Yamanshi by Bike - Day II

So we arrived in Katsunuma map, wine country, and tourist country. The orchards were beautiful, and the grapes looked delicious moblog. Tomoe would be leaving that night to go back to Tokyo for work on Friday, so we mistakenly tried to "fit a lot in" to the rest of the day. Unfortunately, when you try to fit a lot in, you miss way too much. We were in the "city" for most of that day, where it was hot and there were lots of hills, with little rewarding scenery.

Since we were there, I convinced Tomoe to go to do some wine tasting moblog moblog. There is free wine tasting all around the city, but that would require riding our bikes more in the heat and hills, so we opted to pay a thousand yen or so for access to tourist joint that had gathered hundreds of brands from around the city.

The wine was crap, but that's OK, we didn't loose too much money, though in the end we decided it would have been much nicer to buy a 2000 yen bottle and sit and drink it on a nice bench overlooking the city, rather than sample hundreds of 500 yen per bottle wines. Live and learn.

Tomoe left for Tokyo moblog, and I headed back to the tourist joint for the bath, which was pleasantly affordable at only 600.. or was it 800 yen? Anyway, after a day of bike riding, it was well worth it, and what's more, it was an outdoor bath over looking the city from the top of a mountain. (actually it was called "Grape Hill") I spent an hour in the bath, than another hour in the break room filling up on free ice water.

When the break room closed, I set out to find a place to pitch my tent for the night. I found a nice little temple a couple hundred meters away, so didn't even have to break a sweat riding my bike. I was all freshened up from the bath and ready for a good nights sleep, but the inside of my tent moblog was like a sauna, and the mosquitos gathering outside smelled blood. It was not a pleasant night.

The next morning view made up for it. I was packed up by 7:00 moblog, and headed down to a nice grape vineyard where I would spend the next couple hours painting.

While I was there, a peach farmer stopped by to chat, I learned a lot I wish I had the time and patience to repeat here, but... Anyway, he left after chatting for a half hour or so. A couple minutes later he drove up with a bag of fresh grapes and other fruits and vegetables moblog. My dream of a grape breakfast was realized, and there were still some left over for lunch.

I packed up my painting tools, and started to explore more of the local farms. Along the way I was given even more grapes moblog, so now I had my dinner moblog and nighttime snack... and Saturday's breakfast.

I spent Saturday night in much the same way I did Friday night, with the exception of the wine tasting fiasco. Another one hour bath... one of the greatest things about being on the road in Japan is that everywhere you go, there is a great bath... every night.

The next morning moblog was I woke up early enough to pack up my and Tomoe's bikes (she had left hers near the station) and meet her on the tracks moblogwhere we caught a train to Nagano.

NOTE:
If anyone is interested, the first or second weekend of October (you'll have to confirm this yourself) is a huge festival where 500 yen will get you a bottomless wine glass. good at any winery in the city. On top of that, grapes are all you can eat- for free.

It's pretty crowded I would imagine, but it's only a two hour train ride from Tokyo to Katsunuma Budokyo station on the Chyuo line, and the grapes are awesome!