Takeda Jinja Trip

Hello everyone!! Replacing Pepi and Ocha for this year, we're Irvan and Aruni. Nice to meet you guys!

For this time, we went to Takeda Jinja, which is located at North of Kofu Station. This place is built as Jinja at 1919, and before that, this place is built and used as Takeda Clan's residence at 1519.

Not many of Takeda Clan's residence building is left, but the main part of residence still remain till now, used as a main part of the jinja.

You can pray here like usual jinja in Japan. In this place you can see Takeda Clan's playground for their children (back then), horse stables, lion statue, pond, and so on!

FUN FACT: The lion statue at the entrance of Takeda Jinja has 2 statues, the one on the left's mouth is shut, and the one on the right's mouth is open. In japanese hiragana, 'a' is the first alphabet and 'n' is the last. The opened mouth means 'a', which means 'the beginning' and the closed mouths means 'n', which is 'the end'. The reason they did that to thr statues is because the statues are used to keep evil spirits away.

Thats for today, see you at the next post!
-Irvan

First Time Harvesting and Tasting Ume

Last week we went once again to Furouen to participate in Ume-Harvesting. I had never seen ume in flesh before, other than in the state of umeboshi, so it was a whole new experience for me.

A first look on how ume looks

Because most of us did not know about ume at all, there was a teacher that taught us on how to harvest ume correctly, also there are some ume that should not be harvested.
Did you know that the red part of ume does not mean it is the sweet part, but only the tanning part because of the sun? I didn't. Hehe.

The teacher

Hearing the teacher's instructions

We were told to harvest at least 1Kg of ume. It was necessary for it to be that much, because later we were shown a demonstration on how to make jam out of ume. That's why on these photos, Pepi and I are seen to be crushing the ume.

Although it was hot, it was quite fun!

- Ocha

Ogino - Connecting Yamanashi Residents to Good Life

The other day, we went for a mini tour to one chain of one of the famous supermarkets in Yamanashi, which is Ogino. The one we visited was the newly opened one which located in Ise Town.

You can only see the "INO", but it's actually "OGINO"

When you go into the supermarket, the first thing that you could see is lots of vegetables, breads, and shelves; all of them are lined down beautifully and was really easy to see.

First look when you enter Ogino in Ise Town

What I immediately thought when I was touring around the supermarket itself was that this supermarket really gives a deep thought about how to make customers feel happy. For example, all of the shelves that I saw was really short, compared to other supermarkets that I've visited, so it became easier for people to reach stuff.

The shelves

Also, Things like sushi, sashimi (fresh raw fish), or also warm foods, all are freshly made here. So, they purposely made windows that make the customers could see what's happening background, so they know the foods are really fresh!

Fish section - They make also sashimi here!

Not only that, Ogino also occasionally holds cooking class for the customers!

Ogino's Cooking Class Flyer

What I can conclude from Ogino is, they really think about how customers feel. They are a good example of Japan's tourism motto, which is "Omotenashi", or Hospitality!

- Ocha

Ume harvesting time! In Furouen.

Ume, also known as Plum fruit.

Last week we went to Furouen (We had came here before! Check our latest post!) to harvest ume. The Furouen was very different with the one which we had come to last February. This time wasn't flower, but the fruit anywhere. So, we started our hunting for ume.

Ume hunters.

We had fun when we harvested the ume. Because harvesting ume, skill and knowledge about ume is required. If you pick the wrong ume (unripe), you'll taste the super sour taste. Even you picked unripe ume, you can collect it and make your own Ume juice or if you like alcohol, you can make Umeshuu.

Tutorial how to make Ume juice.

Ocha trying to pinch ume.

After we collected our ume, we got lecture about how to make ume juice. It was so fun. By the way, not just ume, we got udon too! And we got Furouen home-made umeboshi! Very delicious!

The delicious, Umeboshi

Thanks for reading.

Pepi.

Outing to Ogino Supermarket, saw what i never seen before!

Inside of Ogino Supermarket.

Not today, but 2 weeks ago, i went to study by observation to Ogino Supermarket. When i entered the shop, it looks different with the other supermarket in Yamanashi. And we went to the place where i could see the behind of the scene of the supermarket, and of course you may never seen before. (Except you had an experience on working in supermarket)

Changing to Sushi Chef Appearance.

Before we go to looking the supermarket generally, we got some knowledge about Ogino Supermarket's 5W1H. What is Ogino, when Ogino was established, how they operated their food system, and so on. After we watch the VTR about Ogino supermarket, we should use mask and sushi chef-ish cap to prevent all the bacteria to contaminate the food product. Yes, we were not try to make sushi or something. Haha.

Demonstration how the food product got packed.

We started our journey in Ogino. We've seen how the production of their food production, how was the kitchen, and knew how cold are Ogino's freezers. The picture wasn't real food product, only try to pack something other than food so we could see how it works. I think it was cool, all tech-manufactured, so we just let the machine work, done without mistake. Life in this era is so convenient!

You can open the window to ask the workers about the fish.

Yap, if you come to Ogino supermarket and see the "Fresh Fish" sector, you will see the window. You can ask all the things about Fish. You can slide to open the window, and ask them. Feels like you have your own fresh fish advisors.

One thing that amazed me, Set of cooking recommendation.

When you going to supermarket, of course you have been in time where you can't decide what you want to cook. Because you have no good planning, the result you have to think by yourself about the cooking things. But, No problem! Ogino supermarket have set of cooking recommendation section in their shop. When you confused about the food, this section will give you the ingredients that you can buy, and a paper which will lead you how to cook it. Personally, because i have been in time like this very often, i'm just very amazed and felt very helped.

Thanks for reading.

Pepi.

Hijiriushi, Japanese Dam Technology from the past.

Hello.
Today we went to learn for Hijiriushi or Seigyuu, a tool which used to hold the drain of the river so the stream wont flood to the residence area in the past. The tool just like the Tetrapod that used in common seashore.

Hijiriushi

Hijiriushi without weighting stones. Looks like a cannon.

In the past, some of Yamanashi area frequently flooded. Then, there is nobody who lived nearby the river due to the danger of the flood. So, the Takeda Clan's warlord, Takeda Shingen did some policy to prevent the stream of Kamanashi river to flood. But nowadays, the river stream is not that much as the past. Maybe it was because of the Hijiriushi. That's all i know.

Thanks for reading.
Pepi.

The savior of the land of Yamanashi

Today, we visited a river. No, two rivers. Or was it three??
Well, basically we visited the place to learn about "信玄堤 Shingen-Dzutsumi" or "Shingen Riverbank". Why is it so important?

This is the river that we saw, by the way

Long ago, the river around the Shingen-Dzutsumi wasn't this shallow. It might be not shown, but this river is actually a combination of two rivers, combining into Kamanashi River. When the two rivers met, it caused a big bang and made the water flows to the land.

And thus the big flood would always happened in the area of Yamanashi, though not all.

That's why, the people of Yamanashi at the time made this device;

What is this...?

This device is called Hijiriushi. The main function of the so said device is to weaken the stream of the river, so it doesn't cause a bang. Because of the device, the land that wasn't possible to be resided in, became usable.

Ocha