Welcome to Shizuoka! Yeah!
The beautiful Izu area of Shizuoka Prefecture
is located just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Tokyo Station.
Here we are, very early in the morning during rush hour.
It doesn't look like it, but Tokyo Station is very busy!
The scenic train ride was over before we knew it, but we had beautiful views of Mt. Fuji,
and the seaside... and there were even a few little extra things
that I wasn't sure about...
We had such a nice greeting from the locals at Kawazu Station.
We just got on the bus and here's our itinerary.
And here's some water, that's so thoughtful!
And some barf bags. Yeah.
This is actually spring water from the Kakita River nearby
which produces about 1 million tonnes of water everyday from the rain and snowfall of Mt. Fuji
and it's used in the local cuisine.
Miss, and what's your name?
My name is Ami.
Ami-san?
Her name is Ami! Yes! Thank you!
Nice to meet you.
Actually, this festival goes for one month
and approximately one million people visit us here during that season.
And they're working so hard because they want people from all over the world to visit!
The characteristics of the cherry blossoms in Kawazu is that they flower downward, not upwards
That is the characteristic of this cherry blossom in Kawazu!
Just follow the signs, the people and the shops and you can't miss it.
I'll definitely be back because I really wanna see the sakura at night.
They're all illuminated!
There's lots to do here and it's not super crowded like Tokyo
so you can go at your own pace.
And there are other things to see other than sakura, including some really nice hot springs,
free foot baths, and some temples.
The whole town is just gorgeous!
It goes on for miles and miles.
Our next stop was Zendokoro Kaien for a nice lunch and tour.
This is where you can go to get a really good experience with Shizuoka.
It's a restaurant and it's also a hot springs and hotel.
It's run by two sisters.
This house has been in their family for years and it sits right on the ocean.
It's lunchtime! And there's so much food here!
I already ate the udon, but I'm sure I included a picture for you to see.
This one, I'm extra curious about.
The sashimi.
I guess this is "buri," or yellowtail as Charly just said and I'm gonna try this guy.
Yeah, cuz he looks yummy.
This I dunk into the soy sauce right here.
This is for the tempura and it was for the udon which I destroyed.
So here we go!
Mmm! That is so good!
There was a little bit of wasabi on there, which I'm normally not a big fan of
but when it's really really good wasabi It's good!
And it kind of clears out the sinuses too.
So, I'm gonna go destroy this and I will see you later!
Since I was a jerk and ate mine too fast...
Yay!
Doesn't that look appetizing?
It tastes so much better than it looks, but it actually looks kind of cool.
Like a purple manju.
YUMMY!
From the Meiji Period, it was built maybe 1890 or something like that.
And these two sisters, they were brought up here!
So you wash your body over there and then go in!
These are special drawers for storing samurai swords.
The drawers are real, they were used.
The swords themselves might be mock-ups because real ones have to be registered with the police
and I don't think they would just leave them out like that for us, yeah.
This is one of the rooms. Look at this.
First, I gotta take my shoes off.
Look at this!
You can stay in a Meiji era house with a beachside view with sakura!
And it's super close to the station I'm told.
If weather permits, we seven Izu islands. Oshima...
Seven islands?
So what you see must be Oshima, I don't know.
The sisters said in the summer, you can cross the street and just jump into the water!
Yes! That is like a private beach!
Wow!
Ah! I felt refreshed!...
But then it was time for scary roads!!!
This was just one of the windy roads that we had to take to get to the wasabi farm!
But, it was totally worth it because...
We had to change into these sexy white boots!
Oh yeah!
Welcome to this wasabi farm which is, I am told
definitively that this is the best wasabi in the country and thus the world.
We're here picking wasabi.
We're gonna eat it tomorrow what we harvest.
But, it is the Number One.
That's a fact.
That's not an alternative fact. That's a fact!
They use the fresh, natural spring water from the nearby Kakita River
so the wasabi is super delicious!
Thank you very much for coming to the BEST wasabi fields in Japan!
This wasabi you're gonna pick today is 11 months wasabi.
So you might think that this wasabi might be a little bit smaller, but please understand
today's wasabi is 11 months, not growing up to the big size yet.
And I got to harvest my own wasabi! I've never done that before!
Alright, I've made it my trophy!
And packed it away for lunch tomorrow.
Yay!!
This is what the wasabi looks like after it's been cleaned off for a bit.
That board has a bit of a rough surface, so you can grate it very easily.
It brings out the chewiness, the punch of the wasabi.
It's hot!!
This is today's harvest and we're gonna eat what we've harvested tomorrow.
All of them have little name tags on it so we know who harvested what.
This is the scary train that they use to get up and down the mountain to get to all that wasabi.
Looks both fun and scary!
Little mountain monorail!
But it was really wonderful to see that all of the people that work here seem to really
love their jobs and have a lot of fun with it.
And thank to this farm, I'm totally addicted to fresh wasabi!
I can't wait to show you more in the next video!
Our next stop was the beautiful Ochiairou Murakami.
Ochiairou Murakami also functions as an inn, a restaurant, and a hot springs
with beautiful expansive gardens.
Before dinner, we were able to walk around and view the gardens
and we were given a wonderful tour of the facility
which houses a lot of important cultural properties to Japan.
There are so many little details and things to see
and all of them have unique stories.
Ochiairou Murakami is over 150 years-old.
It inspired a lot of Japanese classical literature, including the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese
Japanese author Kawabata Yasunari.
After the tour, we settled down to have dinner.
This was great because we had a chance to talk with some of the locals.
I was lucky enough to sit next to the mayor of Shimizu.
He was so kind and gracious.
I just loved the pride that he had for his town.
The food was beautiful and delicious.
They focused on using local fresh ingredients.
Everything was so luxurious!
The food itself is a great conversation starter if you're a little shy.
OMG look at this!
This looks so good!
This is apparently charcoal-grilled delicious local asagiri beef with grilled tomato,
Chinese radish, and pickled citrus.
I'm going to eat this right now!
But look at this, this is I think these are plum blossoms.
They might be sakura, but I think they're plum blossoms.
They're so cute!
But this is almost too pretty to eat! I'm gonna eat it anyway!
After dinner, they surprised us with a special event.
A performance by the local taiko group.
Hey guys, so it looks like I actually got my own room and I'm ecstatic!
I'm gonna show you around here in just a second.
There is an onsen (hot springs) on the premises, but you have to walk outside to get to it,
so I don't think I'm gonna use it.
I think I'll just use the shower here which is pretty nice!
Let me show you guys around!
Look, there's a little origami crane.
Not sure if that was left or if it was here on purpose.
Look at this room!!
I bet the view outside in the morning is really nice.
And then I got two beds!
One for my stuff and one for me.
And a little rack to put all my stuff even though I just brought a little backpack thing.
That's the desk that I was sitting at.
Looks like there's a humidifier and a purifier and a TV.
I'm not sure why all the drawers were pulled out when I got here
but there are yukata robes in here that I can use.
I wish Jason were here.
There's tea and a little refrigerator, cute!
Then we go over here and this is like the bathroom area.
There's a little closet here and this mirror is tripping me up.
Let's go in here.
Super toilet!
And that's just to wash your hands when you're done, that sink.
Then, in here, omg, nice bath!
Lots of amenities!
What do we have here?
We have a brush, razor, toothbrush, and little q-tips...
Actually looks like a not bad hair dryer.
Beautiful sink, some towels...
Not bad!!!
I'm gonna go to sleep early because I'm still a little bit jet lagged and just super tired.
We have to meet up at 7:30 for breakfast.
I will see you guys then! Bye!
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