April, 2024 | Japanese Countryside Travel Notes

2024-04-30

Where there is famous water, there is famous sake

A sake brewery in Daigahara, a post town on the old Koshu Highroad, produced a famous sake called Shichiken. The brewed water in the backyard that you can drink freely is soft and delicious. There is also sake that is similar to champagne. Would you like to eat koji(malt) dishes at the attached restaurant, or have cold soba noodles at the soba restaurant across the street? In either case, good water is the deciding factor.

shichiken3 pine tree

shichiken2 inside

shichiken4 restaurant

shichiken6 lunch

shichiken5 natural water

soba kubota

Whiskey brewing and tasting

suntory3 tasting

Japanese Sake is not the only type of brewing that uses delicious water. The Suntory Hakushu factory is located towards Kobuchizawa from the post town. You can tour here, but the most fun part is the tasting. Advance reservations are required to tour, but be sure to take advantage of the hourly free shuttle bus from Kobuchizawa Station. Drivers are only boring. In case of the Suntory Yamazaki factory in Osaka, it is near the station, so you can easily go for a tasting. The founders of both Suntory and Nikka Whiskey were closely related.

yatsugatake

suntory6

suntory1 entrance

suntory2 brewing was once alchemy

suntory factory1 mashing

suntory factory2 fermentation

suntory factory3 distillation

suntory factory5 storage

suntory factory6 aging

suntory factory4 in the forest

suntory lunch1

suntory lunch2

suntory4 tasting

suntory5 drinking

(reference) Yamazaki Suntory Factory

yamazaki railroad crossing

yamazaki tasting board

2024-04-28

A lone cherry tree with a strong presence

If you follow the JR Chuo Main Line further upstream, you will see a particularly huge cherry tree, the Kanda Oito Cherry Blossom (Edohigan Cherry Blossom), standing like a giant with Yatsugatake in the background. The tree is currently being treated to restore its vigor.

kanda2 cyuoh line

kanda5 with yatsugatake

kanda4

The cherry blossoms at the place where Dososhin, the road god at the entrance of the village, is located overlooking the Oito cherry blossoms are also spectacular.

kanda1

kanda6

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kanda10

Detour (Nagasaka Ushiike Pond)

Nagasaka Town is located across the Kamanashi River, which creates a deep valley. Just one step away from the main road in the middle of town, cherry blossoms are planted surrounding Nagasaka Ushiike Pond, which was built for irrigation purposes, and the Southern Alps appear to be looming in the background.

nagasaka ushi pond1 left

nagasaka ushi pond2 right

Sakura needs no explanation. I missed the famous cherry blossoms along the JR Chuo Line. This is a lone cherry tree in Wanizuka, Nirasaki City, just before Hokuto City. The cherry blossoms reach full bloom earlier than the cherry blossoms in Hokuto City, so pay attention to the timing.

2024-04-27

Cherry blossoms bringing spring to the snow-covered mountains

Near Jisso-ji Temple, there is a row of Sanehara cherry trees planted by the pioneers of this area. It is said that when they first settled in this area, they had great difficulty cultivating it due to lack of water.

sanehara3 kai komagatake

sanehara4

sanehara5

sanehara6

sanehara7

sanehara12 edohigan cherry

sanehara13

sanehara14

sanehara15

sanehara16

The rows of cherry blossom trees, which have watched their work over the past year, will be in full bloom again this year with Mt. Kai-komagatake in the Southern Alps in the background and will give them courage.

2024-04-23

One of Japan’s three major cherry blossoms has been alive for 2000 years

jissoji6 — 3D composition at Jissoji temple

Aiming for Jissoji Temple in Hokuto City. Many cherry blossoms are carefully managed at this temple. The garden in front of the precincts has a 3D composition, with a field of daffodils surrounded by cherry blossoms in full bloom and the snow-capped Southern Alps in the distance.

When I actually went there, I found out that this composition was achieved by the photographers uniformly standing over the fence with their backs stretched out. Space cherry blossoms that have sprouted after returning from an eight-month stay in zero gravity on the space station are also blooming in the grounds.

jissoji4

jissoji5

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jissoji9

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jissoji10

jissoji11 kai komagatake

jissoji12

As you enjoy the cherry blossoms in the precincts, you will find the Yamataka-jindai cherry tree, which is said to be 2,000 years old, located in the back. This is probably the guardian deity that local people have respected for generations. The presence of this single cherry tree is amazing. It is said to be one of Japan’s three major cherry blossoms, along with Miharu Takizakura in Fukushima Prefecture.

2024-04-022024-04-02

The last work of the genius painter Katsushika Hokusai

obuse scenery (7)manhole cover designed by Hokusai

When Katsushika Hokusai was nearly 90 years old, he was invited to stay in Obuse four times by a patron from Obuse whom he met in Edo. He was said to have walked 250km one way in 8 days, so even though he was almost 90 years old, he had great physical strength to walk 30km a day. That’s probably why the paintings had such power. The last ceiling painting in his later years is in Gansho-in Temple. In addition to Hokusai’s paintings, it is also famous as the place where the haiku poet Issa Kobayashi wrote a haiku about frogs, and the mausoleum of Masanori Fukushima, a man of great service in establishing the Toyotomi government, who was demoted to Obuse by Tokugawa Ieyasu. During the off-season, community buses are not running, so you have no choice but to walk towards the mountain.

obuse ganshoji (2)famous for Hokusai ceiling painting — obuse gansho-in (2)famous for Hokusai ceiling painting

obuse gansho-in (1)

obuse ganshoji (4)mausoleum of Masanori Fukushima

obuse gansho-in (4)mausoleum of Masanori Fukushima

obuse gansho-in (3)famos for Issa haiku

An old guide with a strong voice explains that the phoenix drawn is a symbol of longevity, and that is why plants such as pine trees drawn on its body were growing. The paintings were drawn directly on 12 cypress boards and pasted together on the ceiling, and since they used a lot of gold leaf and pigments ordered from Edo, the patron must had been very wealthy. When I sat in the recommended sitting position, the phoenix’s eyes looked extremely sexy. This must be a picture drawn by an old man who was almost 90 years old !

ceiling paint by hokusai (Source: Gansho-in Temple website)

There is also the Hokusai Museum in town, where paintings drawn on the ceilings of festival stalls are on display.

Although it has nothing to do with Hokusai, there is Jokoji Temple, which has a beautiful thatched roof, near Gansho-in Temple. This temple is famous for its slackline club. That’s why the World Cup of slackline was held in Obuse for the first time in Asia.

obuse jokoji (1)

obuse jokoji (2)

obuse jokoji (3)

Whiskey brewing and tasting

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Detour (Nagasaka Ushiike Pond)

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