Road trip to Oshino Hakkai & Arakurayama Sengen Park for Sakura & Mt. Fuji

Early in the morning, we grouped up at Nissan rental car at Musashi Kosugi for our sakura road trip.

We arrived at Oshino Hakkai (忍野八海), which is this beautiful little village like area with beautiful sakura.

Website: http://www.vill.oshino.yamanashi.jp/8lake.html

Even when we arrived early, the parking area was almost full.

I like that this place has a traditional feel to it.

This area apparently has 8 lakes, but we did not visit all of them as our main purpose was for sakura and Mt. Fuji.

While the sky was blue, there were some clouds in the sky, so we were not able to get a clear view of Mt. Fuji.

This here is the is the 中池 which is the most popular lake there as it is the deepest lake and it is almost transparent. Hence, you can see the fishes in it.

See how clear it is!

After strolling around a bit, we had lunch at 丸天 (Maruten).

They are famous for grilled trout, which was yummy.

The carp sashimi is also one of their popular items but I must say I did not enjoy this at all. I do not like sashimi with soft bones in them. The bones are painful to chew on and the meat is tough.

We were seated by the window and had a view of the garden.

Another famous dish there is the houtou.

A view of the garden from where we were seated.

After lunch, we drove to  Arakurayama Sengen Park( 新倉山浅間公園) .

This place is highly popular and the parking area was full when we were there. Luckily, a car left and we took their spot.

You also need to queue in a long line to get up here. This is so that they can avoid crowd on the top deck. Every group is given several minutes to enjoy the view and snap some picture.

As you can see from our pictures, the sky was cloudy and the top of Mt. Fuji was blocked by clouds when we were there. This is pretty common in the day. To get a nice view of Mt. Fuji, one needs to visit early in the morning or near the evening.

Just when we thought that this was it and was ready to head home, the sky cleared up!

So we went back up for a second round.

This time, we were able to see the top of Mt. Fuji as the cloud slowly disperses.

I guess we were really lucky that day.

We waited the whole day to see the top of Mt. Fuji and it finally appeared!

Look at these beautiful pictures!

For dinner, we stopped by Sushi Hana (寿司華) on our way back. 

Website: https://tabelog.com/yamanashi/A1903/A190301/19007307/?cid=google_yoyaku

This place is fancy.

We had to wait for a few minutes to be seated but we got a nice semi-private room for the 4 of us.

J and I shared this huge platter of sushi! The sushi was fresh and good.

The meal ended with some strawberry sherbet.

 

Daiwa Roynet Hotel Chiba Station (ダイワロイネットホテル千葉駅前)

Work trip to Chiba!

Had lunch at Saizeriya while I wait for my colleague to come pick me up.

I had the hamburg with a side of spinach.

After a meeting with the clent, my colleague dropped my off nearby my hotel. We had another meeting in the area tomorrow, so we spent the night in Chiba area.

This time I am staying at Daiwa Roynet Hotel Chiba Station (ダイワロイネットホテル千葉駅前).

Website: https://www.daiwaroynet.jp/chibaekimae/

I was placed in Room 905.

The genkan area.

My room with a massage chair!!!

The bathroom.

Very nice and clean.

After checking in, I went to Chiba station to grab dinner at a ramen shop.

And also got myself some tarts for dessert form FLO, as I still had emails to catch up on.

Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris Marunouchi Store (パティスリー サダハル アオキ パリ 丸の内店)

We visited Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris Marunouchi Store (パティスリー サダハル アオキ パリ 丸の内店) and bought some macarons!

Website: https://www.sadaharuaoki.jp/marunouchi/

Lol, we also bought a macaron from Lawson to compare.

We got the caramel, sesame, cassis and I forgot what the last one here. It was one of the limited edition flavours.

We also got this limited edition pistachio tart which was absolutely delicious and so beautiful!

All I can say is that there is a reason why their macaron are pricey, it is because they are super good! Omg, cant get enough of them. I can wait to get some more next time!

Highly recommend their bakes stuffs. At their Marunouchi Store, you can also dine in. Initially, we planned to do that but there was a queue when we arrived, so we decided to just buy some back home to enjoy.

 

Tsujihan (つじ半 日本橋本店).

Brunch today is at Tsujihan (つじ半 日本橋本店).

Website: https://www.tsujihan-jp.com/

They serve this beautiful kaisen don.

We were there before they opened but there was already a queue outside. Luckily, the queue wasn't too long yet so we did not had to wait long.

While queueing, we were given these menu to decide on our orders. 

Of course, we went with the Tokujyo, which came with kani, uni and ikura!! The cost for a bowl is 3,600 JPY.

The entrance.

We were seated at the corner of the counter area and hence got a nice view of the kitchen.

Tada! Our Kaisen don. Just look at the amount of seafood!

And they also gave us some extra tai or sea bream in goma sauce on the side to be eaten with our kaisen don or with the ochazuke.

ITADAKIMASU!

There is even an instruction on the table to teach you how to enjoy the meal.

After enjoying 70% of my kaisendon, I asked the waitress for ochazuke. She will take you bowl and fill it with tai dashi for the ochazuke. Look at how creamy the broth is!

Finished everything to the last drop!

The queue has gotten very long by the time we were done eating. There at least 20 people in line. This is a very popular place despite the pandemic. I will definitely be back for more as the food was delicious!