Hotel of pheasant dishes in Hakone

In the old days for Japanese pheasant is one of familiar animals. For example in a famous old tale, Momotaro, a young hero, Momotaro makes three animals his servants in order to beat demons, which are a dog, a monkey and a pheasant. Although there are still a lot of dogs and monkeys in Japan, it became difficult to see pheasant nowadays.

At Kijitei Hoeiso a small hotel in Hakone, which is one of the most popular sightseeing places in Eastern Japan, you can enjoy pheasant dishes in peaceful atmosphere in the mountains.

We visited Hoeiso in late November when the autumn leaves are at their most beautiful. Although there were so many tourists around Hakone Yumoto station, around the hotel located in 10 minutes by car from the station, there were only the guests of the hotel.

The dinner of the hotel was a full course of pheasant dishes. It included a hot pot of pheasant, sashimi(raw pheasant), etc. But my favorite was grilled pheasant. It was very tasty and didn’t have bird smell at all. And it matched with local sake as well!

After dinner of course we could enjoy hot spring. They had a large bath and a small open-air bath. And we could reserved the open-air bath for only us for 30 minutes. Many stars and sound of a stream along the bath made us more relaxed.

In Japan due to COVID-19 tourism industry suffers much. Although a governmental campaign “Go To Travel” tentatively increased tourists in many sightseeing spots in Japan, the third wave of COVID-19 in Japan might stop such a movement in near future. We really hope attractive small hotels such as Hoeiso can survive through the difficult time of COVID-19.

Plum and cherry blossom festival in Atami

Atami is one of the traditional holiday resorts for Japanese in 1 hour distance from Tokyo by train. It’s warm all year round. It has a beautiful beach. And you can enjoy nice views of Suruga bay and Mt. Fuji.

Atami’s highlight is hot spring(onsen in Japanese). Each hotel has its own hot spring. The water of hot springs in Atami is rather clear, so hot springs there are easy to try for onsen beginners. And for families with small kids like us, some hotels provide private hot springs inside rooms.

Recent years Atami is popular for foreign tourists as well. However, due to Novel corona virus, nowadays foreign visitors, especially visitors from China, are much less than usual.

Now on this blog I want to introduce an event of Atami which can be enjoyed only in this season in order to attract more foreign tourists again to Atami.

That’s cherry and plum blossom festivals in Atami.

In eastern Japan, cherry blossom (sakura in Japanese) becomes in bloom in late March or early April. However cherry blossom in Atami becomes in January and it remains in bloom for more than 1 month, much longer than regular cherry blossom.

The flower in February in Atami is not only cherry blossom. You can also enjoy plum blossom. In Atami plum park close to Kinomiya station there are 472 plum trees. Since the trees include 59 kinds and each kind becomes in bloom in different timing in November to March, you can enjoy different beauty every time.

I feel sorry that foreign tourists tend to avoid trips to Japan due to concern on Novel corona virus. I hope they will come back before the flowers fall.

Shimizu port, the main port in Shizuoka

Shimizu port is a port located in the central part of Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Close to Mt. Fuji, the port is counted as one of three beautiful ports in Japan(The other 2 are Kobe port and Nagasaki port.).

In addition to its function as a trade port, the port has been developed as a sightseeing spot in the area.

At first, you can enjoy the cruising by a pleasure boat. During 35 – 45 minutes you can feed black headed gulls, while seeing the nice view around the port.

Secondly, next to the port there is a big shopping center called S-pulse Dream Plaza. S-pulse is a local professonal football team which is a symbol of Shimizu. But in addition to S-pulse has it other attractions which was created in Shimizu.

For example, Chibi Maruko-chan is a comic and animation created by Momoko Sakura, a female comic artist who was born in Shimizu. The comic desribes usual but funny life of a normal girl, Maruko, her family and friends. In S-pulse Dream Plaza, there is an area featuring Chibi Maruko-chan and you can eat school lunch feeling as if you were in the world of the comic.

Furthermore, you can enjoy local food. The first choice would be fresh seafood caught in the sea of Shimizu Bay. But there are a lot of other choices of restaurants in S-pulse Dream Plaza. Even regarding to ramen noodle, the ramen there has seaweed which the shape of Mt. Fuji !

When you visit Shimizu, why don’t you stop by Shimizu port and enjoy local culture?

Colored leaves in Nagatoro

In Eastern Japan there are many places familiar with beautiful colored leaves in autumn. One of those is Nikko in Tochigi prefecture.

However, in a peak season, Nikko is so crowded that it’s very difficult to book tickets for the express train to go there. Or in case you go by car, you could be stuck with very heavy traffic jam.

Now here is a tip. Nagatoro in Chichibu in Saitama prefecture is a little-known good place close to Tokyo area with beautiful colored leaves.

You need to take a train of Chichibu railway to go to Nagatoro. The train of Chicibu railway is painted with colorful pictures. You will be excited to imagine what color you can meet in Nagatoro.

Before viewing colors, you can enjoy country dishes. Nagatoro is located along the headwaters of Arakawa river. Many sweetfish swim in the river. You can enjoy the sweetfish as pot rice (Kamameshi in Japanese).

There are many places where you can enjoy colored leaves in autumn. However, the features of Nagatoro is that you can enjoy the colored leaves with big rocks. The contrast between colored leaves and grey rocks is very impressive.

And the highlight of Nagatoro trip is that you can enjoy the nice view from the boat in the river. The boat is made with a Japanese tradditional style and the boat master entertain you with their talk.

At last one caution! As of November 10th 2019 some parts of a road along Arakawa river with colored leaves are damaged by the big typhoons which hit Japan in summer. You should check the latest condition in the tourist information center.

How to avoid congestion in Hakone

Hakone is one of the most popular sightseeing places in Japan. You can go there from Tokyo in 2 hours by the express train and enjoy hot springs, active volcano, museums and nice view of Mt. Fuji. However, the problem is that too many tourists come there in peak seasons. You might need to wait for more than 1 hours to ride on a vehicle. On this post, I explain a tip how to avoid congestion in Hakone.

When you arrive at Hakone Yumoto station which is the entrance of Hakone area, ignoring long lines waiting for a train of Hakone mountain railway or a bus of Hakone mountain bus, you should take a taxi to Lake Ashi. Since it costs approx 4,500 JPY, it’s better if you can share the taxi with another group. On the way, you would be impressed with amazing view of Mt. Fuji and Lake Ashi.

It takes approx 20 minutes by taxi to Lake Ashi. Lake Ashi is a big volcanic lake created by the eruption approx. 3,000 years ago. You can ride on a pirate ship there to make a sightseeing cruise on Lake Ashi. the ships are designed like pirate ships of Pirates of Caribbean. If you have kids, they would be excited.

It’s an approx. 25 minutes cruise from Motohakone-ko terminal to Togendai-ko terminal. Then you ride on the rope way up to Owakudani terminal, the highest terminal in Hakone area. Since many rope way cars are operated, you don’t have to worry if there is a line waiting for the rope way. On the way, you can view down whole Lake Ashi.

Finally you arrive at Owakudani station. Owakudani is the highlight of sightseeing in Hakone. At first you would be surprised to see volcanic gas strongly blowing out. Due to sulfur included in the gas, the buildings are colored with yellow. And if volcanic activities are too active, you cannot go outside of the station. You should check the activity level before the trip. Also you cannot forget eating black eggs boiled in volcanic ponds.

And Owakudani is also the spot where you can have the best view of Mt. Fuji. You might want to go to Mt. Fuji itself. However, it takes approx 3 hours by bus from Tokyo to 5th station of Mt. Fuji, and takes even more in peak seasons due to heavy traffic jam. So it doesn’t fit one day trip from Tokyo. More than that Mt. Fuji looks more beautiful when you view from a distance.

So if you are interested on Mt. Fuji, we recommend to go to Hakone and follow this route to avoid congestion.

Kanazawa, city of history and seafood

In Japan there are several historical cities registered to the World Heritages of UNESCO such as Kyoto, Nara. You can see wonderful temples and shrines there. However, since these cities are located inland, they are not good places to eat fresh seafood. In this sense, Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture is an unique city where you can enjoy both great historical sites and wonderful fresh seafood at the same time.

In the 16th century, a famous Samurai, Toshiie Matsuda supported his Shogun, Nobunaga Oda and showed great performance in many battles. As the result he got his territory in northern coast of the main island in Japan including Kanazawa city.

And in Edo era, in the 17th to 19th centuries his descendants as lords of the land had been developing their territory and created the most prosperous area in Japan at that time.  Its richness was called as “Kaga Hyakuman-goku” which means they produced a lot of rice in the land. With wealth from big rice production they had been making one of three famous Japanese gardens, Kenrokuen for a long time.

In Kenrokuen different aspects of Japanese garden coexist and create significant beauty as a whole. The garden was awarded with three stars by Michelin guide.

Their wealth also allowed people there to keep a luxurious industry. While in Edo era gold leaf production was prohibited outside Kyoto, workmen in Kanazawa had kept its technique of gold leaf production through three centuries of Edo era. And now Kanazawa still has approx. 98% share of gold leaf production in Japan.

However, long history with luxurious culture is not an only attraction of Kanazawa. Located close to the sea of Japan, you can enjoy very fresh seafood. While Tokyo is famous for long history of sushi cooking, Kanazawa has a different style of sushi cooking and there are a lot of good sushi restaurants there as well.

Sushi is served on plates of Kutani ware, local pottery. And kinds of fish in the sea of Japan are different from those in the Pacific Ocean. Especially Nodoguro, rosy sea bass in Japanese is so delicious that the fish is considered as a symbol of seafood in Kanazawa.

In the past it was not convenient to go to Kanazawa from Tokyo. But since Hokuriku Shikansen, bullet express train from Tokyo to Kanazawa started operation in 2015, now you can arrive at Kanazawa from Tokyo for 2.5 hours.

If you want to enjoy both traditional cultures and seafood in Japan, why don’t you visit Kanazawa?

Unknown exiting trail in Mt. Fuji

The season to climb up summer mountains has come in Japan! And Mt. Fuji, highest mountain in Japan (3,776 meters) is filled with so many people this summer as usual. Among 5 trails to the summit of Mt. Fuji, Fuji-Yoshida trail and Fujinomiya trail are two famous trails to both climb up and down. And even though two trails have a lot of mountain huts as well, we need to sleep in very tiny space at night like a photo below.

Nevertheless it’s necessary to stay at such a hut and to climb up in midnight and early morning so that you can see beautiful sunrise from the summit.

But after the sunrise you may feel it’s not exiting to climb down the same trail pushing many people who are climbing up. In such a case I recommend you to climb down Gotenba trail.

Gtenba trail is the longest trail among 5 trails, so it’s not recommendable for first visitors to climb up. But it’s a big fun to climb down the trail. On the latter half part of the trail you can enjoy literally “run” down the trail. The latter part is called as Osunabashiri meaning in Japanese “run in big sands”. As per the name the trail is filled with deep sands and your legs automatically move down even if you don’t put power on legs.

The trail looks as another planet. The trail is covered with volcanic ash created on the latest eruption of Mt. Fuji about 300 years ago. The eruption created another smaller mountain called Mt. Hoeizan.

More surprisingly Mt. Fuji is the active volcano even today. When I saw a crater yesterday, it looked very stable.

But we cannot be too optimistic. It has already taken more than 300 years since the last eruption. When you run down Gotenba trail, please think about the dynamism of nature.

Consider tides when you visit Itsukushima shrine

Itsukushima shrine is the shrine in Hiroshima prefecture in Japan registered as one of world heritages of UNESCO. Even though you have not visited there, you might see an image of a guard frame of shrine sinking in the sea like below.

Many buidlings of Itsukushima shrine were built by a famous samurai in the 12th century in Japan, Kiyomori Taira. Kiyomori was the leader of a samurai group, Heike family at their peak of the family, although the family was beaten by another samurai family, Genji at the end of the 12th century. In the main building they worshiped three goddess of Munekata welknown as protectors of sea.

The shrine is still worshiped by local people. If you are lucky, you can see a local couple having Japanese traditional wedding.

But you need to be careful. The water which makes the scenery of the shrine beautiful changes in accordance with tides. If you visit the shrine at low tide, the shrine looks less photogenic.

But you don’t have to worry. Around the shrine there are many places you can kill time until the tide becomes high. At first you can play with deer living around the shrine.

Furthermore around the shrine there are many restaurants serving local famous food. One of the local specialties is rice bowl of conger eel, Anago-Meshi. Another local specialty is Okonomi Yaki in Hiorishima way. Okonomi Yaki is thin, flat pancake with various ingredients. And the cake in Hiroshima prefecture is unique to include noodle and local seafood.

Now you get a lesson. When you visit Itsukushima shrine, please make a schedule considering the tides.

A road famous due to a novel and a song

Izu is a peninsula in central Japan which is famous for various attractive sightseeing locations such as Atami and Ito. But compared to places along with the ocean, places in central Izu are less famous.

Mr. Yasunari Kawabata is a Japanese novelist who received Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 wrote a short novel about a road in central Izu, “the Dancer of Izu” based on his own experience there.

Yasunari Kawabata, when he was a 19 year old student, made a short trip to central Izu and met a young female dancer (Odoriko in Japanese) and her family. They spent some days together along Amagi road visiting several places with hot springs and the young man’s feeling changes little by little. 9 year later his experience made him create a world famous novel.

This is the story liked by Japanese in almost 100 years. And the hot springs in Amagi road still preserve their atmosphere in those days. For example Fukuda-ya is a hotel with hot spring in Yugano opened in 130 year ago. Yasunari Kawabata and characters in the novel stayed in the hotel several nights. Now in 2018 the hotel’s wooden bath is almost same as the bath at that time.

It was not only Yasunari Kawabata who made Amagi road famous. 70 year later from the time of Kawabata, a song of Enka, Japanese traditional style ballad, “Amagi-Goe” made Amagi road famous again. It was a love song sung by Sayuri Ishikawa, a famous Enka singer, referring many places in Amagi road. Among those places on the song, a waterfall, Joren fall, is the fall familiar to most of generations of Japanese in present times thanks to this ballad song.

So if you want to know lyrical atmosphere of Izu, why don’t you make a further step from seaside hotels to inland hotels with hot spring?

You might be afraid that you cannot enjoy fresh seafood as specialty of seaside Izu. Don’t worry! The hotel in central Izu also serves fresh sushi.

Can you find out what’s this? This is a sushi without fish. It is a sushi of Wasabi, specialty of central Izu! It was served in the hotel with hot spring in Yugashima in central Izu.

Central Izu still stimulates imagination of local people.

Colored grasses in Oku Nikko

When you visit Japan in autumn, you might expect leaves colored in yellow or red such as maples. And you could end up with becoming very tired of too crowed places. But what becomes colored in autumn in Japan is not only leaves. In Oku Nikko, Tochigi prefecture, Japan, in early October you can enjoy another color of Japan.

Nikko is one of the most famous sightseeing places in Eastern Japan. The highlight of Nikko is a magnificent Nikko Toshogu shrine dedicated to Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun of Tokugawa shogunate.

The day trip in Nikko may finish after visiting several temples and shrines around Toshogu shrine, or Kegon waterfall at most. However, if you keep going further, you will arrive the area called Oku (deep in Japanese) Nikko which has another attraction less familiar to the visitors.

The highest season of colored leaves in Nikko is Mid to Late October. However, in Senjogahara Marshland in Oku Nikko it starts coloring a little earlier.

Senjogahara means a battlefield in Japanese. But it’s not related to a bloody real battle but stems from a mystical battle of mountain gods. Now in the 21st century it’s covered with grasses such as cotton grasses and Japanese pampas grasses. So that visitors can enjoy their colors wooden trails are well equipped all over the marshland.

South to Seojogahara Marshland there is another marshland, Odashirogahara. In this place where you can go only by walk or by a special bus, grasses are more vividly colored.

After you enjoy colored grasses in Oku Nikko, you can also enjoy hot springs in hotels located around Yunoko lake. The water in the hot springs in the area contains much sulfur and colored in green. This component flew into Yuknoko lake and colors the lake green as well.

In Japan there are many places where you can enjoy colored leaves in autumn. But I want to recommend Oku Nikko as a place less crowed in early October and as a rare place where you can enjoy colored grasses.