Tour to discover the charm part1
I am Shunya Saiki of Yamanashi Gakuin
University.
Our trip started in the first floor of Kofu
City Hall where we gathered together at convenience store named Lawson. We’ve
introduced ourselves to the group and proceeded to head to Houtou Kaikan with
the bus provided by Kofu. Participants also received a gift bag where we
received water that was bottled from Kofu and miscellaneous flyers that held
information about the events that were going to occur in Kofu.
Houtou
Kaikan was the place to experience the making and the taste of houtou. This
food is made with glutinous dough, where it is flattened into a square, rolled
until thin and folded inwards to create noodles to be used for later. It is
then cooked in a broth for five minutes and eaten. Houtou was very famous
during when Takeda Shingen was in rule as it is both easy to make and is
filling despite the amount of glutinous dough that was used during the making
of Houtou. It also conveyed a message to his fellow soldiers to “keep up the
good work!”
We were taken to the workshop where houtou
was made. We were asked to place our items in a locker, wash our hands and put
an apron on. The workshop smelled of wood and flour where in the midst of that
appeared our instructor. We were distributed around the dusty, golden wooden
tables where flour, rollers and glutinous blocks were placed. We were asked to
attempt to flatten the blocks as much as possible to avoid any cracking during
the cooking process. These blocks were no more than ten centimeters but were
able to feed three. We flattened the dough until the instructor was satisfied
and folded the dough into thirds to cut it. The knife used called
udon kiri is not something I have much
practice with so it was difficult to cut the dough into noodles.
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The other folks and I attempting to make
houtou…
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The
noodles that we’ve made is being cooked along with miso and assorted pumpkins.
It was very delicious!
When we were
about to leave, Mr. Maruyama of Houtou Kaikan came to greet and thank us for
experiencing our food.
We then went to
Shosenkyo Gorge, where is one of Japan’s most beautiful parks. There are hiking
roads that span about four-kilometer-long that follows the Arakawa River. The
most spectacular parts were the river itself and the Sengataki Waterfall. Above
the waterfall, there are assorted restaurants, souvenirs and an observation
point. Shosenkyo is mostly visited during the autumn season as one can see many
palettes of color from the trees.
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Picture taken at the tourist spot!
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| Further down we go to see the… |
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…the beautiful Sengataki waterfall!
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You
can see the Arakawa River flowing downwards along the gorge. It was quite an
amazing scene!
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