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Tomoko picking a persimmon

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Fuji-san

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Fuji-san, Tomoko-san and me

English translation follows. Don’t worry. =)

(snip: corrupted Japanese translation)

The trip to Yamanashi was so much fun!

Tomoko kindly invited me. Last night, I slept at her house. Dinner
was a delicious curry. I also had three sweet mandarins. It was my
first time to drink dried plum tea. That was delicious. Everything was
wonderful! Her mother and father were very very nice. I think they
made their conversation easier to understand because I’m still bad at
Japanese. We talked about various things. For example, fruits
(Tomoko really likes mangoes; I should remember that),
education… It was fun. After dinner, I had a bath. That felt good.
Because I needed to wake up early for today’s trip, I slept early (and
well).

We had cake for breakfast, which made me quite full. We went to Odakyu
Tama Center on a bus. Tomoko was surprised that I knew how to ride
the bus. She said it was cool. After we changed to the tour bus, I
fell asleep. (I think I had not yet really woken up.)

First, we went to a winery. Although I don’t really drink wine, I
tried different kinds of wine. I didn’t like the strong one. The sweet
one was better. I liked the cheeses, though. Smoked cheese was the
most delicious, so I bought a present. (No matter how much Tomoko
tried to dissuade me, I felt very grateful, so I really wanted to buy
a gift.)

From there, we went to a kimchi store. We tried kimchi (prepared by
Koreans), flavored garlic, and other things. We’d been eating since
the beginning! It was good that we then went to a mountain and did
some hiking. Stairs were carved into the rock, which was wonderful. It
was a bit scary. It looked like it was easy for us to fall. We got a
bit tired and parched… but the view was so beautiful, so we kept on
going. It was good that we climbed!

After this exercise, we each picked one persimmon from a tree, then
went shopping. We ate persimmons, grapes, and other things. (Waa. I
think I gained weight.) After we were full, we went to a crystal
museum. The crystal garden was beautiful. We were also taught how to
distinguish crystals. (I don’t remember anything.)

Lastly, we went to a lake. Mt. Fuji could be seen. It was so
beautiful! It was like a postcard. We also went to a famous
confectionary, and I bought a gift.

Today was so much fun. I am much obliged to Tomoko and her family, and
am glad I went.

I think if you’re talking about Japan tours, it’s eating,
sight-seeing, eating, shopping, eating, exercising… ;)

(Waa. If I don’t translate this to English, my family and friends
won’t understand…)