Last Updated: Oct 20, 2024

Chiba’s Choshi City

A Hidden Gem by the Pacific Ocean

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

For some time now, I’ve been escaping to Chiba Prefecture whenever I needed a break from the madness. Most famously, the seaside town of Katsuura saved me from complete and utter burnout back in 2022, and ever since, Chiba has been my choice when I wanted to carve out some much-needed time for myself to recharge and get back on track. Having explored most of the Boso Peninsula’s southernmost sections, I recently decided to check out Chiba’s easternmost point and visit Choshi City when I needed a brief reprieve from my many clients and creator inquiries.

Now, I imagine that most of you have never heard of Choshi before. Essentially comprising the area that makes up the “elbow” jutting out from the northeastern part of Chiba, this part of the prefecture has actually long been an important part of the Kanto region. While historically, Choshi has been around for some time, the city really began to thrive during the Edo period (1603–1868) when the Tokugawa shogunate helped develop the local fishing and soy sauce factories. Thereafter, the fishing port was built up as Japan entered modernity.