Arakurasengen Shrine

Today I went to Arakurasengen Shrine. If ever see a picture of Mt. Fuji and a pagoda, that's Arakurasengen Shrine. Arakurasengen Shrine is located in Fujiyoshida city, Yamanashi prefecture. From the top of Arakurasengen Shrine in Spring, you can take a beautiful picture of Mt. Fuji with cherry blossom and a magnificent view of Fujiyoshida city. Today, unfortunately it was cloudy and I couldn't take a nice view of Mt. Fuji.

Konosakuya Stairs

Arakurasengen Shrine

Chureito Pagoda

The pagoda in Arakurasengen Shrine is called the Chureito Pagoda. It was build on August 12th 1958. It was build to pray for 960 citizen from Fujiyoshida who died in the wars after 1868. To get to the Chureito Pagoda and the photo spot, I have to climb 396 stairs. These stairs are called Konosakuya stairs. It was named after the Goddess of Mt. Fuji, Konohana Sakuyahime. 

After I went to Arakurasengen Shrine, I went to eat Yoshida Udon. This is a special dish from Fujiyoshida city. The characteristic of this udon is that the noodles are more thick and a little bit harder than a normal Udon. The taste of the udon is also good. If you have the chance to come to Fujiyoshida, you must try this udon. You won't regret it. 

Yoshida Udon

Melody Road

Have you ever heard about Melody road?

Melody road is a road where you can hear melody of a song while driving your car. In Japan, there are 28 melody road in some part of Japan, such as Hokkaido, Gunma area, Okinawa and Kyushu area, Shikoku area, Kansai area, Chubu area, Kanto area, Chugoku area, and Tohoku area. Each of the road plays different song. Most of the song are Japanese children songs. The song was decided by the image of the place.  The length of the roads are differs each area. 

The closest one to Yamanashi is at Fuji Subaru line road. It is a road that you take if you want to climb Mt. Fuji. Yamanashi, as you know is known as Fuji no kuni or Fuji's country, because it is located near Mt. Fuji. That is why the song that was played there is a song called Fuji no Yama. At Fuji Subaru line, you can hear the first part of the Fuji no Yama song on the ascending drive up to Mt. Fuji, and the second part of the song on the descending drive down form Mt. Fuji. 

You might wonder how did they make it. Well, the answer to that lies on road itself. When you look at it closely, the melody road is made with lines all over the road. These lines are the one produced the sound. If you look closely to the pictures, the lines make some gap on the road. When the car's wheels go through these lines, it produces sound. The gaps of the line was adjust so that it produces the right tone for the song. The closer the gap, the higher the pitch of the sound, and the wider the gap, the lower the pitch of the sound. 

If you go to climb Mount Fuji, don't forget to listen to this melody. It is a really amazing experience. You could actually hear a melody of a song from inside your car. The melody sound was not that loud, so you have to listen really carefully to hear it. 

Flower viewing at Maizuru Castle

It is finally spring in Yamanashi!! I am so excited to do Hanami or flower viewing here. On my last post, I've mention of plum blossom flower viewing, but this time it is finally the time for the famous cherry blossom to bloom! One of the best places to do hanami here in Kofu is at none other than the Kofu caslte or Maizuru Castle. So last week right before the Shingen festival, I went to Maizuru Castle to do some flower viewing with my friends.

Around the begining of April in some palces, the cherry blossom were mostly full bloomed and it was so pink and really beautiful. As you can see in the pictures, the were a lot of people besides us that do hanami here. At hanami, all you do is mostly resambles picnic. We ate snacks, played games, chated, and took pictures. It was really fun.

In some countries, Japan is famous as Sakura counrty and it really suited its name. The cherry blossom here was so beautiful, even when the wind blew and the flower petals were falling, it was still beautiful. Cherry blossom florwers are not a really strong flowers, they are so fragile and I think that is why they are beautiful.

There were also some people who did hanami at night or in the afternoon. Hanami at night is called Yozakura or night sakura. The atmosphere and the air is a little bit different during the night. It was more silent and a little bit chilly. But during night you can see sakura or cherry blossom in a very different view. Chatting and enjoying the night view with sakura is also a great experience to have.

Shingen-ko Festival

Last week, here in Kofu yamanashi, there was a really big festival called Shingen-ko festival. This festival is dedicated to the past ruler of Yamanashi, Takeda Shingen. If we are talking about Yamanashi, the most important thing that symbolized Yamanashi is Takeda Shingen. Thus this festival is the biggest festival in Yamanashi.

The festival lasted for 3 days. A lot of people from different part of Japan came to the festival. The main event of the festival is the samurai parade. This parade is so grand that it involved more than 1000 samurais. It even registered as the biggest samurai parade in the Guiness book of record since 2016. This parade pictures one of the greatest wars that Takeda Shingen leads in the Sengoku period.

This year I got a chance to participate in the parade as the first Indonesian battalion group in the parade.  We were treated as the special battalion of Shingen army. The parade took place near Kofu station and Maizuru Castle. It was a really amazing experience since I could do a parade with some of Indonesian public figures while wearing samurai clothes and gears. The parade was 3 kilometers walk from Maizuru Castle and go around Kofu main’s street and to the prefectural building. The parade was started around 5 p.m. and it was ended around 7 p.m. Even at night, there are more so many people that came to watch us.

Besides the parade there are also some interesting attractions such as the Taiko performances, the purification ceremony, Kendo competition, Monkey act, etc. Most of the performances were held in Maizuru castle and in the road near prefectural building. At Maizuru castle, you can enjoy the life peformance and food while flower viewing. The cherry blossom at Maizuru castle was soo beautiful. Most of the japanese that came to Maizuru castle did flower viewing whlie enjoying the live performances. There were also food stall inside Maizuru castle and in front of Kofu station. You can really felt the atmosphere of Japanese festival and flower viewing here.

Even though the last day of the festival was rained, the festival area was still full with people. Inside the prefectural building, there were some stalls of Yamanashi’s famous goods such as Shingen Mochi, Yamanashi Wine, pure water from Southern Alps, etc.