ChiChiBu
Chichibu
A few weeks ago I didn’t have any plans for Golden Week, the few days of holiday thrown together to create a 5 day weekend. Travel mania. 70 million Japanese would be traveling. Crazy. But I heard some friends talking about going to a place with flowers. Flowers. Macro. Yes. Let’s Go.
So on Friday morning last week, I made my way over to Ikebukuro station to meet with the other cats who were going on this trip. Matt, Ruben, Francesca, Sarah and Kendra. “Pack Light” said Matt. Apparently we were going to go trekking somewhere. But “Pack Light” is not something you tell a photographer. Especially when there’s flowers involved. But I made compromises. Packed everything into my camera backpack.
The train ride there was pretty intense. About ¾ of the way to the way to Seibu Chichibu, the train stopped at a station and then started going in reverse. I have to say it was so weird. But I guess that was the end of the tracks there or we had to change direction or something.
We got to the station and walked up towards the Chichibu flower fields. From all the advertisements, it looked like the flower fields in Leiden, Holland. Been to those tulip fields and they looked amazing. We got there, and it was slightly smaller. Regardless, it was still quite beautiful. I was satisfied. And so was my camera. Walking around the premises, we decided to have some snacks on a stick for lunch. Sitting in a pine-smelling forest, we snacked.
We decided to go to the next part, the strawberry picking. As we’re looking out onto the valley and trying to figure out where the hell this place is, we remember that there’s also a Sake factory somewhere out there. So we walk back towards the station in search of the sake factory, which happened to be on the way to the strawberry picking farms.
I was convinced that we would have a tour of the factory to see how the stuff was made, but I was wrong. They did have a sake-tasting room that we were promptly invited too. This homemade stuff was pretty damn good. And pretty cheap too. So I bought two bottles of Ume (Plum) Sake and we kept spelunking through this town.
Now when I think about it, 2 miles isn’t really that far (that’s what the scale on the map suggested). If I can do a mile in about 7 minutes, so 2 miles walking should be like 30 minutes max. But the road kept on going and going.
And going and going.
So about an hour and a half after we left the Sake place, we arrived at the strawberry picking place to find out that it had been closed at 1 pm. But alas. The lady who owned the place saw a group of hungry looking foreigners and gave us our trays. Now at first we were confused. We paid 10 dollars for a tray that would fit about 5 strawberries on it. I figured out soon that not only do we pick the strawberries, we eat them right there. The tray was for the little green things. Glad I brought my appetite. Apparently Ruben did too.
It's right over there. Past that bridge. Across the valley.
So after eating our guts out, we went back out of the greenhouses to where we left our stuff. The owner lady brought out tea and bamboo shoots as snacks. She asked us how we got here and we told her we walked over. She gave us a weird look, and then asked how we’re getting back to our hotel. Upon finding out that we’d call a cab, she said “no no no no. my son is going home and he’s going that way”. We told her that it’s ok but she resisted with the perseverance of a mad old woman. A few minutes later we were in a random Japanese guys van going towards our hotel.
We found it. It was more of a woman renting out her house. But it was still sweet. Accommodated the 6 of us perfectly fine. it came out cheaper too with having more of us. So we lounged out after the day of walking, and pretty soon decided that food is an important aspect, and we desperately need it. Apparently, the staple food of this particular group going somewhere far together is Pizza, and we passed a Pizza-La (or Pizza-Ra) as some of us like to say, so we ordered that. A cheap wine run was made, and we were sitting in front of TV, around a table that was heated underneath. Cash money.
As soon as we finished our Pizza-Ra, we busted out the playing cards. There was Ume Sake to be drunk. (drinked? drank?) With the baseball game still playing on the TV, we played a game that I don’t really remember at the moment. Oh wait. Asshole. That’s the game. It was fun.
And then Pride GP came onto the TV. Pride GP is like UFC, except in a regular boxing ring without the cage. It was ridiculous. At one point, a Japanese guy was fighting a British guy who looked like he’d been taking horse steroids or something. The Japanese guy was losing, they grappled, and then he came up and pummeled the crap out of the British guy’s face. And with the last punch, a gob of blood covered the camera lens. It was so sick and so awesome at the same time. We all cringed.
The next day we woke up to go rafting. A short train ride and walk away we got to the rafting place. Our particular guide spoke great English, and as soon as we got our wetsuit bottoms on, it was time to rock. We dragged the boat down to the water and a few minutes of safety briefing later, we were in the water. It was damn cold!
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
After rafting, we went to this restaurant on the small street we walked on before. I ordered the beef noodle soup. My goodness. I have not had that beef noodle soup that tasty in a long long long time. Probably ever. Whatever favorite food you may have. This is better.
Here it is:
Before
After
Full and happy, we trekked back to the station, took the local train back to the main station, shopped for gifts for our host families and then got onto the train back to Ikebukuro. As everyone passed out, so did I, waking up at Ikebukuro station. The trip was successful IMO.
A few weeks ago I didn’t have any plans for Golden Week, the few days of holiday thrown together to create a 5 day weekend. Travel mania. 70 million Japanese would be traveling. Crazy. But I heard some friends talking about going to a place with flowers. Flowers. Macro. Yes. Let’s Go.
So on Friday morning last week, I made my way over to Ikebukuro station to meet with the other cats who were going on this trip. Matt, Ruben, Francesca, Sarah and Kendra. “Pack Light” said Matt. Apparently we were going to go trekking somewhere. But “Pack Light” is not something you tell a photographer. Especially when there’s flowers involved. But I made compromises. Packed everything into my camera backpack.
The train ride there was pretty intense. About ¾ of the way to the way to Seibu Chichibu, the train stopped at a station and then started going in reverse. I have to say it was so weird. But I guess that was the end of the tracks there or we had to change direction or something.
We got to the station and walked up towards the Chichibu flower fields. From all the advertisements, it looked like the flower fields in Leiden, Holland. Been to those tulip fields and they looked amazing. We got there, and it was slightly smaller. Regardless, it was still quite beautiful. I was satisfied. And so was my camera. Walking around the premises, we decided to have some snacks on a stick for lunch. Sitting in a pine-smelling forest, we snacked.
We decided to go to the next part, the strawberry picking. As we’re looking out onto the valley and trying to figure out where the hell this place is, we remember that there’s also a Sake factory somewhere out there. So we walk back towards the station in search of the sake factory, which happened to be on the way to the strawberry picking farms.
I was convinced that we would have a tour of the factory to see how the stuff was made, but I was wrong. They did have a sake-tasting room that we were promptly invited too. This homemade stuff was pretty damn good. And pretty cheap too. So I bought two bottles of Ume (Plum) Sake and we kept spelunking through this town.
Now when I think about it, 2 miles isn’t really that far (that’s what the scale on the map suggested). If I can do a mile in about 7 minutes, so 2 miles walking should be like 30 minutes max. But the road kept on going and going.
And going and going.
So about an hour and a half after we left the Sake place, we arrived at the strawberry picking place to find out that it had been closed at 1 pm. But alas. The lady who owned the place saw a group of hungry looking foreigners and gave us our trays. Now at first we were confused. We paid 10 dollars for a tray that would fit about 5 strawberries on it. I figured out soon that not only do we pick the strawberries, we eat them right there. The tray was for the little green things. Glad I brought my appetite. Apparently Ruben did too.
It's right over there. Past that bridge. Across the valley.
So after eating our guts out, we went back out of the greenhouses to where we left our stuff. The owner lady brought out tea and bamboo shoots as snacks. She asked us how we got here and we told her we walked over. She gave us a weird look, and then asked how we’re getting back to our hotel. Upon finding out that we’d call a cab, she said “no no no no. my son is going home and he’s going that way”. We told her that it’s ok but she resisted with the perseverance of a mad old woman. A few minutes later we were in a random Japanese guys van going towards our hotel.
We found it. It was more of a woman renting out her house. But it was still sweet. Accommodated the 6 of us perfectly fine. it came out cheaper too with having more of us. So we lounged out after the day of walking, and pretty soon decided that food is an important aspect, and we desperately need it. Apparently, the staple food of this particular group going somewhere far together is Pizza, and we passed a Pizza-La (or Pizza-Ra) as some of us like to say, so we ordered that. A cheap wine run was made, and we were sitting in front of TV, around a table that was heated underneath. Cash money.
As soon as we finished our Pizza-Ra, we busted out the playing cards. There was Ume Sake to be drunk. (drinked? drank?) With the baseball game still playing on the TV, we played a game that I don’t really remember at the moment. Oh wait. Asshole. That’s the game. It was fun.
And then Pride GP came onto the TV. Pride GP is like UFC, except in a regular boxing ring without the cage. It was ridiculous. At one point, a Japanese guy was fighting a British guy who looked like he’d been taking horse steroids or something. The Japanese guy was losing, they grappled, and then he came up and pummeled the crap out of the British guy’s face. And with the last punch, a gob of blood covered the camera lens. It was so sick and so awesome at the same time. We all cringed.
The next day we woke up to go rafting. A short train ride and walk away we got to the rafting place. Our particular guide spoke great English, and as soon as we got our wetsuit bottoms on, it was time to rock. We dragged the boat down to the water and a few minutes of safety briefing later, we were in the water. It was damn cold!
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
After rafting, we went to this restaurant on the small street we walked on before. I ordered the beef noodle soup. My goodness. I have not had that beef noodle soup that tasty in a long long long time. Probably ever. Whatever favorite food you may have. This is better.
Here it is:
Before
After
Full and happy, we trekked back to the station, took the local train back to the main station, shopped for gifts for our host families and then got onto the train back to Ikebukuro. As everyone passed out, so did I, waking up at Ikebukuro station. The trip was successful IMO.
posted by Piotr Jakubowski at 2:18 AM
1 Comments:
I really must get to that strawberry place some day... *.*
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