♥怡: 桃もももももも

It's July! which means it's peach picking season! and I went to Yamanashi Prefecture today just to do that. :D
Yamanashi is actually a pretty popular place for fruit picking. There's grape picking, strawberry, and, of course, peaches.

Can you see the grapes?

and the peach trees!

So Japan's peach trees are actually pretty short. They were probably about the same height as me, and I'm not that tall. In addition, the place was also really small. There were probably only about eight trees at the place we were at. However, it may be that that was all that is available to the public. Not to mention, there were a dozen other peach picking farms, which limits space. So I've decided that rather than farm, garden is a much more suitable term.

Well, the garden we went to allowed up to pick two peaches and have all-you-can-eat peaches for ¥1300. In the States, we usually eat as we pick, but Japan is a little different. They first bring you to the trees so you can pick out your two peaches, and then they bring you back down to their shop where they have benches and you can get plates of peaches.

They were so delicious!

Perhaps, the reason why they don't practice the eat as you go peach picking is that Japanese people are so precise with everything. I can't believe they actually gave us a plate and knife to cut and peel the peaches.

I had seven peaches! xD

really large ones for sale. expensive, though! (They were ¥500 each!)

and the beautiful mountains of Yamanashi. The whole prefecture is surrounded by mountains.

We then proceeded to Takeda Shrine, a famous Shinto shrine in Kofu, which is dedicated to Takeda Shingen, a preeminent daimyo in feudal Japan.

There was a red bridge leading to the entrance of the shrine, which reminded me of the Sacred Bridge of Nikko.

stone torii

The shrine was really beautiful. It was quite big, but there were several buildings of worship.

Fuurinkazan, meaning "wind, forest, fire, mountain". It was the battle standard used by Takeda Shingen, quoted from chapter 7 of Sun Tzu's Art of War: "as swift as wind, as orderly as forest, as fierce as fire, as unshakeable as mountain".

Not to mention, there were roosters running around freely.

The shrine grounds contain a museum, in which numerous artifacts pertaining to Takeda Shingen are displayed. These include his armor, weapons, battle techniques, and books. It also houses a Kamakura period sword that was given to Yamanashi Prefecture by Sanjo Sanetomi to commemorate the visit by the Meiji Emperor in 1880. This sword has been passed down generations in the Sanjo family as part of the bridal gifts from the Takeda clan when Lady Sanjo married Takeda Shingen.

and cute stone statues outside the museum

moving omikuji
When you put in ¥200, the figure inside retrieves a fortune from the box to the right and drops it into a tray for you.

a swan in the lake outside the shrine

After that, we headed to Kofu city, looking for a place to eat.

I saw this giant wooden thing in the middle of this park-like area, which I thought was really pretty.

and all the trees were equipped with these misters, which I saw for the first time back when I went to palette town in Odaiba.

We wandered around this mini shopping couplex in the area where they sold various things such as wine and home decor.

cork decorations

GIANT wine bottles and glasses

bell tower

We went to eat at a restaurant called Kosaku.

The waiters and waitresses were very friendly and offered their customers a very warm welcome.

ほうとう houtou, a local delicacy of Yamanashi that can probably only be found here. It's a regional dish made by stewing flat udon noodles and vegetables in miso soup, served in a large metal bowl paired with a soup ladle. The bowl is metal, so be cautious!

鶏もつ煮 torimotsuni, chicken organs (liver, heart) cooked in soy sauce and sugar.

Lastly, we went to Sengataki Waterfall, where the Arakawa River flows. It was so beautiful there. The rocks were really pretty and it reminded me of Okutama, which I hiked way back when I first arrived in Japan.