Kanagawa on Nanikore

Over 30 Years Since Ebina?

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 06:18:53 +0000

Many, many years ago I used to backpack around various places. As an example, in the mid-90s I managed to get over to Japan for a few weeks, crashing at a friend’s apartment now and then in the Kanagawa town of Ebina, about an hour outside Tokyo, closer to Yokohama.

As I didn’t think I was ever going to be back so I took quite a few snaps (calling them ‘photos’ is a little much as you’ll see) which I took with a film camera - possibly an Olympus iS-100 - on that trip. I thought slice-of-life images would be a nice counterpoint to the more tourist shots and over the years I got around to scanning the negatives, and since I coincidentally happened to be near Ebina recently, I decided to see if I could recreate some of them.

The town has grown a lot, from a sleepy dormitory town for Yokohama, to a decent sized city in its own right.

That’s not surprising and some places I could find, but some were long gone from the intervening three decades! Anyway, as a change of scene, here’s a few comparison photos.

The station is all new - it’s now part of a massive shopping and restaurant complex like many stations. Very nice, though many of the old buildings which were probably amazing the first time I was there, are now cheap, simple shops.

This one is actually a lot more like it used to be - same cool strawberry, same clock, although now we have some vending machines, and that tree has grown a lot more!

When I first visited, Ayumi Bridge was under construction. This time I could actually ride over it! It still seems that it’s fed from quite a minor road, which is a little surprising.

From one span being complete, to being all done is cool to see. Also, you can see the raised Ken-O expressway above it, running north to south.

This one might be a bit odd. There used to be a quite stylish KFC in Ebina. It’s not there now, having been replaced by a huge shopping centre called Vina Walk. The pagoda in the background is still there now, though less impressive, surrounded by all that concrete.

So there’s a few examples, and I’ve added some others to the gallery below.

For the record, I went down there on my Hunter Cub, which was a great base of operations, and took the new photos with my old FujiFilm X-T200. I really don’t remember what happened to that Olympus.

A Love Letter to The Tsubaki Line

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 21:22:24 +0000

The Tsubaki Line is a roughly 17Km long road winding up from the small coast town of Yugawara in western Kanagawa Prefecture, up to the mountains around Hakone, and it’s a phenomenal ride for most bikers, so I thought I’d do a bit of a post about it since I’ve also done a couple of videos on it.

For what it’s worth, a ’ tsubaki’ is a species of shrubbery called Camellia - they tend to have a lot of thick green leaves and some winter blossoms and can be anything from a metre tall to over 10m tall.

I think I’ve ridden the Tsubaki line in every month and in pretty much every type of weather over the years - and I really don’t think there’s a bad time for it, or ‘bad’ weather. Fun all around. It’s over an hour’s ride to either end of it from greater Tokyo, but if you’re out for the day or a tour to Izu, it’s a worthy bit of road to check out.

The road itself forms part of Route 75, so let’s spend a bit of time talking about that.

It’s twisty, I don’t know how many turns, but it’s a lot.

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It’s mainly a single lane each way but some parts are narrower than others, with passing points where needed. The quality of asphalt is also … variable, but to be fair, over the years they’ve resurfaced quite a few stretches, which is nice, but be aware there are some rough patches still up there.

There are some tight - and I mean tight - corners. In a land where a mirror on a corner to show oncoming vehicles is a daily occurrence and almost mandatory, the Tsubaki line adds a few corners which also have special green chevrons on the corner to really remind you how tight that turn is going to be, and yes, you’re going to want to be in 1st or 2nd gear.

There are some straight bits but they’re a couple of hundred metres as best and even a few places where you can stop and take photos, but why are you thinking about the view when you should have your eyes on the road. Actually the view in place is awesome, and worth a look. One of the straights leads up to a wide hairpin, which is clearly popular with drifters, as there’s usually a lot of leftover tyre rubber around the apex. You can take photos near there too.

There’s also a lot of nature nearby, so following storms and typhoons be a little wary, as there can be a lot of debris on the road and also snow in winter the road winds up towards Hakone, so you’re getting some vertical too and the top is always several degrees cooler than the base, and since quite a bit of the road is on a westward lea side of the hills, there can be water and snow left well after other parts are dry.

Another thing to note is that at the sides of much of the run there are open storm gutters. Riders in Japan would be familiar with these and they always give you a little pause for thought, because if you over- or undershoot a corner and your front wheel goes into one of these gutters you’re at the very least going to burn a few calories getting it out, and you could well be looking at a broken rim, and then sorrowful sobbing and a recovery bill.

En Route

Perhaps because it’s such an engaging road, it’s easy to miss a few things you can check out along the way, but if you’re interested in some stops and general wandering around:

Tsubakidai - This is a car-park, viewing spot and toilet spot about a third of the way up, which also has a great view out over the countryside and down to the ocean. The toilet block also has an oddly abandoned building which might have housed some vending machines in the dark past.

Statue of Kobo Daishi - Don’t leave the car-park too quickly though; pop through the tunnel and there’s another small parking / turning area, and some steps down to check out a collection of small shrines and statues. It’s a walk, but exercise is a good thing.

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Hakuun Falls and Tenshozan Shrine - Further down the Tsubaki Line you can find the trail head for this, and it is actually more of a walk since it forms part of a hiking trail which also comes up from Yugawara passing by several temples, shrines and other sites. This one has an impressive waterfall too, so if you’re the kind of person who likes to wash their feet, rest their feet or whatever then the waterfall is the place for you. A nice place to have a rest and a cup of tea.

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There’s a few other bits to point out if you have some time, so let’s start from the bottom.

Yugawara - the town at the bottom of the Tsubaki line as of this writing is being somewhat rejuvenated with apartment buildings and new accommodation for the wealthier, older people.

The main road follows the valley river and waterfalls all the way down to the ocean. It gets more picturesque the further inland you get. However, if you’re not interested in the river and town, but still need to get from the coast road to the Tsubaki line, might I recommend the Orange Line - a short burn along the side of the valley and what used to be a more used toll road but is now free. When in season, you can also buy fruit from stands along the way. I prefer this route to be honest.

If you want a cafe and a park for some reason, check out Manyou Park and the tourist centre, which also has a nice cafe.

There’s actually a lot more in the area, but that’s for other posts, so I’ll stop here.

Bottom line: check out the Tsubaki Line and answer the question: is it better going from bottom to top, or top to bottom. I vote bottom-to-top.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

TougeExpress — 2025-02-19

Bottom to top 100%. Good stuff G.

Empty Beach in Golden Week

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 12:07:14 +0000

During Golden Week I thought I’d stop off and get some photos of people sea fishing off the beach and some of the jetties where the Hayakawa meets the Pacific Coast, so I packed up my cameras on to the bike, a flask of tea, and off I went.

(Golden Week is a collection of national holidays here in Japan, and is usually ~ 3days, but this year, with the new Emperor, we ended up with a metric pile of them.)

Unfortunately I had missed the memo which must have said that all the people I often see on that beach had to take the day off. Still, it was an interesting bit of coastline to take a look at, despite the emptiness, so lets see how much I can squeeze out of it!

I got off the main toll road which runs down and above the coast, and rode through some local streets, trying to find a road which looked like it would end appropriately near the beach itself. I found one by essentially following the dog walkers, re-enforcing one of those things about life - dog walkers always seem to know the best places. This particular road ended with a ramp and some steps down to the sand under the aforementioned toll road overhead, near some quite reasonably designed toilets and a barrier I expect is deployed in the busier summer months to stop people just driving on through to the ocean.

No, I did not take the Tracer down onto the sand. Therein lies disaster and tears.

View Larger Map

So this was when I realised that the place was pretty much empty. I’d been hoping to watch the beach fishermen and women, and get some kind of insight into the hobby of beach fishing, but there was just a solitary enthusiast on the end of a pier, and he looked like he was ready to take a break anyway. He was perhaps disheartened that he too didn’t get the memo either.

Tetrapods

This particular stretch of beach had a couple of types of coastlines defence too - tetrapods or similar. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but there are a lot of them around the place, but then Japan is an archipelago on the side of a vast ocean so defending the coastline is likely high on the agenda. It also creates construction jobs, and I’m sure friends of the government have liked that too.

I expect there is something oddly satisfying about these huge concrete blocks and the regularity of their shapes which appeals to your average bureaucrat.

Empty Beach .. but Always Someone

If there’s one thing I know from nearly a decade near this ocean, it is that there is always someone around the beach. There was the solitary fisherman, but then a trickle of people, some walking dogs, some seemingly just come to look at the ocean for a few minutes to take in the sights, sounds and smell and then head back to whatever they were doing. One older gent in his jogging outfit walked down the peer, drank his can of chuuhai (rice wine and in this case, lemon), and continued walking down the beach.

Wall Art

One thing I did get to see, amongst the damaged warning signs, mild amounts of rubbish (both washed up and dropped), was some interesting wall art. Along one wall we had some grafitti, and on another was a mural seemingly painted by a local school in the Summer of 2011, just months after the massive tsunami which devastated a large section of the north east coast of Honshu island. It seems odd it’s in the area under the road, rather that in the sea-facing side, but it is there, half hidden behind tetrapods.

More About The Waves

Another nod towards the waves which lap the coastline is a mural near the pier warning about high waves complete with a rendition of Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, just to get the point across. Whilst the surf was relatively quiet whilst I was there, it’s easy to imagine the odd rogue wave coming in, potentially knocking people in who weren’t paying attention.

Not a Life Boat

Whilst I was wandering, and drinking my tea, I noticed there was actually another ramp which I’d missed, and at the top was a small boat. For a moment I thought this was some kind of life-saving launch, a bit like the coast guard or RNLI we have in the UK, but when I got to the top it was obvious this was some kind of damaged and abandoned boat, which is a shame as it looked like it’d be a good size for the bay, and that ramp looked like there was some run rolling potential, but alas no. I do wonder if it was intended to launch from there at some point.

Maybe Another Day

I have to believe come the summer proper, this place will be much busier as it has those big ramps and a fair sized toilet facility, so maybe in a few months I’ll come back and bring my bikini. Having often seen people here before, I think I just picked the wrong day in the midst of the 10 days of national holidays to celebrate Golden Week and Reiwa, and reminds me that sometimes you’re just not in the right place at the right time!

New Header Image: Water

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 00:34:08 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted, and it’s been a while since I updated the head, and since I’ve moved the blog theme to the Twenty Thirteen fit a little better. This time the header image is focussed on water.

There’s been a lot going on of late, hence the lack of posts, and much of it has been in the outdoors, and as the temperatures climb higher and the humidity makes Japan a nation-wide sauna once more, it’s good to get into the water and trees of the countryside and cool off.

I took this shot quickly as it’s a park of some steps which make waterfalls for the kids to play in, and it gets decent traffic on these hot weekends in Kanagawa.

First Matsuri of 2012

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:31:14 +0000

I’ll admit that this post is two weeks late. What can I say, I’ve been busy. In my world, ‘busy’ isn’t just the day job, it also covers drinking tea, drinking beer, and sleeping, and I’ll confess to having done all three of these in the last month. Quite often. So on with the post. On May 19th., we went to our first matsuri of the year. For those few of you who don’t know what a matsuri is, a matsuri（祭り）is a community festival, and many are held in the Summer around Japan. I like these things.

This one was a little atypical, in that it wasn’t really a community one, but one organised by the local council in a nice stretch of family oriented park down by the river. There were a few game stalls, a few food stalls, some free popcorn, free balloon animals (though I got a balloon katana and tried to claim it was for my kids), some ponies to ride, and inflatable castle, a monkey and some vegetable stands. This is typical faire, even for a small one like this, though I admit, the ponies and monkey are a little out of the norm.

Given the beautiful weather and park locale, it was a really relaxing day, starting around 10.30am, and winding down at 3pm, which again is a little unusual as matsuris tend to be afternoon and even affairs.

I enjoyed all of the bits and pieces, and we did ponder getting a house nameplate carved on the spot by a local joinery company who had a stall, but somehow managed not to. I do like kakigoori (かき氷), which is a bowl of shaved ice - not ice chunks, but very thinly sliced ice, which makes it more like snow - with some syrup added. It’s a staple of the hot summers here at these kind of things, and something to look forward to. There was a stall selling what seemed to be edible gelatinous spheres. More than that I can’t say - I didn’t try them, and though they looked nice, at least candyfloss is straight-up honest sugar.

I have to admit to not have been sure about the monkey - part of me balks at that, and kids love it, but that thick rope didn’t make it look too friendly to me. The ponies looked a little happier, and their owner didn’t pan-handle for tips.

One game involves a small paddling pool filled with water with what are referred to here as balloon yoyos - kind of water filled balloons on long elastic bands if you can visualise that. Each person gets a hook on the end of a length of tissue paper, and has to hook the elastic band and retrieve the yoyo from the water before the paper breaks. In reality the kids all get one to prevent riots.

One energetic tyke was bouncing his balloon up and down and then tried a trick at the precise time the elastic band broke, and the balloon flew off and smacked me in the face. For a second I had a mosh pit flashback for some reason, but calmly picked the balloon up as this clueless kid just stood there with his mouth doing that guppy fish thing whilst his poor grandmother had to apologise. I tossed it back to him and asked him to be more careful in the future.

So this was a gentle introduction to the fervour of the matsuri season in Japan, and I look forward to a lot more in the next few months.

Satoyama Koen

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:14:05 +0000

I thought I’d write a few practical posts here when possible of good places and parks for people with children around Kanto to go for a bit of a day out, since I’m kind of in that market at the moment. First up: Satoyama Koen, primarily aimed at children. Even though it’s ‘in Chigasaki’ it’s not too close to the station - more of a car or bike journey. There seems to be ample parking for both.

As you can see from the link, it’s quite spacious. The main attractions are: a huge roller slide, a smaller but still long roller slide for smaller children, a stream and pool for children to paddle, all concreted and quite clean. There’s also the usual jungle gyms and a large bouncy mountain. It’s quite spacious, meaning there’s plenty of walking space, woodland and open grass. Frisbee, ball sports and bicycle practice seem popular. When we went the ages of the children was roughly up to ten years old and everyone was very friendly, so everyone got a go on most things.

As the slides are rollers, many people brought bits of cardboard to slide on, which was a good idea. My well padded posterior was burning halfway down, so we invested 500yen in a plastic tray sold for the purpose at the nearby park centre.

Having a picnic seemed popular in the summer, but the only food on site is ice cream and snacks from vending machines, so it’s a walk to a convenience store if you didn’t bring anything. The same vending machines sell a selection of drinks (including Mountain Dew!), though many may not appeal to children ironically. As with all vending machines, these will be rotated by season.

It’s all free to enter, being a public run park, and no real downside, and the slide really is quite addictive for adults and children alike.

Long weekend in kanagawa

Mon, 19 Jul 2004 14:25:10 +0000

Not many people may know, but my first two years in Japan were spent in the prefecture to the southwest of Tokyo, called Kanagawa. I was teaching English on the JET program (1996-98) in 4 Junior high Schools in the sleepy little town of Isehara. I had a great time of it (which maybe explains why I came back eventually), but alas tales from those two years could fill a book or two, let alone a blog posting.

Anyway, since this was a long weekend, we thought we’d spend Sunday and Monday out and about in Kanagawa-ken, not only because I used to live there, but so did my partner, in Yokohama. We decided to take a Romance Car on the Odakyu line from Shinjuku, just over an hour to Hon-Atsugi. This is an express train which also lets you perform the important task of sitting down for the journey. Many of the older Romance Car trains are pink, but sadly many of the newer ones, though more comfortable and quiet, are a more sedate grey. These trains essentially connect Tokyo/Shinjuku to Odawara, Hakone and the beach at Enoshima.

Once deep into Kanagawa, we went to check in to our hotel in the growing town of Ebina which in the 2 years since I was last there has received a HUGE new shopping complex bolted onto the still rather quaint station building which looks kind of odd now. The new shopping centre though wouldn’t look out of place in Odaiba or Makuhari though - it’s really amazing - it’s own multiplex cinema, and even a toy-train for the children, and a few tired adults. Yes, I kind of missed the quiet old Ebina we used to hang around in, but I suppose it’s a step up for the town compared to it’s neighbours though. Aside from the station not really fitting, the across of rice fields a few hundred metres away also tell the truth - this is a dormitory/apartment town in the middle of a rural farming area.

So what of Isehara? Well, I have to say that not much has changed - a few new buildings, but it seems as sleepy as ever, which is no bad thing. Indeed one of the nice things was that the last time I went there in 2002 many old shops had become car parks (truly a sign of local business death), but now many of these tarmac graveyards are being converted into business premises again, which is a good thing. The old Denny’s I used to sleep in is still there, my old apartment is still there! The rather bizarre ‘Little House on the Prairie’ church is still there. And yes, the video rental shop with ‘Video Lental’ written on it’s roof is still there, as are it’s paintings to advertise Rocky 3 and Star Wars. I always enjoyed the town, and hope it flourishes. Isehara also stands at the foot of the majestic Oyama, which rises up to meet the sun and guarantees amazing sunsets. I took some pics, which I’ll try to get in the gallery as soon as possible.

On Monday, from Ebina, we went on to Yokohama, and saw my partner’s old apartment building, which required a lengthy walk uphill in the heat, but it has a great view over Yokohama, and fortunately a pleasant breeze. We spent a bit of time around Yokohama, having a look around the Minato 21 Mirai area, including the new Queen’s shopping centre, which is right next to the Landmark Tower shopping centre, which has resulted in one huge shopping centre. This one has a nice twist though - as the underground train is in the B3F (that’s third basement floor) the architects have made that a feature, so one of the the open areas between floors extends from the roof right down to the train, so everyone can watch the trains coming and going.

All in all then the weekend featured a lot of walking, some shopping, and eating, and I have to say that it made a nice change not to be doing that in Tokyo. The theme by default was definitely on shopping centres as more ‘out of town’ style ones open in Japan, and it’s interesting to see how these are melding in, especially in areas where the main access point is still by train (certainly the Yokohama one was). The other theme of late has been watching films in cinemas, but I think I’ll save that for a later post.