Glamping Under Mt. Fuji: Exploring Shizuoka’s Nature, Culture, and Green Tea Traditions in Japan

My last few days in Japan were spent Glamping Under Mt. Fuji and Exploring Shizuoka’s Nature, Culture, and Green Tea Traditions.

Book your stay at Satoyama: https://www.mtfujiecotours.com/

Special thanks to the Shizouka Tourism Board for helping me plan this trip and to Masanori Shintani.

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro to Shizouka

CREDITS:
Produced by Alice Ford and AIW Productions on location in Japan

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[Music] my next stop on this solo journey through Japan is the prefecture of shizuka located on Japan’s Pacific coast and home to one of Japan’s largest lakes and Mount Fuji the tallest volcano in Japan this morning I’m on the bullet train heading from Kyoto to shisuka where where we are going to be doing a lot of cool activities now this train isn’t the fastest in the world but it is in the top five we’re going to reach this other area in less than 2 hours which is a really convenient and fast way to travel around [Music] Japan this is some of the coolest architecture I have seen in Japan for a lot of visitors coming to this area this is exactly where you’ll start the Mount Fuji world heritage center but there are certainly lots of other reasons to go beyond this when you come to this region from Community Based tourism to Eco tours and that’s exactly what we’re going to see while we’re here the center is full of interactive exhibits where you can experience Mount Fuji while walking around its interior cylindrical pathway so even if you aren’t going to be walking on or near Mount Fuji you can still experience what it would be like if you got to and from its observation deck at the top you can on clear days have a wonderful view of Mount Fuji itself but this is definitely a great place to start on your trip here to shenuka [Music] the cultivation of green tea here in Japan goes back more than a thousand years it was brought here by Buddhist monks from China and ever since has been made into a form of tradition here with green tea ceremonies and many different varieties grown all over the country here in this region there is a special kind of green tea one that’s expensive and drunk at ceremonies and given as gifts and there used to be over a hundred farmers in this area that grew it now there’s just seven it could be a dying tradition here and I’m here to visit one of the farmers and get a little bit of a tour of his tea farm and try some for ourselves the tea is called Goro it’s one of the highest class of Japanese teas shade grown and handpicked it has a long tradition as being something shared at special occasions I met with nooran an award-winning farmer who has been growing this tea and others for most of his life just like his father before him [Music] most teas are now picked by machines these cut off the top oneir of the plants sticks and all but this tea is carefully picked by hand cutting only the leaves the Brewing of tea should be done carefully something time has forgotten in the Western World I first tried a variety of CA green tea which is a more common and regularly drunk tea and then I got to try the guuro noburo son carefully added a measured poure of warm water to our cups making sure it was the perfect temperature of 170° adding one part of leaves and 1.2 Parts water just enough to cover the leaves themselves this can be repeated five times with the same leaves and unlike American Starbucks ventes this tea is in small cups it’s sipped and enjoyed while conversing about life and enjoying each other’s company the tea leaves can also be eaten by adding a little soy sauce and some Bonito flakes for taste these are full of antioxidants and vitamins too the guuro is harvested just once per year and as of my visit this Farmer’s son didn’t want to carry on this tradition choosing to go to the big city instead but he hopes that his grandchild will because as of the filming of this video he is the youngest Farmer in the region at around 60 years old and he could also be the last [Music] [Music] I’m staying in a guest house tonight with a pretty epic view that’s Mount Fuji behind me it’s quite possibly the most famous natural landmark in all of Japan and its import not only culturally but naturally goes back millennia and it’s not just a mountain it’s a volcano the tallest one in the country people flock here in the summer months to climb up to its peak and for centuries it has been revered as not only an important thing to bring life to the surrounding Countryside here with the snow melt that the and water that it provides to local rivers and streams but it’s in its spiritual importance as well the this place is called satoyama which basically translates into harmony Community meaning the harmony that the mountain has with the community so it’s a really cool name and I love that all of the Japanese words kind of have these deeper meanings behind them which ties perfectly into Buddhism and just the belief in peace and Harmony even green tea and what we were drinking today a lot of the ceremonies around green tea tie back into peace and Harmony and relaxation and wisdom and I really think that’s really cool but these are two of the places that you can stay there’s two of these glamping Huts they are absolutely beautiful inside let me show you Satay yama’s property would be an amazing place to wake up guests at the glamping site also have access to several their buildings one being the bath house and kitchen with an area to relax indoors and out cook and clean clean up there’s also an outdoor kitchen with barbecue and of course views of Mount fouji everywhere you [Music] look we just threw some sweet potatoes and other vegetables on this fire and my host has another barbecue going on in another section of the yard here that we’re about to join in [Music] as nice as it would be to stay in a glamping Hut tonight I’m actually staying at a nearby Guest House owned also by satama and it is absolutely beautiful it’s old traditional Japanese house that’s been converted into a place for guests to stay and it has a lot of the beautiful traditional things that an old Japanese house would mainly the doors are beautiful canvas painted this is my room and it has the traditional tatami mats on the floor I’ve already made a mess so don’t pay too close attention in there and this house is massive and beautiful all the extra rooms have these beautiful fabric and canvas covered walls and then in here is one of the family rooms this can also be converted into a sleeping area at night and you have a really big yard out here that you could see during the daytime and a nice Veranda to sit in and this house keeps going there are two different bathrooms a huge soaking tub places to wash your face a kitchen through that door and in here you have a hangout room grab a coffee a matcha get a massage this place is just awesome and if you are a large group and you want a luxurious way to stay by Mount Fuji Al together this would be such a fantastic fantastic place to stay it’s pretty late and we’ve got an early morning tomorrow to catch something really cool so I’m going to turn in for the night and I will see you [Music] then if you want to see Mount Fuji when you come here to Japan there are a lot of other ways to experience it other than climbing it the climbing season is actually quite short short only from about the beginning of July to beginning of September another place that you can come is the shoreline here of Lake takoo theyve built a huge platform here for photographers and people to come and just experience the reflection of Mount Fuji on the lake and it is absolutely beautiful we were up at around 4:30 in the morning to come to this viewing platform where a few times a year there’s a phenomenon called Diamond Fuji it was a little bit too overcast this morning for us to see it this morning but it was beautiful nonetheless while we were here it gave me a chance to sit down with the owner of satama masanori shintani who is also at the Forefront of helping develop more sustainable and community- based tourism here in Japan I know you’ve done a lot of projects in other places around the world what made you want to come back here to Japan and bring your knowledge into the local community here since I love Mount huji I decid to go to university in a Seas zoka University it’s the closest un National University in Japan to Mount Fuji okay uh Japan is one of the best country in the world to learn about conservation through the culture uh Mount huji become a world heritage because it’s because of the inent value of the mount huji not about just the natural part of yeah of M huji it’s more like a cultural part that’s why I really like the ideas more like am minism and the Shintoism yeah it’s really connecting to our culture yeah that is the intangible value we want to share to the people in the world the ideas of Eco tourism should be coordinated and managed by locals so that this kind of ecotourism work working together can do something to protect and sustain yeah a little bit more uh we have a lot of international tourists it’s not like Mass kind of tourist we only does a uh we only do that uh Private Tours and private clamping private guest house yeah uh we want you know the tourist to have a better experience learning from uh locals and discuss more deeply yeah and sharing the culture that helps both side be happy absolutely masori became my guide the rest of the day and took me to some of his favorite places and Community Based tourism projects stopping first at shito Falls which is part of the UNESCO world herited site of Mount Fuji and one of Japan’s most beautiful waterfalls fed by volcanic spring water that resemble hanging threads of silk as they Cascade off the rocks and into the river [Music] below hawan was one of the most famous artists ever to come out of Japan and one of the famous pieces of work he did were the 36 different views of Mount Fuji and right now we’re walking on a path that’s been kind of dubbed the hawkon nature path an area that people believe he walked exploring the many different views of Mount Fuji and this path is absolutely beautiful goes to different temples on this beautiful treelined path with Cyprus and Cedar on both sides and temples along the way [Music] places like this are the destinations I thrive for when I come to a new country or a new destination the places that are beyond the travel guides and not in your normal travel videos either the real local places that only a local guide can take you this pathway has been here for somewhere over 800 years and the temples along it as well and it is so idic almost Picture Perfect the trees through here quiet you can just hear the birds and the beautiful nature here and if you’re staying at satoyama either at The Guest Lodge or in the glaming Huds this is an experience that you can do during the day and then it is followed by a local lunch in the village maybe a tour of the saki Factory and some saki tasting and getting to experience and really have conversations with some of the local people here which is what travel is all about my last stop on this short stay in shizuka was to a local restaurant and Shop owned by a young woman who grows organic rice her restaurant focuses on rice bowls and after a great breakfast here she showed me her Fields where she was just starting this season’s rice she uses traditional techniques and Farms organically without fertilizer and hopes to inspire more young people to return to rural Japan and continue cultivating the land and working with nature instead of leaving to go to the big city I have learned so much on this visit to Japan Tokyo might be the city of Industry but here in rural areas people are still fighting to keep a slower and more tech-free way of life and I think there are so many lessons in this that we can take to heart in our own lives too [Music]