee break or lunch with views of Kamagaya Hachiman Shrine.4 views
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Shin-Kamagaya Station on Hokuso Line.4 views
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JR Abiko Station corridor.4 views
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JR Abiko Station south entrance. 4 views
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Lake Tega Water Park 4 views
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About the picture made with 126,840 colored toothpicks.4 views
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Walking along Lake Teganuma.4 views
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Lakefront construction.4 views
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Lake Tega Park 手賀沼公演4 views
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Swans and ducks on Lake Teganuma.4 views
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Lake Teganuma 4 views
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Lake Teganuma has rental boats.4 views
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Peace monument at Lake Teganuma or Lake Tega Park.4 views
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Peace monument at Lake Teganuma or Lake Tega Park.4 views
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JR Kashiwa Station turnstile.4 views
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JR Kashiwa Station East exit. 4 views
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JR Kashiwa Station East exit area.4 views
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JR Kashiwa Station East exit area has Marui.4 views
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Kashiwa Shrine, near Kashiwa Station east exit. Worships several different gods. 柏神4 views
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Streets near Kashiwa Station east side.4 views
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Nibangai Shopping Arcade 二番街商店街4 views
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Nibangai Shopping Arcade 二番街商店街4 views
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Nibangai Shopping Arcade 二番街商店街4 views
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Kashiwa Station west exit area.4 views
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JR Kashiwa Station turnstile.4 views
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Like Kashiwa Station two stops away, Nagareyama-ōtakanomori Station has become a major shopping area with numerous shops in large mall named "Nagareyama-Otakanomori S.C."4 views
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The city does have a Nagareyama Station on the Nagareyama Line, but it's small. The city's center of gravity has shifted to Nagareyama-ōtakanomori Station where all this was once farmland.4 views
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Pedestrian walkway from the train station to Nagareyama-Otakanomori S.C. (Shopping Center).4 views
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Tobu Nagareyama-ōtakanomori Station4 views
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Nagareyama Otaka-no-Mori Station east exit.4 views
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Shops under Nagareyama Otakanomori Station tracks.4 views
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Exiting from Tobu Line.4 views
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The station has this large covered area leading to station platforms and exits.4 views
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Nagareyama Otakanomori Station platform on the Tobu Urban Park Line.4 views
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White weeping plum blossoms.4 views
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Mound B (B号墳) had two stone coffins. Although one coffin was destroyed, the other remains intact. Now protected by a hut. The stone coffin contained the remains of two adults, 4 views
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Mound B tumulus (B号墳) at Saginuma Castle Park. Hut preserving a stone coffin. B号墳の箱式石棺4 views
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Stone coffin in Mound B is 2 meters long, 0.8 meter wide, and 0.7 meter deep. The stones came from southern Chiba Prefecture and shaped with metallic tools. The coffin was covered with large stones. B号墳の箱式石棺4 viewsThe remains of two adult males were found in the coffin in 1966. Chokutō sword fragments, ancient jewelry, arrowheads, and small knife were also found.
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Remains of a natural gas well.4 views
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Park has a lot of space to run around.4 views
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Park includes playground equipment for kids.4 views
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Pieces of haniwa sculptures were dug up and the park has two replicated Naniwa statues. One human and one horse. Unknown what the original haniwa actually looked like.4 views
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Horse haniwa statue (replica).4 views
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Walking around the burial mound.4 views
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The burial mounds have stones along the perimeter.4 views
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JR Sobu Line train at JR Tsudanuma Station.4 views
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There are three train stations with the same "Tsudanuma." Tsudanuma is a major bedroom town for Tokyo. This is JR Sobu Line train whose next stop is Tsudanuma. 4 views
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