Nishizawa Rivine and Winery Tour

5/16/10

Sunday morning we were up at the crack of dawn, literally. We had to be on base before 5:30, which was our scheduled departure time. We had a long bus ride (3 hours or more) and traveled through Tokyo to some other part of Japan (no idea where, I tried to find it on a map but was unsuccessful). During our lunch stop at the truck stop (that's right, the truck stop) we had a great view of Mt Fuji which is still covered in snow!

The hike, describe by the guide as "6 miles that you wont even be able to tell is 6 miles" at times felt like I was clinging for my life and. This was a rigorous climb and the terrain was very rough! My calves were on fire by the time I finally got to the top (the half-way point). Throughout the hike we had to cross these bridges that were hundreds of feet (I have no idea how high but it felt really high) above rushing water, and oh yeah they bounced.

Thankfully the second part of the "hike" was mostly flat terrain and mostly downhill. A drastic difference from the front half!

After the hike we hopped back on the bus for about 40 minutes and went to a little winery in this little wine town. This winery makes a cherry blossom wine (supposedly the only winery in Japan that does this) and let me tell you how fantastic it is...AMAZING! After tasting about 10 bottles of wine, I of course decided that I needed to buy wine...4 bottles of it! Now I just need to figure out how to smuggle it home (if you get a package from me, please don't drink my wine before I get there!)

We got back on the bus for an insanely long trip home...putting us back on the base around 9pm. A long day of hiking, wine tasting, and bus riding, is not a good combination for a Sunday when you have to get up Monday morning VERY early to work!

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