Enzan and Yaizu: The Japan Tour Takes a Twist

Derek and I loved our time in Tokyo. The food was immaculate, and the city was great for wandering. However, the onslaught of foreign tourists was palpable. Lining up for food was weighing on our souls. We wanted the authentic, non-curated Japan. Inspired by my successful day trip to Fuling, Derek and I once again took to ChatGPT and asked it to find the most random town that no tourist would ever go to. And that is how we ended up in Enzan, Japan.

But first, we went to Mount Fuji. On the bus ride there we saw helicopters containing this forest fire. Random.

We were dropped off at Chureito Pagoda, known for its scenic Fuji views. Unfortunately, Derek and I were slow to get out of bed and clouds had obscured the mountain by the time we made it to the pagoda.

The pagoda still looked great. I will admit, I was definitely a little bummed by our lack of Fuji though.

We grabbed some udon. Note: said udon gave both of us brief food poisoning. More on that later.

Once we finished our meal the views had cleared dramatically. Hello Mount Fuji.

This is the level of effort I'm putting in to get these photos for my avid readers.

Fuji was incredible. The iconic silhouette with its snow capped peak circled by rose tinted sunset clouds was a wonderful sight.

After soaking in the Mount Fuji views, Derek and I took another public bus and then a train to get to Enzan. We were staying in one of the two hotels in the town. This hotel was actually a ryokan, a traditional Japanese style of hotel. The ryokan seemed to be primarily operated by one old 4 foot 9 Japanese lady who laughed every time we walked in. She was so amused by just the sight of us. Maybe she was laughing because she knew we were about to have the coldest night of sleep in our lives. Instead of noting the lack of proper heating or insulation, we immediately fell in love with our ryokan. It really did feel like we were in Japan. This was not a hotel for foreign tourists.

We wandered Enzan's abandoned streets (it was 7pm) until we found an open katsu place.

Then we enjoyed some Japanese wine. Apparently Enzan is known for its vineyards.

Our ryokan also had an onsen! Derek and I (especially Derek) have become major fans of the onsen. The feeling of wearing your nice little robe and tucking yourself into bed exhausted from soaking in hot water for thirty minutes is unbeatable.

Over the course of the night I visited the bathroom four times thanks to that Fuji udon, alternating between toilet trips and curling in the fetal position to maintain warmth.

Eventually we got out of our floor mats to explore the town. Our day in Enzan also happened to be my birthday (January 14th).

This was our first time seeing Enzan in the light. It was a wonderful town surrounded by a mixture of rolling hills and larger mountains.

We went on a hike to get a view over the town.

We could even see Mount Fuji from the summit of the local hill we climbed. Great unexpected birthday treat.

We finished our hike at this tranquil temple.

We were starving after our morning hike, so we sifted through the three options on Google Maps and settled on this lovely little cafe. Derek and I were an oddity when we walked in. A very kind Japanese lady helped us order. The food was delicious. We ordered a second round (pork chop pictured below) which was even better than the first.

When Derek visited the bathroom to battle the remainder of the udon from the day prior, the owner approached me and we struck up a conversation. Naturally, he led with asking why we were in Enzan. I tried explaining to him that an artificial intelligence model suggested his town as the most random place to visit on our journey to Kyoto, but it seemed lost on him. When I broadened my explanation to "The Internet" he seemed placated but still somewhat confused.

Then he learned it was my birthday. The entire restaurant sang happy birthday and clapped. Derek was in the bathroom for all of this. Upon his return to the table, we were given free coffee, free sodas (the radioactive-looking drink pictured below), and a free and very tasty birthday cheesecake. And then they clapped and sang happy birthday a second time.

After spending Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's alone it was nice to have a little pomp and circumstance for my special day. This was definitely a top meal of the trip. The food was excellent and the hospitality was extraordinary.

Sufficiently stuffed, Derek and I hopped on the first of three trains on our four hour journey from Enzan, a random mountain town, to Yaizu, a random tuna fishing port.

On the way we watched Lost in Translation, a favorite movie of mine which takes place in Tokyo. It does have one scene in Kyoto though. More on that later ...

We arrived in Yaizu. In true Japanese fashion, there were vending machines selling the locally sourced Yaizu tuna. After our udon incident we decided to steer clear of the vending machine raw fish.

Derek booked us one of my favorite hotels of the entire trip - a renovated fishing gear warehouse turned into industrial lofts. We were legitimately in an industrial shipyard. This was the view out of our door.

With the help of Google Translate, we asked the guy at the front desk for his top restaurant choice and hunted it down. This was one of our weaker performances. Throughout the entire meal we struggled to sit on our provided floor cushions. We both struggled with our lack of hip mobility. Derek proceeded to order $20 worth of pure raw tuna and ate it all with some sort of katsu Worcestershire sauce. When she learned of this violation, the waitress went "oh" and shook her head. We tried to remedy the situation by ordering onigiri, but in a miscommunication we not only received a very different onigiri than expected - we received four of them.

We'll get em next time.

The next day we set out to explore Yaizu by day. As expected, there were many fishing boats in the harbor.

Taking in the big city life of Yaizu.

Derek navigated us to the local fish market.

We found a sushi restaurant and cleaned six plates of sushi. We tried two new types of fish: kinmeda and yellow jack. That piece of fatty bluefin tuna by Derek's left hand was the single best bite of sushi I had all trip. This place was awesome.