Love To Drink SAKE. Visited Sake Brewery Museum

Yamagata Prefecture is famous for its rice production. The census of 2008 said Yamagata was ranked 2nd out of 47 prefectures regarding the rice yield. That means Yamagata is also famous for the production of rice wine, a.k..a Japanese sake.  According to the data of 2009, there are 57 sake breweries in the Yamagata region which is 7th-ranked in the nation. The consumption of sake is also high. It was ranked 3rd in 2009. People in Yamagata definitely love to drink.

There are several sake breweries in the Yonezawa area and Toko Brewery is probably the biggest sake production company in this area.  I and my friend visited a museum of them. It was a quite interesting place. You can taste their sake products at the museum. Unfortunately I couldn’t drink them because I had to drive.

FYI:

Toko Brewery Museum: http://en.yamagata-info.com/kanko/okitama/culture/shuzo_siryokan.html

Toko Brewery Museum (Japanese): http://www.tokonosakagura.com

Toko Brewery (Japanese): http://www.sake-toko.co.jp/main.php

Stats in Japan & Yamagata: http://stats-japan.com/t/tdfk/yamagata

Shirabu Onsen in Fall

I made a second visit to Shirabu Onsen (= hot spring) – the accessible retreat from Yonezawa City, Yamagata – with my friend and we dropped in at an old-style inn to enjoy onsen. Their bathing room was very traditional and comfortable.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take pictures of the room, because it wasn’t bright enough to take the inside.

The inn, called Nishi-ya, is very popular among tourists because of their old-style appearance.  They open their onsen house to drop-in customers during the daytime. So you don’t have to stay there if you’d like to have only a relaxing bathing time. That’s what we did this time.

The area will be covered with tons of snow probably in two months and driving up there would be hard in the winter.  But I still recommend you to visit Shirabu Onsen in the winter, because it shows you another beautiful scenery.

FYI:

• About Shirabu Onsen:http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/yamagata/sirabu.html
• Shirabu Onsen Website (Japanese): http://www.shirabu.jp

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

On the way to Shirabu Onsen

   

Waterfall @ Shirabu Onsen

Nishi-ya
FYI: http://www.nishiya-shirabu.jp

Inside Nishi-ya

Onsen house of Nishi-ya

 

Onsen house of Nishi-ya

In front of Nishi-ya

      

also see; <The Joy of Onsen (= hot spring) > http://funtravelinjapan.blogspot.jp/2013/09/the-joy-of-onsen-hot-spring-of-yonezawa.html

Trip to Lake Inawashiro

I visited the Lake Inawashiro area in late June.  The lake is located at the foot of Mt. Bandai and sits almost at the center of Fukushima Prefecture. 

It is the 4th largest lake in Japan and used to be the clearest lake in the country, but the water quality has been worsening for the past several years.  By the way, the deterioration has nothing to do with the Fukushima nuke incident. It stated to happen a couple of years before the disaster.

Although the water seems to be getting dirty, the landscape is still beautiful. It's a very serine and comfortable area and worth of visiting. 

See also;

• <Mystical Lake in Fukushima> http://funtravelinjapan.blogspot.jp/2012/05/mystical-lake-in-fukushima.html
• <Lake Hibara in Fukushima> http://funtravelinjapan.blogspot.jp/2013/08/lake-hibara-in-fukushima-relaxed-retreat.html
• <Hiking Through Goshiki-Numa (= 5 colored ponds)> http://funtravelinjapan.blogspot.jp/2013/08/hiking-through-goshiki-numa-5-colored.html

FYI:

• About Lake Inawshiro: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/fukushima/inawasiroko.html
• About Mt. Bandai: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7755.html
• Travel Info of Fukushima: http://www.tif.ne.jp/lang/en/
• Inawashiro Tourist Association: http://www.bandaisan.or.jp/e-bandaisan/English/web-content/index.html

Downtown of Inawashiro Town
World-famous bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi
was born in this town.
FYI: About Hideyo Noguchi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideyo_Noguchi

Downtown of Inawashiro Town

Mt. Bandai

Swan on Lake Inawashiro

         

     

Fight Against One of the Symbols of Yamagata

To get back home from the seaside (west side) of Yamagata prefecture, I used Route 112. It's a national highway getting across from the west to east in the middle of the prefecture. That means I had to drive through over the high mountain area with my minivan.

Mt. Gassan which is one of the symbolic mountains of Yamagata sits at almost the center of the Yamagata region and that was the target I had to go over.  The elevation of Gassan is 1,984m (6,509 ft) and its mountaintop is always covered with snow except a few months during the summer.

Route 112 runs through the mountainside of Mt. Gassan, but I still had to drive up to 800-900m above sea level with my powerless vehicle.  That was such a tough drive.

But a good thing of this highway is there are a lot of scenic spots on the way.  It showed totally different aspects from those of the coastal area of Yamagata.

FYI:

• About Mt. Gassan: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7903.html
• About Route 112: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_National_Route_112

Lake Gassan
http://en.yamagata-info.com/kanko/murayama/historic/gasan_funsui.html

Lake Gassan
http://en.yamagata-info.com/kanko/murayama/historic/gasan_funsui.html