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| Japanese breakfast set at Ryukan Kikori - Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture |
I started a new day with a well-prepared Japanese breakfast set from the hotel. Unlike other countries, Japanese served their dishes in various shapes and sizes of bowls, putting each dishes separately. They even provided the small stove and pan to fry the ham and egg right in front of you.
I mean, if western style, they tried to do things efficiently by cooking the egg at one corner with one staff attending to the task, so they did not have to provide so many stoves with so many pans catered to each guest. Anyway, I enjoyed the way they prepared it, plus the food tasted delicious. I had a cup of coffee at the lobby afterwards so that I could be fully ready to walk outside!!! :)
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| Beautiful nature and decoration surrounded where I stayed - Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture |
It was still early so I decided to walk around the hotel area alone. There was nothing better than having me-alone time, my favorite time while traveling. Just walked around, noticed the beautiful nature and the surrounding, took some photos, and just breathed, and smiled with my own thought.
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| The river behind the hotel area - Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture |
I loved walking by the river. The flow of the water gave me a peaceful feeling, serene. The road was quiet with only few cars passing by. Seemed like it was not a peak season in the area. While passing by the hotel, I occasionally saw few Japanese hotel staffs bowing down to send their guests off (by vehicle) - see the photo above. It was the way they felt grateful for their visitation and wished them a safe journey to their next destination.
I was just thinking, in Singapore, this would very hardly be seen as many hotels were under staff (one staff would have to do many jobs at the same time e.g. front office cum housekeeper cum bell boy cum night audit cum manager, and so on).
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| L'Orient Japanese Winery - Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan |
At 10 am we left and visited one of the Japanese winery available near the area. By cab, it cost about 2,170 yen (S$27) per one way. It was pretty expensive but convenient and fast. They had a shop in front where guest would usually enter and visit.
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| L'Orient Japanese Winery |
They displayed their variety of wines produced with list of awards they received. The price list was there too if you want to buy. Wine accessories, snacks, etc. were also available for sale.
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| L'Orient Japanese Winery |
Fresh grapes and varieties of wines were available for tasting. Some were free, some were payable between 300 to 500 yen per glass, depending on which wine that you wanted to test. There were about 4 wines for free tasting and grape juice. Two of them were sweet, I liked them. I tasted the Katsunuma Koshu wine (world silver award wine) and although not sweet, it was very flavorful and fragrant. I bought one bottle back home :)
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| With the owner cum President of L'Orient Japanese Winery - Mr. Takao Uchida |
The above was the owner cum President of the winery - Mr. Takao Uchida. He welcomed us and showed us around towards the wine farm where he grew the grapes.
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| L'Orient Japanese Winery - Grapes farm at Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan |
The above was the grapes farm. He gave us two bundles of grapes (green and purple grape - one bundle each) as his appreciation for our intentional visit to his winery from faraway. Thank you Mr. Uchida. He also gave us 10% discount voucher that we could use when purchased any items in the shop.
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| L'Orient Japanese Winery at Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan |
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| L'Orient Japanese Winery at Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan |
He had to receive other group of guests. So he left us browsing the winery around ourselves. No one was there explaining things though. So we just walked around the area and mostly the production was using automated machine. Only few staffs were seen to run the machine and control the production.
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| Public foot bath using hot spring water at Isawa Onsen Station - Japan |
Once done, we took cab back but instead of going back to the hotel, we went to Aeon shopping center located very near from Isawa-Onsen station. And before entering to the mall, we stopped at the public foot bath using hot spring water just nearby there (see the photo above). Wow!! It was so shiokkk!!! Meaning, very comfortable!!! There was a roof on top. And although the sun was quite hot, the air was cooling. Soaking legs inside was one of the best things to do to relax and enjoy. I wished we had such thing here in Singapore (and if it really existed, I guessed many people would not only soak their legs inside, but the whole body in hahahahahaha.... :P)
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| Japanese lunch inside the Aeon shopping center - Isawa-Onsen Station, Japan |
Inside Aeon, there was supermarket, department store, Lotteria (fast food outlet), and many other stores available. We decided to choose what we wanted to have - the prepared Japanese food - from the supermarket. The above picture was what I chose for my lunch - assorted Sushi, assorted Croquettes (bread-crumbed fried roll), and a can of Asahi beer :D I was very full!!!
To let the food digest, we continued our free time by walking around the area and shopping :)
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| Dinner at Ryokan Kikori - Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan |
We went back to hotel at around 3 pm. We packed our luggage and had a rest until around 4.30 pm. Again, I soaked myself at the hotel hot spring bath and took a bath there. We then had our dinner at 6 pm. Another Japanese dinner set was prepared and we opened a bottle of white wine that we bought earlier in the morning. The dishes were all fresh and nicely decorated. I felt very pampered with it. Simply beautiful and delicious!!! :)
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| Oyasumi nasai - See you again.. Good night :) |
And like the other night, we had a walk after dinner outside and then it was time to sleep. As we had to leave early the next morning, therefore there was no continuous tea or wine chatting time after that. So, let me bid farewell here and see you again at the next post. Oyasumi nasai... (meaning: see you again.. good night!!!)
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