10 Things to Do in Chiba on a Small Budget

Entry to Herb Garden by the Sea - Herb Garden Pocket in Choshi City is free of charge. The 5,500-square-metre site houses lavender fields and gardens, a herb shop, a green shop, a dog run, and a tree house. There are also lectures on herbs and gardening, as well as reasonably priced hands-on experiences such as flower-picking (20 flowers will set you back 300 yen) and bath salt-making (300 yen). You can pick lavenders all year round and jasmine flowers from early summer to winter. The tree-house experience is 500 yen for 30 minutes for a group of up to 6 people, and the dog run is priced at 300 yen. For a reasonably priced day out with the family, this is hard to beat.

Chiba Dairy no Sato is located in Oi, Minamiboso City, the birthplace of Japanese dairy farming. Hachidai Shogun Yoshimune imported three cows and raised them on the Mineoka Maki pasture that was located here, and started producing an acidic drink made from dairy milk basically as a health product of its day. At Dairy no Sato there various pasture areas, including a dedicated dairy pasture, and you'll also find free-range goats running around. There's a water park, too, where you can play in the river and enjoy a leisurely lunch by the riverside. Finally there's a dairy museum where you can learn about the whole milk production process. It's tricky to get here by public transport, so your best bet is to come by car. Admission and parking are free.

Hasunuma Park Children's Square is a recreation facility in Chiba Prefecture where both admission and parking are free. Young children in particular will love the rides here. There's a mini train running on the longest track of its type in Japan, as well as full-scale go-kart course. Using the "Tokutoku" discount ticket allows you to choose 4 rides to go on, including the popular mini train and go-karts. Hasunuma Park Children's Square is located right next to Kujukuri Beach and features a water garden with pool, and you can enjoy sports here all year round thanks to the playground where you can play tennis, football, baseball, and park golf.

The small retro-style Isumi Railway, which runs from Ohara Station on the JR Sotobo Line to Kazusa-Nakano Station on the Kominato Railway, goes through a beautifully idyllic stretch of nature. Poppo-no-Oka is a hen's egg farm where various trains are exhibited, and the best way to get here is by taxi Kazusa Nakagawa Station or Kuniyoshi Station on the Isumi Railway. This is a must-visit spot for railway buffs, as its sales offices are housed in famous old cars from Isumi Railway, Hokuriku Railroad, and Choshi Electric Railway. Best of all, entry is free. Branded "Garden Eggs" are produced and sold here, and over at the TKG Café you can try delicious egg-topped rice made with freshly collected eggs.

Chiba Muesum of Science and Industry is conveniently located a short walk from Kazusa Nakayama Station or Hon Hachiman Station on the JR Sobu Line, Onigoe Station on the Keisei Electric Railway, and directly in front of an Ichikawa City Community Bus stop. Admission is free for children and teenagers and very reasonable at 300 yen for adults. This is a fun place to experience science, with workshops and experiment theatres that young ones can participate in as well as a planetarium that's open to the public in the summer months. The experiment theatre provides demonstrations of cool things such as superconducting and freezing using liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius, and there's a workshop where visitors can try their hand at making stained glass. There's a participation fee of about 200 yen and places are given on a first-come, first-served basis.

Entry to Sakura Mushroom Garden in Sakura City is free of charge. Here you can hunt for shiitake and wood ear mushrooms and then eat the mushrooms you've picked at a dedicated barbecue garden. There's no need to reserve places for mushroom hunting, and there's no time limit either. You simply pay for what you've picked. The trick to getting thicker and larger shiitake mushrooms is to arrive when the park first opens in the morning. And of course this means you can enjoy a barbecue without having to pack anything, by cooking your freshly picked mushrooms together with other items bought at the on-site shop. Sakura Mushroom Garden provides a great way for families to enjoy an active foodie adventure. There are buses from JR Sakura Station and Keisei Sakura Station, so you don't need a car to get here.

The National Museum of Japanese History is a really immerses visitors in the nation's rich history using all five senses. From prehistory 37,000 years ago through to ancient times and down to the present, this vast site is so comprehensive that you could easily spend a full day in each section. One of the highlights is the "Edo Bridge Hirokoji Model", which is a 3D model of the town in the Edo period. Take a look through the telescope and you'll see realistic townspeople from back in the day. Elsewhere, the "Ghost History" exhibition is particularly popular with children. Admission is 600 yen for adults and free for children up to senior high school age. There's also a "Botanical Garden of Life" (admission costs 100 yen for adults) where you can learn about the plants that have been cultivated in Japanese life. The site is located right in front of a bus stop, so the best way to get here is by bus from JR Sakura Station or Keisei Sakura Station.

If you're a beer-lover, a tour of Sapporo Beer Chiba Factory in Funabashi City is like spending the day with Willy Wonka. The factory overlooks Tokyo Bay and is the largest manufacturing base of Sapporo's "Black Label" beer that's very popular in the Kanto region. The "Black Label Tour" costs 500 yen per person. (Pricing may be different for other tours.) You'll need to book ahead on the website. Tours include up to 3 tastings, and you'll receive souvenirs too. There's also a beer garden where you can kick back and relax. If the tasting after the factory tour has wetted your whistle, why not try the delicious menu of all-you-can-drink beer with all-you-can-eat mutton and vegetables? A free shuttle bus runs from JR Tsudanuma and JR Narashino Stations.

Shimizu Park is a historic privately owned natural park. The Kashiwa family, who ran the soy sauce brewing industry in Noda, built this amusement park way back in 1897. There's no admission fee but there are entry fees for the various activities on offer. Attractions include Japan's largest adventure course, a camping and BBQ area, pony ranch, "Aqua Adventure" and "Flower Fantasia" areas, trout fishing and more. The park is also famous for its cherry blossoms and has been selected as one of the "100 Best Cherry Blossom Spots" by the Japan Sakura Association. It's also a perfect spot for eating a bento (boxed lunch) out in the open. The maximum parking fee for one day is only 800 yen, so it's a good idea to arrive by car if you can. To come by train, get off at Shimizu Koen Station on the Tobu Urban Park Line (Tobu Noda Line) and walk for 10 minutes.

Noda City in Chiba Prefecture is the birthplace of Noda soy sauce and it's here that Kikkoman, the leading soy sauce maker in Japan, was founded. You can observe the Kikkoman soy sauce brewing process at the Kikkoman Soy Sauce Museum. Admission is free, but you'll need to make a reservation by phone if you want to take a tour. In the manufacturing process tour, you can observe the changes in colour and aroma brought about by the ageing of the main fermenting mash, and there are also exhibitions where you can learn about the history soy sauce. After the tour, you can take some soy sauce back as a souvenir. At the Mame Café you'll be able to experience soy sauce in new ways, including soy sauce-flavoured soft serve ice cream (seriously) and soy sauce-flavoured pork soup. And of course there's a souvenir shop full of novel items with which to impress your friends back home.