My friend had never visited Mt. Fuji before so we signed up for a day tour from HIS Travel. We departed from Shinjuku early in the morning and we reached there within 2.5-3 hours by bus. This wasn't my first time at Mt. Fuji's fifth station and you can read about
my previous trip here, when I visited a farm and an ice cave.
Buffet lunch included but we found the food meh~ (average).
The view however, was fantastic.
And this was how it looked like right in front of us as we ate our lunch :)
Oshino Hakkai (Springs of Mount Fuji)
忍野八海 (Oshino Hakkai) is designated as a national natural treasure and you can find crystal clear water in its ponds.
The water was formed from melted snow from Mt Fuji.
You can also find lots of traditional Japanese houses.
This place was so popular with tourists from China that I didn't feel like I was in Japan. Even the store owners were shouting "好吃" (pronounced as "hao chi"), meaning "delicious". They also hired Chinese sales assistants to help promote their souvenirs to the Chinese tourists. It's a pity that a national "natural" treasure is now nothing more than a hyped up tourist attraction without preserving the spirit of the place. But anyway, the same thing is happening back in Singapore.
I do not recommend visiting this place, unless you are a cat.
Grape-picking (ぶどう狩り Budou-gari)
Next was all-you-can-eat grape picking at
Ichikoen, located in Yamanashi prefecture. Yamanashi is famous for their grapes and is the top domestic producer for grapes and wine.
They were selling grapes that were perfectly fine except they didn't look good and cannot be sold at the supermarkets. These defects or rejected goods are called "訳あり" (wakeari). SO CHEAP!!!
My photo didn't do any justice... the size was just AMAZING!
I don't know what they do here... um... make grape juice?
So we could just cut any branch and eat all we can. I actually prefer to bring home like the
previous Grape-picking I went with another friend.
My friend was concerned about hygiene because we couldn't wash the grapes before popping into our mouths. There were also spiders and webs so we ended up buying green grapes back for 1,500yen after we sampled a few different varieties. The colour was more like bright emerald, very very pretty and flawless like those porcelain fake fruits and they were very very sweet and fresh. Yes, this is how fresh grapes should taste like!
On the way back to Tokyo
If you are following
my Instagram, you would have already seen this super cute bear van photo that I posted while we were at the highway rest station. The good thing with Instagram is that I can also tag the location so you can check out the name and map if you are interested :)
Since we were back at Shinjuku, I could not resist going to my favourite cake shop and order my favourite cake :3
http://www.harbs.co.jp/harbs/eng_top.html
Happy me :) I will miss you my cake...
Of course, we can't survive on cakes for dinner so we went around hunting and saw this rather decent modanyaki restaurant.
It's basically stir-fried noodles with cheese, mayonnaise, eggs, various meat and cabbage topped with Japanese sweet sauce. Yummy!
------
P.S. If you are from a tour agency, airline or interested to promote Japanese tourism, please feel free to contact me to explore future collaborations!
I kind of like this new system you are using to record your trips. Very detailed and with your own opinion...nice :)
ReplyDeleteThose grapes indeed look huge! Never seen a grape so big, wow! As wella s your cake, look at the size of that! What is in it? It seems to have veggies...but that can´t be...can it?
Thanks creepo! Actually I had been doing something like this but because I was living in Tokyo, my trips were sparse and not concentrated.
DeleteThe grapes were HUGE! We would have bought them home if we were going back the next day... very big! Must be sweet too!
The crepe cake had kiwi, mango and banana inside. Very tasty, you must try it if you go there ;)
That delicious cake is too big for You, don't mind to share ?
ReplyDeleteGood report. Beautifull views, calm water, blue sky, love it :)
Grapes looks too good to be true :lol:
ewww...
Haha... the cake is just perfect for a girl :P
DeleteOf course I have to make up now with a lot of exercise... oTz...
They say if you dream about Mount Fuji at the beginning of the year, you get to enroll Tokyo University. I must have Japan tours to see and dream about Mount Fuji.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of that but you can keep on looking at Mt Fuji photos everyday!
Delete