The other day, I took my child's friend, who had stayed over at our house, to Kanaya in the Uchibo area of Chiba Prefecture.
The children hold a sleepover once a month.
They prepare their overnight bags, come to our house, announce "I'm staying over tonight," getting our complete after-the-fact approval,
and have a fun night.
The next day was a Sunday and the shop was closed, so we decided to take a day trip to Uchibo,
thinking it would be nice to go somewhere together.
We set out with no plans, deciding to just go wherever the wind took us,
and left at 6:30 AM to avoid the congestion on the Aqua-Line, which gets crowded from around 7:30 AM.
There was less traffic than expected, and we arrived in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture, in about 30 minutes.
While driving along the coast of Uchibo and thinking about our plans, we hadn't had breakfast yet,
so the two who kept saying "I'm hungry" and the other three headed to Kanaya Port.
At this time of year, aji-fry (fried horse mackerel) is such a specialty of Uchibo that it's practically its namesake.
If you come to Uchibo, you definitely want to try aji-fry.
At shops that open early in the morning, lines of people gradually start to form,
and at popular shops, people apparently wait for several hours even when the outside temperature is nearly 40 degrees Celsius.
Anyway, I looked up shops that would be open at our estimated arrival time,
and a shop that had recently been featured on TV was not yet open.
We parked the car and entered the shop, and people quickly started to fill it, so it was good timing.
Everyone ordered what they wanted.
It was a slightly later and more lavish breakfast than usual.
While eating, we discussed the day's plan, but it was already 35°C around 10 AM.
If it were a little cooler, we would want to go further, but we also needed to be careful about heatstroke,
so we headed to Mount Nokogiri, which is very close to Kanaya Port.
The ropeway, which I rode for the first time in decades, had a pleasant breeze from the mountains,
and as the altitude increased, the scenery and my spirits brightened.
But the summer heat, after all, didn't change much with just this.
Upon reaching the terminal, there's an observation deck right away, so we climbed the steep stairs and
You can see a magnificent view from Uchibo all the way to the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The scenery of the mountains and sea, which change with the seasons, each has its own charm,
and it seemed to have brought some healing even to the children who are in their puberty and rebellious phase.
Even though it was slightly cooler at the summit, the temperature still exceeded 30 degrees Celsius,
so we headed home early that day.
But I definitely want to visit again when it gets cooler.
I really felt that Chiba is a wonderful place.