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. 

Kanzou Yashiki (Kanzou Residence)

This time, I went to one of Yamanashi's oldest residence. It is called Kanzou Residence. Kanzou residence is located right in front of Enzan station. Here, at Kanzou residence around March, they are holding a Hinamatsuri. Hinamatsuri or Hina festival is a festival to celebrate girl's day. I learned a lot about Hinamatsuri here. 

Hina dolls

In Japan, girl's day is celebrated on March 3rd. At this time, those houses who has daughter will display some special dolls which are called Hina ningyou, or Hina doll. Hina dolls represent the emperor, empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. 

The origin of Hinamatsuri was from Heian period custom called Hinanagashi. Hinanagashi is a custom to set afloat straw Hina ningyou on a boat in a river that sent down to the sea. From a very long time in Japan, doll was said to have the power to absorb the negative energy and bad spirit from human, so by sent it to the sea it was told to take the troubles and bad spirit away from children. 

Godenkazari Hina

There are rules to place of the dolls. The dolls are usually placed in a seven-tier platform. The top tier holds the emperor and the empress dolls. The emperor doll is called Odairi-sama and the empress doll is called Ohina-sama. The second tiers hold the three court ladies. It is said that if you look at the dolls closely you can find that one of them has no brows. The one who has no brows is called to be married and therefore is the mentor of the unmarried court ladies. The third tier holds the five musician dolls. The dolls is placed according to the instrument they are playing. The loudest instrument is placed on the left part and continues to the right with the least loud instrument. The fourth tier holds the two court archers. The fifth hold the three lowest rank attendants. The lowest rank attendants were the people that were often changed so they express more expression than the other dolls such as anger, sadness, and happiness. And the last two tiers holds the miniature furniture. 

The ancient Hina dolls

In Japan, the kanto and kansai region have different styles to place the hina dolls. The difference are on the top tier and the fifth tier. The Kanto region style put the Ohina doll on the right side, but the Kansai style put it on the left side. In the old time, the hina dolls were placed according to the Kansai style, but now, most of the region used the Kanto style. The difference in the fifth tier is the things that the attendant holds. Kanto region dolls are umbrella holders and a shoe holder. Kansai region dolls holds a rack, a broom, and a dust pan. Here, in Kanzou residence, there are a lot of hina dolls. There are some ancient hina dolls that were displayed here. So by seeing the placement of the dolls and the things they hold you can figured out when or where were the dolls came from. 

Tsurushi Kazari

They also will decorate their house with some special decoration such as Hina tsurushi kazari. Tsurushi kazari is a decoration that was made to pray for the daughter of the house. Tsurushi kazari was made to pray for the daughter well-being. Tsurushi kazari consist of seven stringed decoration that tides together. Each of the stuffed things in Tsurushi Kazashi has its own meaning and prayer. The prayers are different in each house, but most of the prayers are the same. 

Koushu Army washi art work

Kanzou residence also has class to make washi decoration. It is a decoration madewashi papers. Here they also displayed some washi art works that they made, such as the Koshu army, the four mystical being, etc. The class is held on Saturday on a certain date. You can ask the receptionist about the date if you want to participate. 

from Japanese

This is a really nice place to enjoy and learn one of japan's cultures. Since it is located near the station, you can easily visit here. I really enjoy my visit here and I learn a lot about Hinamatsuri here. See you on my next post.

Fuefukigawa Onsen Zabou

My post today is about one of Yamanashi's luxury ryokan or Japanese style hotel, Zabou. Zabou, as it is named is a place to forget about the hustle and bustle from daily life. The beautiful surroundings and excellent services, makes it the best place to calm your heart and mind. Zabou is a ryokan built by Marquis Winery company. Yamanashi is known for it's wine, and Marquis winery is one of the wineries that produces Japan's wine, Koshu. 

private open-air bath

The concept of the rooms at Zabou is to make the room so comfortable that they will not leaves the room and just relax and enjoy their time to the fullest inside the room. Zabou has some types of room with its own taste. Most of the rooms here are equipped with open-air spa or rotenburo in each room. The dinning room and the bed room are separated. For the villas, the Japanese-style and the Japanese and Western style rooms in the main building, each room has its own dining room separately. 

140 Years-old building

As for the villa annex, the dinning room is in the different building. Different from the main building, the dining room is not private. The building itself is a 140 years-old building. Beside the building, there is a small pond for raising soft-shelled turtle. Some of the cuisine here use soft-shelled turtle as the main ingredient. The turtle which is raised in the pond will later be cut and served as a luxury dishes. 

Fish bait

Library

 There is a library in the main building where you can relax and read books is silence and enjoy the beautiful view. The books are always changed every month so that guests will not get bored here. And here guests can enjoy free wine and drinks while relaxing. The main building rooms also has fish bait for the gold fish in garden. There also public open-air bath that can be enjoyed by every guests here.

Staying here sure cost a lot of fortune, but the experience you'll got is amazing. The foods here are amazing and cooked with finest. They also sells Marquis wines and Yamanashi local confections for souvenirs.

For more information visits: http://www.fuefukigawaonsen.com

Furouen 2

This is the second part of my post about Furouen. Since the first time I came there the plum blossom haven't full bloomed yet, I came to Furouen again this morning. Since it is almost the end of February, more of the plum blossom have bloomed. It is so beautiful now compare to the past week. There are a lot of pink, red, yellow, and white flowers which have fully bloomed today. It has a more Spring atmosphere compare to last time. If you are planning to come here, this is the best time to go. 

This is the picture I took 2 weeks ago

This is the picture I took this morning 

Tomorrow, there will be a plum festival or Ume matsuri here in Furouen. The festival is to welcome spring. As I said in my previous post, plum blossom is the sign of the start of spring in Japan.

Today I also learn a lot about Ume bonsai. For you who don't know what bonsai is, bonsai is a Japanese art from using trees grown in containers. Bonsai is like mini tree in a pot. The staff here said that plum blossom is part of the rose family. It has small thorn in it's twig and it could be plant by using stem system plantation. You can buy ume bonsai here for 900 yen to 30.000 yen.

I also got the chance to taste a plum tea or umekobucha. I'm surprised that the color of the tea is actually pink. But the taste of the tea is really delicious. Though it tasted more like a soup than a tea. It has a sour smell, but it doesn't taste sour at all. It also has some sprinkles of gold powder. 

Another interesting thing that I found today is a caged raccoon or tanuki statue. The staff said it is to prevent the raccoon to do destruction in the park. I think it is an interesting Japanese culture and superstitious. 

I really learn a lot on my second trip here. If you go to Furouen, I hope you also have a really good time here as I am. 

For more information visit their home page on http://www.furouen.jp

Furouen (Garden Park of Eternal Life)

Hello!!! It is almost spring in Japan now, and that means it's near the time for flower viewing or "Hanami". So, this time I'm going to introduce you to a great place for flower viewing here, in Yamanashi. 

This time I am going to introduce you about a plum blossom park. This park called Furouen. Furouen is located in Yamanashi prefecture, Kofu city, Sakaori 4-3. You can get there by walking for about 10 minutes from Sakaori station. 

Furouen has more than 3000 plum trees with 20 different varieties of plum trees in a 50 km² area. The park is more like a hiking place so it has some hills and slope. Here you can enjoy some colorful plum blossoms while hiking. When you get to the highest place in the park, you can see amazing views of Mount Fuji and the Southern Alps. This is a really good place to take plum flowers with Mount Fuji.  Furouen has food concessions and gift shops inside the park so that you can enjoy your picnic there. 

And for you who loves taking pictures, there is a photo contest of the park in Furouen. The winning pictures will be put in on display inside the park. I think this place has a really nice photo shoot spot because it not only a plum blossom park it also has some traditional Japanese building such as the house of the park owner, Mr. Okumura since 1897, though now they do not live there anymore. 

These are some interesting facts about plum blossom. Plum blossom is one of the most popular trees for flower viewing in Japan besides cherry blossom. Plumtree blooms faster than cherry blossom. While cherry blossom blooms around April to May, Plum blooms around February to March. Hence Plum blossom is the sign of the end of winter and the beginning of spring in Japan. There is also some plum festival around the time when the plum trees starting to bloom in Japan. So, if you want to experience Japan's spring 

The park is open from February 1 until March 31. It is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., 7 days a week. The entrance fee is ￥500 for adults and ￥200 for children under 12 years old. But recently the park is also open in autumn when the color of the leaves are changing or "Kōyō". 

For more information about the park visit their homepage at http://www.furouen.jp