Short Trip : Day 3 in Kiyosato, Yamanashi

Short Trip : Day 3 (22 Nov, 2008) in Kiyosato, Yamanashi.
We had plan to visit to toy and picture book museum in Karuizawa, but I heard from Fiona that Kiyosato (Yamanashi Pref.) is not so far from Karuizawa, so we just changed our plan, then we started to go to Kiyosato where I wanted to go one day!

Actually I was sleepy and was almost going to sleep, but AJ woke me up every time when the beautiful scene appeared to take photos.
These mountains are called Yatsugatake, they had snow on top and looked very beautiful!!

Fiona told me that in the middle of way to Kiyosato, there is fun farm called "Takizawa Bokujo (farm)", so we tried to go there!
Here it is, Takizawa farm! It's like Western farm, isn't it!

Just after saw this tractor, my son wanted to ride on!
Here is a little farmer!

Even in the very cold weather, my husband wanted to try to taste fresh ice cream there, lol
I can't believe his big appetite, as always...

I also tried to ride on a tractor, like a child...

There were some farm animals, sweetie said "what's this smell??? it's stinky!" (lol)

But soon he became friends with goat.
The goat licked his hand and he was so excited, but most excited part was... when he saw that goat had sh*t (lol, sorry, I don't know exact and correct word of it...) just in front of him!
He so laughed to see them in person! That was funny!

After Takizawa farm, we drove up to Kiyosato, and here is the view from Kiyosato.
Can you see the Mt. Fuji far behind???

Here are some photos of Seisen-Ryo in Kiyosato.
The view from there was nice, but not so interested in other facilities (only my opinion, though!)...

There are some restaurants, accommodation, factory of jam and bread, etc... also a farm.

We drove down to around the station and ate Soba, but it was not nice... (lol)

Then we really missed Kastanie's meals...

Around the station, there were very quiet, most of shops were closed and I even felt sad atmosphere...
Because the winter is coming???

On the way home, we could see Mt. Fuji again.
Anyway, we drove back to our home safely, thanks to hubby.
It was very very nice trip! We would love to go there again to see them!

As soon as I arrived at home, I realized how tired I was.
So now I have been recovering, actually I have backache from the last day of our trip, so I will go to see a doctor tomorrow.
I hope it's just a muscular pain...

Thank you for your visit and thanks for your comments!

I appreciate for them a lot.

Take care and Happy Stitching!

Short Trip : Day 2 in Karuizawa, Nagano

Short trip : Day 2 (21, Nov, 2008) in Karuizawa.
We stayed at House of Karuizawa, and our room was like this.
We were planning to stay with Fiona during the day (the first day), so booked this room just for bath and bed, so my husband suggested me to find more cheaper hotel, like business hotel (lol), though I wanted to stay small pension or cottage in the woods, so I just decided and reserved this room! :)

But to be honest, being with a little child, it was a bit inconvenient for not to have a bath and toilet in the each room...

This is a beautiful scene from the dining room in the morning.
It was so nice and fresh morning!! How romantic to have breakfast as seeing such a beautiful scene!

In the morning haze, we played a lot in the nature, just beautiful, isn't this?

This is the pension where we stayed and me feeling morning breeze(?), actually it wasn't breeze, it was really windy and cold day!!

My son was so excited to play with fallen leaves, he carried a bunch of leaves from here and there again and again, saying "I'm working hard now!!" :)

Just looked up, there was a beautiful autumn sky.

I walked around in the woods, it was so romantic and I was so impressed to be there.

Beautiful autumn colours, I looked down and took a photo of my feet. I like this shot!

After we left our pension, we went to big outlet shopping mall, and bought LEGO for my son, Jeans for hubby, and I bought some clothes. We were not supposed to go there for shopping, so we couldn't buy more...

And it was a SO windy and cold day, my son was almost crying so we finished shopping soon and after that we went to Fiona's restaurant again.

Restaurants in the outlet mall were full of people, and we didn't want to spend money for not good food, so we decided to go to Kastanie again, even though we had plan to go there for dinner, too!
(Food's photos are on the previous post...)

Here is the wine (from South Australia) that Minoru and Fiona presented us as early Christmas present!

How sweet of them, we were so impressed by their warm hearts!!
I couldn't drink because I had to drive down to the hotel, but my husband was satisfied by it and seemed so happy!

Here is a photo of my best friends, also a best couple!

We had to leave Karuizawa next day, so we hug and said good bye...
They were so nice to us, thank you so much for them from the bottom of our heart!

We will be back to Karuizawa as soon as we can!

I will report about Day 3 (our last day), later!
Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your comments!!

Take care and Happy Stitching!

Short Trip : Day 1 in Karuizawa, Nagano

20 Nov, 2008. We left home before 7 am to go to Karuizawa, Nagano Pref. to see my dear friend Fiona and her husband!
I have been depressed these past few weeks somehow, and so my mum and husband suggested me to short trip to change my feeling a bit.

Here is a photo of Bay Bridge in Yokohama.

We stopped to take a rest and had some food at parking area.
My sweetie asked me so many times where we are going to, and I answered him "We are going to see Fiona today", he has met her once at IKEA so he was excited to heard of it!!

Here is a photo of view of Mt. Fuji from a car.
I forgot where about we could see it from....

Ohhhh.... thanks for safe drive hubby, we finally arrived to Nagano!
It took about 4 hours 30 minutes to get there, here is a photo of Mr. Asama which is an active volcano.
The weather was very fine! Yahoo!

Fiona and I had promised to meet up at her restaurant at noon, and finally we could see again!!!
We have met at IKEA by chance about a year ago, though it has been about 10 years since the last time we formally saw each other!

She could have day off for us, so we all had lunch at her restaurant Kastanie, we talked a lot and had delicious lunch! That was so fun!!

After lunch, she took us to her new house, and she also took us for a walk to big park for my son.
Beautiful coloured leaves and a trail, aren't they?

We almost have no chance to play in such a beautiful nature in our city, so my son was so excited to play with fallen leaves!
That was so nice to see him playing in nature!

After we back her home, we had cozy time there, had tea, talked a lot about our old stories, etc...
Fiona and I were flat mate (share mate) in Sydney when I was there, but we lived together only for 2 months, but we became very good friends!

We had Yakiniku (Korean style BBQ) for dinner!
My husband wanted to have alcohol, but I was not sure how to get to the pension where we were going to stay, so he had to be patient! :(

Our first day was so fun, thanks to Fiona, I really enjoyed my time!

I will report our Day 2 and Day 3, later!

Thanks for your visit!

Take care + Happy Stitching!

Kastanie - My Favourite Restaurant in Karuizawa!

Kastanie my favourite restaurant in Karuizawa, is also my dear friend Fiona and her husbands' restaurant.
It was the first time to visit there, but we really became big fan of this restaurant!!
Everything was just fantastic!!!

軽井沢駅のすぐ近くに位置するお洒落なレストラン、カスターニエ。
ずっとずっと行きたかった、私の親友夫婦のレストランです。

We had lunch there on our first day of trip, and have ordered some dishes and shared them.
The Salad we ordered was SO fresh and I've never had such fresh veges before! Tomatos were so sweet and so delicious!
Here is Shrimp & Bacon Pizza.

ランチは軽めのピザやパスタなど・・・
でも、サラダからしてこんなに新鮮で美味しい野菜は初めて！というほど美味しかったです。

I forgot the exact name, but it was like taco rice.
We mixed all and had them, it was also yum!

タコライスだったかな？名前をちょっと忘れてしまったけれど、とっても美味しかったです！
タコスのライス版みたいな感じかな？

Here is Prawn Risotto.
This is my husband's favourite! He loved this so much, he seemed so happy while he was having this dish!! He said, the smells of grilled prawn and cheese are mixed and they turned this out very deliciously!

エビのリゾットは、最高！
グリルされたエビの香ばしさとチーズの香りが絶妙なハーモニーを生み出していました。
お味もとっても上品で、それぞれの素材の味が引き立っています。

For dessert, mmmm.... I couldn't make up my mind to the last, but I ordered Chocolate Tarte this time,

デザートも、美味しそうなものばかり・・・　
迷った末に今回はチョコレートのタルトにしました。

and my husband ordered Gateau au Chocolat.
Both were very nice!!

こちらは、ガトーショコラ。どちらもとても美味しかったです！


We all have ordered Caffe Latte, and they came with lovely coffee art...
This is the one I was very looking forward to see in person!
For hubby who is wearing glasses, lovely, isn't it!

私がずっと楽しみにしていたもののひとつがこちら、カフェアート（←正式な名前は知らないのですが・・・）です！


I was wearing knit cap, so is this bear also wearing cap or hat?? too cute!

私のは可愛いクマさん。
もしかしてニット帽を被っていたから、このクマも帽子を被っているのかな？



This is seal for Fiona, my son saw this and he was smiling and enjoyed to see them so much!

そして、お友達のフィオナには、アザラシ。
ほっぺがぷっくりして可愛い～。 カフェアートには子供も大喜びでした！


Here are some photos of Day 2's lunch at Kastanie...

We had plan to visit Kastanie again for dinner, though we wanted to have cozy time with delicious lunch, so we decided to go there for lunch, too!
We ordered Anchovy & Garlic Pizza and some other meals...
(Oops! again I miss spelled in the photo...)
Can you see the little red tin behind the dish? It's "Shichimi" (a ground mixture of red pepper and aromatic spices), they recommended us to use it for Pizza instead of Tabasco!
My husband loves Shichimi, and I also tried it and it was very good!

二日目のランチも結局カスターニエに・・・
あまりに前日のランチが美味しかったので、他のところへ入って失敗するのも嫌だし、美味しいこと分かっているからまた行こう！ということになりました。
雰囲気もとってもリラックスできるところです。
ピザのお皿の後ろに七味が写っていますが、タバスコの代わりにピザに七味をかけて食べるのが意外に美味しいということで、試してみましたところ、本当に美味しかったです！

And for dessert, we ordered Pannacotta that was also taste good.
My husband ordered Prawn Risotto again, he loves it!

前日とは少し違ったメニューで・・・　でもやはりまたエビのリゾットを。
デザートは今回は二人ともパンナコッタに。とってもまろやかで美味しかったです！

And I ordered Cappucino and hubby ordered Caffe Latte!
Again, there were sweet arts on the surface of coffee, they were too lovely I couldn't have them for a long time, just was looking at and smiling! :)

今回私は、カプチーノを。
またまた可愛いアートが施され・・・　飲んでしまうのが勿体無くてしばらく眺めていました。

We again visited Kastanie for Day 2's dinner! :)
We didn't want to waste our money for not good meals out there and we were sure that we can have delicious meals at Kastanie, so we went there three times in 2 days!

二日目のディナーももちろんカスターニエへ・・・
私は今夜はドライバー役なのでアルコールは我慢。

ディナーはグリル料理などが出ると聞いていたので、とても楽しみにしていました！

I took some photos, but photos don't show justice, so I just share some photos...
Here is my Apple Tarte for dessert, and my partner ordered ice cream.

ディナー時の照明の加減で、なかなかうまく写真が撮ることが出来なかったので、少ししかお料理の写真がないのですが、オーダーしたチキンは最高！！！でした。

本当に美味しくて、私も子供も普段は少食なのですが、ペロリと平らげてしまいました。
あぁぁぁ、本当に美味しかった～。

写真は、アップルタルトです。シナモンが利いていてこちらもまた絶品。

We've got so sweet surprise!
Minoru and Fiona presented us this red wine as early Christmas present!!
How sweet of them, we were so impressed, and wine which Minoru's recommended one (from South Australia) was very rich and nice!

途中、親友夫婦から思いがけないプレゼントが・・・
ワインを飲みたがっていた主人に、「少し早いけれど、クリスマスプレゼントだよ！」と南オーストラリア産のワインを一本、プレゼントに頂きました。
嬉しさと、驚きで感極まってしまいました。ニクイ演出ですね！

We highly recommend you to visit Kastanie if you go to Karuizawa!!
I'm sure you will never fail, everything is so yum!!!
My husband is gourmet and often criticize about meals, but he was totally satisfied everything at Kastanie!!!

I saw his full of happy smiley face during having meals after a long time!

もし軽井沢へ行かれるなら本当におすすめ！（カスターニエ）

本当に全部美味しかったから・・・
食事の最初から最後まで通して美味しいお店ってなかなか出会えないし、本当にお勧めします。
場所も駅から遠くないし、雰囲気も本当にゆったりリラックスできるお店です。


They told me that they have plan to make an English web site, too.
Karuizawa is only one hour from Tokyo by bullet train, so please visit there!!!
There is also a big outlet shopping mall, too!

アウトレットにも歩いて行けて立地もナイス！
スタッフの皆さんも本当に素敵な方ばかりで、本当に楽しく素敵な食事を堪能できました！
また後で更新する旅の写真の中にも、レストランの様子が出てくるので、そちらでも雰囲気がつかめるかな？

I will report and share my trip photos later!