Futtsu, with its long cape reaching towards the Miura peninsula, is a few kilometres to the south. The coast here is industrial, with the huge Nippon Steel plant at Kimitsu, but the hills behind are green, wooded and full of small valleys.
This is the midpoint of the Tomiura and Nojimazaki loop, and it is the part that pulls you into the countryside. The roads climb from the coast into the Bōsō hills, with narrow lanes, tunnels and bends through bamboo and cedar woods. The surface is mostly good, though some of the smaller roads have patches of loose gravel and fallen leaves. Traffic is light, apart from weekends, and the roads around Kururi, a small castle town inland, are some of the best in the region. Summer is hot and humid, and typhoons can bring heavy rain in September, so the clearest and best riding comes in November and spring.
The Bōsō hills are low, not much over three hundred metres, but they have a quiet, old feel. Nokogiri-yama, near Futtsu, is a ridge of jagged stone that was quarried for centuries, with a giant Buddha carved into the cliff in the eighteenth century and a viewing platform that juts out over a drop. Kururi has a small castle ruin and a lake, and in spring cherry and plum blossoms make the area colourful.
Fuel is easy in Kimitsu, a city of ninety thousand, with stations on the main road and supermarkets and restaurants. The Aqua-Line expressway, with its rest area in the middle of the bay, the Umihotaru, is not far, and it has a food court with views over the water. Local fish and seaweed are served in the small restaurants of the coast.
Take a moment at the viewpoint on Nokogiri-yama if you can. On a clear day the bay, the ships and Mount Fuji make a sweeping panorama.