Pictures from this trip can be found here:

Bryan’s 50th Birthday Trip

We were able to sleep in at the ryokan, and then we went upstairs via elevator to enjoy the buffet breakfast. Again with COVID restrictions there were some twists. For one, we had to use plastic gloves for both hands while serving ourselves from the buffet. The staff handed over the gloves, so we had to put down our tray, put on the gloves, grab the tray again, and then go down the buffet line. The food was simple but good – and since I knew we’d be eating big today I didn’t take too much of it.

However, other guests were taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat aspect, and some trays were piled quite high. I was startled to see the strange couple from yesterday who had read out the vending machine prices – they seemed to be following us around. The view from the top floor of the hotel was nice, and we enjoyed our light breakfast and coffee while watching the sun rise over the tall mountains in the distance.

After checking out of the hotel we didn’t have far to go. We walked back to the station and it was just a few stops to get to the capital city of Yamanashi, Kofu. We had come here strictly for gastronomical reasons – Yamanashi Prefecture is one of the few land-locked prefectures in Japan so they were most known for meat and vegetables.

We had a little time before things started to open for lunch, so we walked around the town to do some casual sightseeing. After the dying town of Isawa Onsen it felt nice to see people walking around, and there were even some big-name stores like Yodobashi Camera. We explored a castle on the hillside, complete with a large stone obelisk in the corner. The northern part of the downtown area had some interesting shops and a very dated commercial area complete with 60’s light fixtures and spooky shopping streets. I liked the vibe here. At the city offices we sat on a bench to take a break and when I looked down there was a swarm of mosquitoes ignoring Kuniko and going for that tasty imported blood from America. Run away!

Back towards the main station on the south side was a tourist area with shops selling upscale food and souvenirs. The shops were nicely done and they reminded me a lot of souvenir shops you’d find back in the California wine country. We promised ourselves to come back later and do some shopping before we left.

After a short wait outside our first restaurant opened up and we went to eat ho-to. Ho-to is a hearty miso-based stew with plenty of vegetables, the key one being big chunks of stewed pumpkin. The dish is filled out with long thick noodles, sort of a flatter udon noodle. With our bowl we had a plate of raw horse meat, and a couple of cold beers to wash it down. I really liked the noodles, made right there in the shop, and it made me want to make my own version when we got back.

From there we walked around some more to make some space in our stomach, and even dropped into a souvenir shop to try some sweet caramel balls (and also a black bean version) that went nicely with hot tea. Next we went to Outsider Brewing to try out the local craft beer scene. We ordered a tasting flight and some garlicky edamame beans – the beans were excellent. Of the beers we liked one particular West Coast IPA, but the others weren’t exactly our style. Still, it is nice to get craft beers more easily in Japan these days.

After a break back at the hotel we went to a lively izakaya for gyoza and an egg dish (we had missed out on eggs for breakfast) to go with some Fuji beer – something I was trying for the first time.

We still wanted to eat some more meat so we found an interesting yakitori restaurant that was just opening and we settled in for some premium chicken on sticks. Usually we like simple when we go out to yakitori, but this place had some great food – especially the wasabi on the chicken breast was excellent. With our beer and sticks we also got some tasty chicken soup, and it was a pretty good stop for us.

With our bellies almost full we decided to end the night with some gelato. Back at the souvenir shops near the station we made it just before closing and had some combo cups of gelato while sitting outside in the cool evening. It was a nice way to wrap up the day. Our hotel this time was nearby and so it was easy to head back upstairs and tuck ourselves into bed. Kofu was delicious.

Pictures from this trip can be found here:

Bryan’s 50th Birthday Trip

On Saturday we slept in a little and then went to get breakfast at a hotel that Kuniko had found online. Kuniko had some eggs Benedict and I had a Chinese breakfast plate – with even more dim sum. The hotel restaurant was bright and clean, with a few other hotel guests eating there. It was a nice slow start to the day.

Next we checked out of our hotel and caught a train towards Shinjuku – but after we sat down in the train there was some kind of track trouble and it appeared that we’d be delayed significantly. Luckily Kuniko was quick with the train schedules and found another train to get us there on time. In Shinjuku we then had time to get some snacks and a couple of cold beers to take with us on the Kaiji Express train into Yamanashi.

We had reserved seats but there were not so many passengers, and we spent a comfortable time watching Tokyo change from city to countryside out the window. We were slowly climbing into the mountains, and the change of scenery was refreshing. Eventually we arrived at our target station, Katsunuma Budonooka, for our first wine tasting of the day.

I had done some research by asking for advice from a coworker who enjoyed visiting the Japanese wine country, and he told me that this was a good place to start. It turned out that he was right – it was the highlight of our trip.

From the station we caught a taxi to get to the wine center – a sort of hospitality gateway to the area. The facility was quite big, and the first floor of the main building looked a lot like a tasting room, although here they sold wines from many different wineries. Our target was the “wine cave”, which was under the main floor. At the reception desk you could pay a reasonable fee, and then they gave you a little silver “tastevin” to hang around your neck as proof of payment. Descending the stairs you found a huge selection (around 170!) of different local wines open and available for unlimited tasting. Wow!

The system was self-service, so you were free to try anything you liked in any order. Because of COVID there were a few points to be careful of – we had to wear a plastic glove with the hand that poured the wine, and we used tiny clear disposable plastic cups rather than wine glasses. But still it was a lot of fun, and a great way to sample the widest range possible of local wines without having to travel to each individual winery.

We really enjoyed trying the wines at random, and looking for ones that we liked. They were divided into whites, reds and dessert wines, and generally laid out from lighter/dry to full bodied.

The initial euphoria started to wear off a little after we discovered some downsides to the setup. First, there was nobody there to tell you about the wines, to recommend ones to try, or to explain why the wines might taste like they did. We were shooting in the dark, and unfortunately there were quite a few misses. Some of the bottles had been open (with a little dispenser top) for a long time, and so they tasted off or just oxidized. It must be a challenge to manage all those open bottles and keep things fresh and delicious.

Also I felt like the baseline quality level was pretty low. Occasionally I’d find a wine that was not bad – in other words it wasn’t what I’d call good, but more like an acceptable level of quality – but you’d see that the price would be triple the cost of a bottle of good wine from Portugal or Italy. After tasting a lot of bad or simple wines if we hit one that tasted good I had to wonder if it was just good by comparison… would I still like it if I took it home and tried it alone?

Especially I was surprised how thin and simple the red wines were. It was disappointing as we often drink reds at home. All the wines that we did like were either whites or dessert wines.

But despite running into so many marginal wines the experience was a lot of fun, and the effect of tasting so many vinos meant we were having a great time. Kuniko had a bad reaction to one wine and put down the bottle suddenly, and as she turned her bag bumped up against other bottles and nearly knocked them over – a nearby lady made a shocked face as she expected things to get ugly. No wine bottles were harmed and we kept on tasting – this is why we came to the wine country.

At some point we reached the equilibrium between tippled happiness and general disappointment with wine quality which meant we were ready to go back upstairs and check out the rest of the facility. On the main floor and spread out in many places were some “wine server” machines. You could rent a glass for a couple hundred yen, and then get a (small) taste of various wines for 100 yen per 20 mL. If you do the math it isn’t a great deal but it is a nice way to try other wines that maybe we somehow missed in the “wine cave”.

The building also had a terrace with outdoor tables and chairs and a beautiful view of the Yamanashi valley area. The building had some prime real estate, and we sat outside and just soaked it in for a while.

We had lunch in the third floor restaurant, and we enjoyed some very decent local sparkling wine with our steak hamburg and roasted salmon entrees. It was good to get a little food into our bellies.

After lunch we sat out on the terrace a little while longer, and then left to catch a taxi back to the train station. As we left there was a strange couple we passed. The lady was reading out the price of each product in the soda vending machines in a sort of monotone special needs kind of way, and the man with her was silent and moved in an odd way. They didn’t fit in with what I expected of the clientele of the wine center.

We took a short trip by taxi back to the train station we had arrived from, and had to kill a little time there. Even in the station they had some wine server machines for 100 yen shots, and three or four old guys were drinking there and also doing the math into how much money it would take to continue the party.

Finally our train arrived, and we got a seat inside an almost empty car. Besides us there was a man sitting horizontally on the bench seat with his shoes off, another child-like man who dashed from window to window to take pictures with an old point-and-shoot camera, and also the strange couple who were into prices of sodas from the wine center. With the boozy inclusion of ourselves it made for quite a train car.

After our survey of wines and my evaluation of the overall quality we changed our plans slightly regarding the wine tasting that day. I was of the mind that if we visited wineries and I had to go face to face with the winery staff while choking down (or spitting out) bad wine it would not end up being a good time. Instead, we decided to go directly to Isawa Onsen, the site of our ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) for that night. So we got off the train there, and walked a short distance towards the hotel.

Isawa Onsen was a quiet place, and it was hard for us to determine if that was because of the coronavirus impact on tourism or if it was just a dying town. I’m guessing the latter. We walked past a big Aeon market which seemed to be the most active part of town, but then as we approached the hotel the buildings were shuttered drug stores and empty buildings surrounded by open lots.

It had been a while since we stayed at a ryokan. They checked us in, and the lobby staff prepared a small glass of juice while we sat in the lobby afterwards. The junior staff all seemed to be foreign girls wearing kimono, which I thought was a little unusual. We walked past a beautiful Japanese-style garden and pond that made up the center of the complex, and we were led to our room which was comfortable and clean, although a little old. There were old walls and doors, old water taps and just a sense of a facility past its prime. People stay at a ryokan for the history, though, so I thought this fit the bill.

After settling into our room, having some tea and some snacks provided by the staff, it became apparent that we really didn’t have anything to do until dinner time. Kuniko came through with some research, and it turned out that there were two wineries in town that were within walking distance – hooray!

The first was very close, called Monde Winery. The tasting room was open and across from the production facility. The facility looked pretty historic, and seemed to be an active winery. We went inside the tasting room, and it was similar to most tasting rooms except for the fact that the wine was served by machine – similar to the wine servers back at the center we had left earlier. Apparently this is a preferred style in the area, and again I’m not sure if it is because of COVID or just that Japanese people like automated things. I did think that the experience loses something when the staff weren’t there to explain the wines and tell you more about what you were tasting.

As a side note, I did feel like the winery staff in all the places we visited were not so friendly. It almost felt like we were bothering them by arriving, and that they’d have preferred that we weren’t around. I wonder if sales would improve with a little more hospitality…

Unfortunately we didn’t really enjoy the wines at Monde, so we did a quick tasting and then left. We walked quite a ways through this quiet town, passing some construction that made me wonder about the future usage of the area, and finally reached Mars Winery. This company had chosen the god of war to represent their brand, but their wines didn’t really grab us either. The serving system was a little different, with little valves in the wall that you could use to pour yourself wine. They had a fruit fly problem there, and some hints of vinegar from the valves made me think that some more cleaning would be a good idea.

So as walked out of the winery, past two naked statues with surprisingly thick pubic hair, we had a little bit of time to reflect on the state of the wine industry here. I think we certainly gave it a fair shot simply from a statistical viewpoint. Maybe there are some hidden gems out there in Yamanashi, but I think the legwork and sacrifice it will take to find them may be out of our reach.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the (relatively) lively Aeon market. We usually shop at our own Aeon market every weekend back in Okubo, but this place was somehow depressing. Empty shelves, lonely aisles, strange background music (well, that part was the same). We found a shelf of local wines, but the thought of buying a bottle to drink with dinner and the risk of getting stuck with 750 mL of bad wine sent us to the beer section to buy some Japanese beers. I’m glad we don’t live in this town.

We spent some time relaxing in our hotel room, and then got into position for our dinner, brought to our room and served for us by the staff. Dinner was great – and filling. They kept the food coming: a hot pot with local chicken and vegetables, rice with scallops, sushi, some thick red slices of locally raised roast beef, steamed custard, and lots of other little dishes that made it fun to explore our table. We drank our beers, and the hotel staff (mostly foreign) came and went with food and plates. Even dessert had some local grapes and other sweets. It was an epic meal.

With all that in our bellies it wasn’t long before we were entering a food coma, and soon after that getting ready for bed. A futon specialist came and laid out our bedding on the tatami, and then it was nighty-night for us. We were already looking forward to more food adventures the next day.

Pictures from this trip can be found here:

Bryan’s 50th Birthday Trip

I still can’t really get my head around the concept of being 50 years old. Mentally I feel like I only turned 30 a few years ago, and it is starting to be time to think about middle age. Despite the clear dissonance going on in my head, the fact remained that we should celebrate this milestone. I talked about it with Kuniko, and we decided to take a long weekend and go explore the wine country of Japan, along with some other nearby spots that looked interesting.

Kuniko had plenty of time to prepare, and since we haven’t been able to travel overseas for a few years she was eager to exercise her trip-planning muscles. She put together a trip including several cities, rides on some hard-to-reserve trains, and punctuated with great meals and plenty to drink. It was a busy four days, but it turned out to be a great trip.

On Thursday night after work we came home as usual, had dinner, changed into comfortable clothes, and spent a leisurely time packing for the long weekend. Then, well past our usual weekday bedtime we walked to our local train station and took a local train to Himeji. We arrived there around 11 pm to prepare to catch the midnight departure of the Sunrise Express, a sleeper train running to our first destination city, Yokohama.

We were excited to start our trip so we bought a cheap bottle of sparkling wine and some snacks at the local convenience store so that we’d have the essentials when we got into our room on the train. Unfortunately we learned that the train was delayed by about an hour, so that meant we’d have to wait around on the platform until 1 am. So we just moved the party up a little bit and ate and drank on the platform bench seats.

Finally the train arrived, and we got on board and found our room right away. The train car is divided into different classes and Kuniko splurged to get us a private room with two beds, on the lower half of the train. You could open the blinds to your window and see things rushing by, and when you passed a train platform the ground of the platform was exactly level with the bottom of the window. It was cool to pass our town of Okubo on the way east – seeing it flash by in the dark made it feel like we were starting an adventure. I remember sometimes standing on the Okubo platform in the cold and seeing the Sunrise Express pass by, with passengers in their pajamas peeking out the windows – now that was me!

The room was small but comfortable, and after a few pictures and trying out the amenities, we went right to sleep.

Throughout the night the train moved steadily east, and while sleeping I sometimes noticed pauses in the journey, but I was too sleepy to peek out and see what was happening. The train really did rock back and forth sharply sometimes – once I woke up and thought I was falling off my bed, but it was just an illusion. Maybe it was the excitement of the trip, or the shaky ride, but I didn’t sleep so deeply on the journey.

As the sun was rising we woke up, and soon afterwards there was an announcement that the train would be stopping short of our destination due to the after effects of an earthquake that night. The earthquake changed a lot of the train schedules, and that meant that we’d have to get off and use a bullet train the rest of the way. Since we were up already it wasn’t a big deal – we got to our destination faster and even got a refund on some of the cost – so no problem. We got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji as we passed Shizuoka, and then we were on a bullet train bound for Shin-Yokohama.

Kuniko did all the train navigation for the trip – she loves this kind of stuff and she is great out puzzling out the best way to get to our destination. Luckily in the Tokyo Metro area there are a lot of transport options, so we had flexibility to get where we wanted to go. Soon enough we were on some crowded platforms with the commuters, who were also dealing with a changed train schedule and therefore a unusually stressful journey to work.

Soon we got to the main part of Yokohama. This was our first time to this city, and it was very similar to Kobe, just on a grander scale. But before exploring, we checked our bags into our hotel and got some coffee and a simple breakfast nearby.

Yokohama was warmer than we expected. At first we stayed off the trains because of the commute congestion, and instead walked around the city and used a taxi for long distances. We visited Yamashita Park, a waterfront park that was well-kept and filled with benches and people doing volunteer gardening. On the water were some pretty big ships – both historical and modern. From there we walked back towards the main part of town, and just did some casual sightseeing. The city had integrated the waterways into the design, so coupled with the modern buildings, Ferris wheel and gondola system it made for a very dramatic urban landscape.

As it got closer to lunchtime we made our way to the city’s Chinatown area. Unlike Kobe’s Chinatown, Yokohama’s was quite large, and covered many different blocks into its own neighborhood. We made some offerings at a nearby temple, and then found our first restaurant of the trip – a Chinese place specializing in dim sum that makes their own soup dumplings.

One good thing about the restaurant was that they served beer from the opening time – we’ve been dealing with COVID restrictions that stopped alcohol sales for a long time. It felt oddly exciting to have a beer with lunch.

And this was a great lunch! The dim sum menu that we ordered from was fairly large, and we ate plenty of favorites. The types they had were pretty traditional, but some really stood out. We especially liked the wonton with ra-yu, the shrimp shumai were not so beautiful but tasted great, and we also liked the tan-tan noodles. We ate big and really got our money’s worth. The Chinese staff were friendly enough, and the homemade soup dumplings were indeed homemade – so delicious!

With our bellies full we decided to head to the historical town of Kamakura. The old town is a lot like a tiny version of Nara or Kyoto. We wanted to see the famous Buddha statue there, so we boarded a train that wasn’t so crowded and made the short trip. From the train station we had a long walk, which worked out to balance the calories from our big lunch, and finally we arrived at the Buddha via backroads and rural neighborhoods.

Over the years we’ve had some back luck seeing Buddhas, but this time we had no trouble. There were a lot of school kids there, and elsewhere throughout the town. I guess the ending of the COVID restrictions also meant that school trips could go ahead.

The Buddha was sitting where he was supposed to be, staring out at the tourists staring back. I was surprised to see some windows in the back of the Buddha, like it was in the middle of transforming or something. Apparently the Buddha is hollow.

We walked back towards the nearest train station, bought an interesting red shiso drink for the short trip to the main train station, and then took a walk down Kamakura’s main shopping street. The street wasn’t that distinctive from others all over Japan, so we kind of wrapped it up quickly and headed back towards Yokohama to check into our hotel and take a little break.

So far we hadn’t really taken a shower since the day before – although the sleeper train had a shower we didn’t really have time to use it (how sanitary could it have been?) Kuniko had found a really nice hotel (right across from “The Hub” – a British Pub chain) and we cleaned up and took a nice nap to get ready for a little tiny bit of Yokohama’s nightlife.

We started in Bashamichi, at a taproom for Baird Brewing. One of the early craft beer places to start in Japan, we were going not really for the beer but for the BBQ beef brisket. This places slow smokes their own meats, and it was really delicious. We also had some smoked ribs, but they paled in comparison to the brisket. For some reason this kind of BBQ hasn’t caught on in Japan yet, so I was glad to have a chance to eat it on this trip.

After dinner we walked back to an outdoor drinking/dining place that was open on the other side of town. We had passed it before lunchtime when it was closed, but now in the early evening the weather was perfect to sit outside and enjoy the night views. Throughout summer we can’t really eat or drink outside so this was a nice refreshing stop for us to relax. We had some sparkling wine, and a little cheese.

Yokohama by night is really beautiful – it is a big city that is spread out enough that you can sit back and enjoy the view. Sometimes in the heart of Kobe it is difficult to take in everything at once. We rode the gondolas across the waterway to the other side of the canal, did a little shopping at a big organic food market, and finally made slow progress back to the neighborhood where our hotel was located – right next to Yokohama station. There was a lot going on here – plenty of people out on the streets drinking and smoking, and I saw more foreigners out than I’ve seen in the past two years combined. The Hub was jumping, but rather than go hang out with more foreigners we instead decided to go upstairs and call it a night – we had been on the go for almost 40 hours by then. The next day we’d be heading to the wine country.