Discover 'Little Hawaii' just an hour from Tokyo

Just an hour by car from central Tokyo, Kujukuri-hama beach on the east coast of Chiba is a superb destination for getting away from the claustrophobia of life in the capital. The only hassle, really, is getting out of the city and on the road to a better, slower way of life.

The first challenge is the ancient Shutoko expressway, which is often dangerously narrow and crowded, especially around the Tokyo Tower area, with speed freaks honking horns, tailgating or darting in front of you.

One type of road sign, in Japanese only, is a maze of snakes and ladders, impossible to read unless you were the bureaucrat who made it.

Traffic tends to untangle after the Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba along the East Kanto expressway.

After passing Disneyland and Makuhari, a left turn towards Togane leads into green corridors and an exhalation of urban stress.

A ¥200 toll-road arches over emerald rice paddies, and then at last, the ¥400 Kujukuri tollway takes you to a little parking area near sand dunes where you can see -- and feel -- the spray of the wild Pacific Ocean, only 60 kilometers from central Tokyo.

The area's lush farmland is home to some decidedly old-school scarecrows.

Before you, the 66-kilometer-long Kujukuri-hama beach, Japan’s second longest, spreads in both directions, backed by pine forests, not condos or hotels.

Driving along the coastline, with fresh air streaming through open windows, it’s easy to dream of living here forever.

Slow life

A haven for surfers and fishermen, the Kujukuri area also features many cheap minshuku and brightly painted homes of farmers and refugees from Tokyo corporate life, who grow organic vegetables tied to nets on bamboo trellises and sell them at roadside stalls.

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For avid drivers, little back roads and tunnels reveal seaside villages and an agrarian world seemingly in another region of Japan, yet close enough for a day trip or a weekend out of Tokyo.

Farmland is still relatively cheap and developers have so far left most of the wild coastline alone.

It’s not postcard material, but I like seeing old American cars and sporty Japanese models rusting in the sea air, with patches of weeds and bamboo growing in marshy village plots claimed by nobody.