Central Japan Day 4 & 5 - Lake Kawaguchi

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03 June 2008

By evening, after visiting the wasabi farm, we arrived at Lake Kawaguchi (Kawaguchi-ko), where enjoyed the coldest temperature for our trip at about 11 degree Celcius. The sky was completely overcast with thick clouds, dashing all hopes of seeing Mt. Fuji from the lake. Nevertheless we decided to take a walk around part of the lake after dinner.

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Map of our hotel at Kawaguchi-ko


The rooms were so small even Tokyo has larger rooms


Panoramic view from bedroom window


The hotel we stayed at, complete with indoor and semi-outdoor onsen


Down by the lake


Dinner time! Yet another huge feast


Night on the lake with a soft reflection of lights on clouds


I thought ``ko" already meant lake, so now this is ``Lake Kawaguchi Lake"


Our destination, Lawson, for some sake and beer, brrrr it's cold


They have a good variety, but surprisingly, Takayama had a bigger variety


Kirin Stout -- excellent, I feel it tastes slightly better than Yebisu Dark


Yebisu the Hop, another good beer, more hops added to give the sweet smelling fragrance


Now we know that Yakult indeed exists in Japan


A cheap bottle of sake, hopefully this will keep us warm on our way back


Passing a tunnel in somewhere round the lake


Back in the hotel room, we discovered there's a leg warmer under the table!

After the refreshing walk in the cold, we went to immerse ourselves in the onsen. This will be the last onsen hotel for our trip and we planned to go the next morning as well. Getting a carried away, before long we realized we have been immersed for almost 40 minutes. So we hurriedly got out and had some spring water from Mt. Fuji provided by the hotel before retiring to bed.



04 Jun 2008

Woke up at about 6am to go for another dip in the onsen before breakfast. Then I decided to go take some last morning pictures before we embarked to the Mt. Fuji visitor centre.

Another huge spread for Japanese styled breakfast


These firepots are used for everything


Little stuff to have with porridge


The hotel in the morning


The bridge in a distance that divides Kawaguchi-ko, again the sky is completely overcast with thick clouds


That's where we went the night before


Arrival at Mt. Fuji visitor centre


Ta-da! Mt. Fuji! What? You can't see it? Surely you jest, it's right there!


Sadly we departed for Tokyo. Apparently one has to climb Mt. Fuji before they are recognised as ``adults" in Japanese society. So lots of people head down this road to the 5th station where they begin their ascend every year during climbing season.



Roller coasters of Fuji-Q Highland Theme park, it is said they have the biggest and the most thrilling ones.

Somewhat slightly disappointed that the shy Mt. Fuji did a no show, we were headed for the last section of our trip and had no more onsen to relax our legs. First to some shopping in Tokyo, next to Sensō-ji in Asakusa, an ancient temple dedicated to Kannon, and finally more shopping for the rest of the day at Shinjuku.

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Central Japan Day 4 - Daiō Wasabi Farm



View the first post in this series here.
View the previous post in this series here.

03 June 2008

Travelling along the countryside, we were headed towards the direction of Mt Fuji. But before that we will first visit a local winery and then, a wasabi farm in Nagano.

The countryside with the sky completely overcast with clouds


Seems like rice has changed to some other crop


Reflection of clouds on the water


We made short stop at the local winery, here they're bottling apple juice


Wine sampling, from the left-overs, most of the grape wine is actually quite bad. However their apple and pear wines are nice.

The Daiō Wasabi Farm (大王わさび農場, Daiō Wasabi Nōjō) is established in 1915CE. It is one of the largest wasabi farms in Japan and contains within much scenery, water, and shrines. Also, there's a host of wasabi infused products like wasabi beer, ice-cream, and croquet.

Arriving at the farm


A restaurant


Huge stone wasabi


The farm stretches for 15 hectares, note the stream below


There are a few of these statues. Now where do they fit in for a farm?


An entrance to one of the many shrines here


Giant straw slippers. I think the owners come here to pray for a big harvest.


Our guide says that this smaller shrine behind the previous on is actually the more important one


Further in the farm, there are two shrines in two caves


A small stone piece in one of them, looks like the 7 deities in a boat


The other shrine in the cave looks more solemn


Above the caves is this odd stack of rocks that seems to be also a shrine. Some people where piling up some pebbles on it so I decided to pile a large one on top.


A beautiful pond, the provided cups seem to indicate it's some sort of holy water


Time for some food, now the beer's not cheap


Wasabi Beer! Actually it is just Kirin Beer with wasabi added. I originally thought it was an in house brewed beer


Yummy potato croquet, you can add some wasabi mayonnaise on it


Fresh wasabi for sale. To grate, one has to buy one of those shark skin tablets (in the middle) and rub the root on it in circular fashion


Four roots for about ¥1000, now that's quite pricey

I learnt a few interesting things on this farm visit. First of all, freshly grated wasabi actually does not have a stinging sensation. To increase that effect, sugar is actually added to it. I wanted to get some wasabi for my dad and started looking for wasabi powder. To my horror, the entire farm does not have wasabi powder. ``Oh, we don't use that, over here everyone grates fresh wasabi. The powder is only used for those going on a long trip overseas", explains my guide. Buying four wasabi roots and the shark skin tablet would cost ¥2300. Being unable to keep them fresh, I was better off buying the powder from a department store.
After finishing our food we headed off towards Lake Kawaguchi in vicinity of Mt Fuji where we would be spending the night in our last hotel with onsen.

View the next related post here.

Return to the trip index here.