This tent was fully booked by our group. We were free to eat any strawberries here~
Busy with cutting and eating of strawberries that my camera (hanging from my hand) was being neglected. Poor thing. The plastic cup and scissors were provided by the owner of the farm. (All were busy cutting and easting except for my bro. So he took photos instead. Haha.)
The caretaker plucked a few strawberries for me. I think maybe she saw that I was bad and slow at choosing one to eat. Lol. Anyway, they were very juicy and sweet. Especially the smaller ones, they were even sweeter!
This is the apple tree (still growing). The man besides is the owner of this farm and he was explaining to us the process of growing and taking care of the fruits.
Then, we were brought to the shop selling strawberry products. We bought bottles of freshly made jam (very different from the jams sold in the markets) and strawberry ice pack (or sorbet?)
There are a lot of bears ranging from age 0-10. They are so cute lo. When you attempted to throw biscuits in, they will stand up and say hi to you or ‘pray’ at you or do anything to draw your attention to throw the food at them. Haha.
Hihi~ food here please!
The bear standing at the front most is a genius. Haha. It knows how to make snapping sound with its fingernails! Cool~
Look at my stunt! Hoho~
After this, we had free time to shop outside the bear ranch at the shopping street.
The mountain behind us is a dormant volcano. No one knows when it will erupt. It just keeps emitting steam. I bought the hat from a 1050 yen shop on the street. It was quite cheap as it is from china. Haha.
Rock melon flavored ice cream. I forgot to take a shot before eating. Haha. Special treat for tastebuds~
For lunch time, we were brought to the other end of the street to have bbq or teppanyaki. We had a very early lunch (11+am Jap timing meaning 10+am in sg.. so still not very hungry) as we need to travel for around 3 hours to the next destination.
Their way of cooking is putting all ingredients layers by layers on the pan. The order from the bottom is: butter, vegetables, meat, vegetables, seafood then vegetables again. Let it 'simmers' for some while before eating. The purpose of putting vegetables in between layers is to allow its natural sweetness to be absorbed by the meat/seafood.3rd stop – Otokoyama Sake Brewery and Museum
We were briefed on the history, brewing process etc. After that, we were asked to go for free tasting of 4 types of sake. Preferred the first 2 types as there were sweetness while the others were quite dry.
The sake is very popular worldwide due to its natural underground water from a snow mountain nearby and the cold climate. The underground water is really cooling (like ice water wor) and many Japaneses and tourist came here to collect the ever-flowing water as it is well-known for its life prolonging properties. If I never remember wrongly, there are negative ions in the water, which are good for health.
We were told to queue here to collect the 'miracle' water from the tap. Lol.
View of the city from hotel room.
Waiting for the traffic lights to turn green.
There were a lot stalls and street performances. So happening and lively~
While we were shopping in the departmental store, my bro went to take more photos outside.
McDonalds at the back (they have pork burgers~), cool uncle on a 3-wheeled bike in the front. He didn't ask the uncle to pose for photo, just happened to capture this into the camera. The bike is cool~ Haha.
Mos Burger. The pricing is slightly more expensive for the fast food there. KFC is also available there, but I forgot to take down photo. Zzz.
There were many bicycles parked along the streets. Almost every bike has a basket attached in the front and some weren't even chained up. So weird. Aren't they worried about being stolen? After observing for sometime, I guessed they had some security system for the bicycle. After you have parked your bicycle, there is a key for you to switch off something (like switching off the engine for the bike). I wonder whether it is really engine powered or it is only a trigger for the security system? Haha.
Sorry for dark pic. That guy standing, in striped polo tee, is our tour guide. The chefs were cooking for us. I think. Lol.
gyoza~ 1 person is entitled to 1 plate along with a bowl of ramen.
But for us, 4 people will share 2 instead as our tour guide thought we will be super full if 1 for 1. Zzz. Quite true la cos after dinner, there was hardly space for snacks from the fast food restaurants or roadside stalls. So sad.
Crispy outside, juicy and tender inside! Oiishi~
a big bowl of miso ramen! The soup base is superb~ the ramen is so Q~ the pork is so tender~ look at the not fully cooked egg yoke! Nice~ the seaweed is fresh too~ omg, I’m so hungry now.
Free and easy time again. It was 6+pm (jap time) after we finished eating.
We went to their pharmacy type of shops like Watsons/Guardian here, convenient stores etc but we never went to their shopping centers as the items were not cheap. Haha. Anyway, most shops closed at 8pm, which was less than 2 hours for us to shop. So we rather explored the place than to shop. A pity that we never saw any beer house or bar/pub along the way, maybe we hadn't searched for it properly. Haha.
We came across a street dance festival for the youngsters. It was so crowd here, it was like a carnival where there were food (bbq stuff mostly but was too full to try!), music, etc. There were many supporters (family and friends) cheering for the various groups, making the atmosphere so high~ the teenagers' costumes were really those for performances - shiny and outstanding - and they really danced well.
After staying there for about ½ hour, we went back to hotel to rot. Lol. Really nothing to do outside on the streets. Like I said earlier, if we found beer house etc, it won't be so bored. Haha.
Street name where our hotel was located at. Time was ard 8pm (jap time) and we had reached our hotel. Damn early right? Haha.
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*Add-ons
- their tv programs are not friendly at all. Lol. Only cities have English programs like BBC (but sometimes it was being dubbed in Japanese =.=). So most of the time, I only watched actions (especially for those western movies dubbed in Japanese. Haha), interpreted what the show was about from some chinese subtitles and their education programs for kids cos got teach English~ lol. But it’s true that their variety shows are quite hilarious!
Labels: vacations
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