When I got off the train at Sanuki-machi on the Uchibo Line in Chiba Prefecture, I realized, in a vague kind of way, that I knew the old little station. Perhaps I'd visited this rural town near the sea on a grade-school summer trip. Certainly, the 89-year-old station at the foot of the hills was exactly as I half-recalled it. And beyond, peacefulness and isolation are the outstanding qualities of an area just crying out for an exploration of its natural beauty.

Revisiting the town in Futtsu City in the western part of the Boso Peninsula this time, however, I was to leave with a quite different impression, thanks to local people there who have devoted themselves to rediscovering the hidden treasures linked to its long history.

"Actually, our theme is to explore a place which on first impression seems to have almost nothing of note," was how Sokichi Sugimura, director of the Tokyo-based Public Art Forum, which organized this tour, had put it. For him, that was nothing new, since the forum regularly organizes trips to off-the-beaten-track locales to foster appreciation of areas with a unique atmosphere and historical and cultural appeal.