This road covers three different prefectures: Aichi, Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures.
I brought my parents on this road trip, so it's really friendly for those who don't want to do too much walking or have knee issues.
Here we go!
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We stayed at The Royal Park Canvas Nagoya the night before.
Our car rental shop is one street away. Perfect!
We picked car up from Nissan Rent-a-car - 9am
Nagoya Station Sakuradori-guchi
The outlet is really small so we felt the need to quickly take off as soon as we were handed the keys. We drove to a nearby supermarket (MaxValu: Google map location) so that we could rearrange our luggages, set up our trusty iPod music system, and fix our iPhone GPS on the phone holder).
I initially had grand plans to visit Korankei and check out the Toyota Exhibition Hall & Museum, on top of exploring the southern bay of Lake Hamanako (which is where we’re staying).
When I calculated our travel times, I realised that it’s too ambitious, so we decided to take it slow and easy.
Interior © Tabelog: user - eat and run
Lunch @ Matsu-no-ya
松の家
静岡県浜松市西区舘山寺町2306-4
Tel: 053-487-0108
10:30am-3pm, 5-8:30pm. Closed on Tue
Arrived: 10:30am
Matsu-no-ya feels like a neighborhood diner. Cosy. We're here for their seasonal oyster dish.
Kaki Kaba-don 牡蠣カバ丼
The highly sought after Kaki-Kaba-don 牡蠣カバ丼 is only available in winter. The freshly shucked oysters were stir-fried with a teriyaki-like marinate which wasn't too sweet - great! The huge oysters were deliciously creamy. The bowl had so many of them that the rice was almost hidden from view.
Kaki Fry (fried oysters) かきフライ
The Kaki Fry (fried oysters) かきフライ had a beautiful breaded crust. Til today, my parents often reminiscence about the oysters from Matsu-no-ya.
Kanzanji Ropeway
かんざんじロープウェイ
9am-5:30pm.
Arrived: 12noon.
Kanzanji Ropeway is Japan’s only ropeway that travels over a lake.
As the cable car travels up, one can capture views of the nearby amusement park.
Further up, at the observatory which sits on top of Mount Okusa, one can appreciate amazing panaramic views of Lake Hamana-ko.
There is an Orgel museum, and a gift shop which sells musical boxes dishing out popular tunes from both Western and Japanese television and cartoon shows. If you’re interested, you can assemble your own musical box here.
Stay @ Hoshino Resorts KAI Enshu
Tel: +81 50-3786-1144
Hoshinoya Resorts KAI is one of the best places we’ve stayed at in Japan. It is also one of the more expensive hotels we have chosen so far.
The room is spacious, the view from our beds is stupendous, the meals are inspiring, delicious and innovative. Furthermore, there is a library for hotel guests to read, or participate in a tea tasting class which had a fun twist to it - guess the tea.
内風呂 © Hoshinoya KAI
The onsen is impeccably designed with wood. When the weather is this cold (it was January, and the winds were howling the day before), nothing beats a hot soak in the tub.
Somehow, this stay turned out to be the unintended highlight of the trip.
While waiting to check in:
Huai: “What’s the name of this hotel?”
Eka: “Let’s see. Hoshinoya KAI. Yup."
Huai: “Wow! You booked us a room at Hoshinoya?”
Me: “yaaaaaa.. it looked great on the Hotels.com website, furthermore, there aren’t much options to have dinner around here. So I thought that we stayed at a place with meals provided.” *shrugs shoulders*
Huai: “OMGGG. Hoshinoya!” (she proceeds to jump around).
Me: ….
Huai: “Hoshinoya is a reputable resort chain that provides high-end accommodation and memorable experience.”
Me: “Ooohhh!” (proceeds to make a mental note that this is a good place to stay at next time)
My parents: *four thumbs up* “Will the rest of our accommodation be like this?”
Me: “Ermm…” :/
Tomorrow: time for some fruit fun! [Click on me for tomorrow's itinerary]