deuceの旅行: 1-Day Tour: Umihotaru (海ほたる), Komatsudera (小松寺), Tokyo German Village (東京ドイツ村) & Other Autumn Activities

This trip was another company-sponsored bus tour, and like the trip to Yamanashi, everything was prearranged. Here's the itinerary of that trip.

09:00 - Departure from Shin-yokohama
- Umihotaru (海ほたる)
- Komatsudera (小松寺)
12:30 - Seafood Buffet Lunch (浜焼市場きよっぱち)
- Fish Market (お魚市場きよっぱち)
14:30 - Mandarin Orange Picking (みかん狩り)
16:30 - Mitsui Outlet Park Kisarazu (三井アウトレット木更津)
18:00 - Tokyo German Village (東京ドイツ村)
20:30 - Arrival at Shin-yokohama

The first stop was Umihotaru, a man-made island in the middle of Tokyo Bay (東京湾). It's the tunnel-meets-bridge point of the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line (東京湾アクアライン), the highway built to connect Kanagawa and Chiba.

After that very quick stop-over, the next stop was Komatsudera, which is supposedly known as the Maple Temple. It was autumn, and maple is very much associated with that season, so it should be one of the best destinations. But based on my last bus tour to Gunma, where we should have seen the "Niagara Falls of the East", branding places covered by bus tours may lead to disappointments, so I didn't really expect a nice autumn foliage scenery.

Komatsudera was a relatively small temple, though I could say that for a temple that small, there were quite a number of visitors at that time. Next was lunch at Kiyopachi (浜焼市場きよっぱち), advertised as seafood buffet, though I think I ate more pork than fish. After lunch was a quick tour to their seafood market (お魚市場きよっぱち).

After lunch was the orange picking activity. Anything eaten within the plantation was free, and from what I remember, oranges taken outside cost 300 yen per kilogram.

Next was a 50-minute stop at Mitsui Outlet Park, a famous chain of outlet stores in Japan. Time was limited, and there were more choices compared to other Mitsui Outlet Park branches, so I didn't have time to take some pictures. After running all around the place and shopping for some items, we were off to the Tokyo German Village, in what should be the highlight of the tour because of the illumination event at that time. That didn't disappoint, though I wish we could have spent more time there. Anyway, it was all free, so no complains here.