Places we Traveled:
Mashiko, Kofu City/surrounding areas of Yamanashi Prefecture, Ashikaga/Sano
Peaks:
- Sakura blossom season in Utsunomiya. I didn’t take any pictures that really do it justice. I will be the first to admit that I don’t really “get” flowers. Or the “uniquely Japanese” custom of enjoying the fleeting beauty of Sakura season by having a picnic in the park. But, I do have to admit, the cherry blossoms were very beautiful.
- More hiking! Mid-March I did a hike outside of Mashiko, a city near Utsunomiya famous for wood-fired pottery (home of the giant tanuki wiener, see month 3 for reference). It has been a ton of fun exploring the mountains surrounding Utsunomiya and it is a good reminder that we are definitely not in Ohio anymore (because we really need those?).
- Outsider Brewing in Kofu City. I flipped through our Lonely Planet guidebook and landed on Kofu city. Allegedly, Yamanashi Prefecture is the “Napa Valley of Japan”. Please don’t come to Japan for the wine. I know there are probably some people here doing wine really well, but my Japanese is not nearly good enough to find them. We stumbled upon Hops & Herbs the brewpub affiliated with Outsider Brewing by accident after walking around the Kofu Castle Ruins. We stumbled out of Hops & Herbs sufficiently well lubricated from their fine selection of craft beers, including but not limited to the “Drunk Monk Triple” a taste-alike of Golden Monkey, Victory Brewing’s 9.5% Belgian-style Tripel, aka one of my favorite beers of all time. Also, their “hell chicken” is legit the spiciest thing I have had so far in Japan, I loved it here. Highly recommend.
- Shosenkyo Gorge. Also a nice place to visit near Kofu City, pairs well with Pocari Sweat if you are hungover. You start with a nice walk through a gorge leading to a very pretty waterfall. After you walk through a tourist shopping area, you can take a ropeway up to a higher lookout point with additional hiking trails. The views of Mt Fuji and the Japanese Alps were pretty stellar.
- Care package from friends in Ohio!! Can’t thank my friends enough for ensuring access to girl scout cookies and antacids. Blessed.
- First haircuts in Japan. Andrew and I got haircuts in November shortly before embarking on this journey. But as of month 4, we desperately needed to take care of our sloppy hair. Andrew took himself to a quickie barber shop for a much-needed trim. I (much more cautiously) asked my Japanese teacher to help make an appointment at a salon. Aside from not understanding a single word my stylist said to me (thanks Reiko-san for coming as my translator) the process was identical to getting a haircut at home. Sign in, shampoo, cut, style. 10/10 would go again…must go again at some point…
- Ashikaga Flower Park. This park is famous for wisteria, which is supposed to bloom from mid- to late April. We decided to visit the park after reading it would shut down until further notice due to concerns about the virus starting April 12th. I know, debatable decision, the virus is serious, skip to the next bullet point if you want to hear more about how Japan is dealing with coronavirus. We drove instead of taking the train, we wore masks and brought hand sanitizer, our temperature was taken at the entrance, and we maintained proper distance within the park which is outdoors. The wisteria wasn’t blooming yet. But we did get wisteria-flavored soft serve though!
- Bar Shapiro/Shapiro Theater. Honestly, I have been trying to avoid writing about the virus. Japan declared a state of emergency for the entire country on April 16th, technically month 5 for me, so stay tuned. However, during month 4, our friends at home were dealing with stay at home orders, mandatory quarantines, and a lot of other unprecedented experiences. Until April 9th, Andrew was still reporting to work every day as usual. After April 9th, he was working half days in the office for another week. Starting the 20th, he has been fully working from home. All this to say, we know the virus is serious and that serious measures should be taken to ensure the health and safety of everyone. BUT, in Japan things were operating very much as business as usual until recently. In preparation for what we know is to come, we worked on nesting here. Can confidently say we have the most comfortable stay at home situation I can create.
Valleys:
- All of the wine in Yamanashi, just skip it ok
- Kintsugi classes are cancelled (until May, maybe) – fair enough, the classes are mostly made up of elderly, retired people
- Cancelling travel plans. Yeah, everyone has had to cancel plans, most of them more important than ours, so it isn’t really worth complaining about. I’ll complain a little anyway. Wanting to travel and experience Japanese culture is arguably our main reason to be here. So, we are trying to redefine our goals for the months ahead and come to terms with a different experience than we expected. I honestly didn’t feel very homesick until the moment we decided to stay in Japan to ride out the virus. At that point, I knew we wouldn’t be able to go home again for a while. Something about being told I can’t go made me miss Ohio more, who knew?
