Kikyouya

Do you know Yamanashi's famous Shingen Mochi? Shingen Mochi is one of the famous local products in Yamanashi. As you can see the name of the product came from Yamanashi's famous Daimyo, Shingen Takeda. 

Today I went to one of the company that makes Shingen Mochi called Kikyouya. Kikyouya is located in Fuefuki city, Yamanashi Prefecture. Here, I went for the factory's tour and saw how they make Shingen Mochi. The surprising thing is that the packaging of the products are not handled by machine, but by hands! As you can see in the pictures below, the packaging are handled by hands by these workers. I was amazed by the speed. They can finish more than 100.000 packaging a day! 

 At the end of the tour, guest can try to do the packaging for 390 yen. I tried it, but it is harder than I thought it was. It is really difficult. It took me 30 seconds until 1 minute to finish packaging one mochi. The surprising fact is that it only takes 6 seconds for the employees here!  The factory tour is free, but the tour is not every hour and it is only seven times a day. The tour hours are at 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:40, 13:40, 15:00, and 16:00.

  

Here I also bought a shingen mochi soft cream. It is really delicious. The combination of soft cream, black caramel, shingen mochi and bean powder is amazing. The mochi was delicious the soft cream was so creamy and soft, the mix between the bean powder and black caramel was delightful. If you come to Yamanashi, this is one of the local sweets that you have to try! 

Fuji Shiba-zakura Festival

Today I went to Shiba-zakura Festival at the foot of Mount Fuji. The festival is held from 15th April to 28th May. From the festival site, I can see a view of shiba-zakura (mossphlox) flowerbed below the famous Mount Fuji. This year is the 10th anniversary of the festival. This festival is the largest shiba-zakura festival in Japan.


There are thousands of pink, purple, and white shiba-zakuras covering the festival area.The view of the shiba-zakuras were so magnificent and stunning.  When the wind blows, you can smell the fragrance of these flowers. You could also take a picture of the mini Shiba-zakura Fuji, a shiba-zakura flowerbed that shaped like Mount Fuji.



Beside taking picture you can also try the Panorama foot bath and the Panorama Cafe, where you can relax while enjoying the view of Mount Fuji and shiba-zakura. There is also a Photo contest that you can try to take part in, a souvenir shop to buy some limited-edition souvenir such as Fujiyama Cookies, Fuji Shiba-zakura Manju, Fuji Shiba-zakura limited "Shingen Mochi", Sakura leaf Rice Cakes etc. and you can also try some delicious Mt. Fuji Gourmet. Finally there are some live performances to brighten your day. That's all from me for today, see you on my next post.

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. 

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.