The night after I arrived in Tokyo, L and I took the train to Yamanashi, the countryside. L's friend's host family invited us to stay over at their place there and they took us to see some awesome sights. I love how green everything was! It was definitely very different from everything I've seen so far in Japan.
Host mom and dad's house was a pretty big, traditional Japanese home (first time being in one!). The place they live at has a very calming atmosphere. For lunch, they took us to eat Yamanashi udon :)
Host dad was a civil engineer, so he showed us a path that he made before. We were heading toward Mt. Fuji, but we stopped at this woody area to see the path that he made.
We parked in front of a really big supermarket, where we could see a clear view of Mount Fuji! I can't believe people who live there can see this everyday.
The market was one of the largest markets I've seen in Japan so far. It smelled like Safeway when we first entered, which made me nostalgic for cheap and abundant US groceries.. There were food samples there too.. I tried some very good steak, a piece of whale meat (I felt bad afterward though..), coffee, and basically anything there was.
Before heading back to the house, we stopped by a temple called Sengen, and I must admit, it was the best temple I've seen so far. Even though Kyoto has a lot of nice temples, this one was 1) not crowded 2) was old= more authentic 3) traditional-looking 4) gave me a real sense of Japanese culture. I loved this place.
