A Weekend In Yamanashi JAPAN | Cap’Dan In Japan

A Weekend In Yamanashi JAPAN | Cap’Dan In Japan

We are back, baby. Your faithful captain has returned. I’m your part-time streamer with a slightly bruised beamer here to show you some of the adventures that I get up to while living in Japan. This time we’re continuing our weekend journey from Hamomamatu and heading east to Yamanashi Prefecture. Yamanashi Prefecture is known for a little mountain. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji, baby. This mountain’s a bit of a tricky one. You see, it’s shy. It likes to hide. See, even Lawson’s tries to help by building big walls to hide it. But I didn’t drive 6 hours just to see some clouds. Did I? We’re going to a bird zoo. Bird zoo. There’s going to be lots of birds. Maybe we get to touch bird. They’re not in cages. I’m a little scared. They got shoe bill storks. It might have penguins and parrots. All types of birds. You name a bird. Maybe they have it. Maybe they had it and then it died. That’d be sad. I don’t want to ask about that. Why’d you have to bring that up? Jeez. Way to kill the moon. Dead birds. talking about. My gosh, we had one more destination in Shizuoka on our list. The Kakeawa Bird Park located about an hour and a half from Hamasu. And oh boy, is this place busy on a holiday. I think we waited in our car for about a half an hour just waiting for the cars to clear out. But it was so worth it cuz they had so many birds. They even had us. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Cuckabo. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Bunch of pigeons. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Look at duck penguins. Emuse a big goose and poo. I’m going to pretend I didn’t spend a lot of time on that, but you get the idea. Birds. And so many of them weren’t in cages. It was crazy. It was a bit pricey, but you could buy food to feed the birds, too. With enough patience and a little bit of fruit, they might even climb up on you. Just remember that these are wild birds, and they do have a mind of their own. You just got to come at the right time. Once they get full, they’re not going to eat the food. But is that going to stop the business from trying to sell you the food? No. About two or three times a day, they’ll even do a little bird talent show. And boy are those birds talented. They had a penguin that could dance. They had a parrot that could play golf. I don’t even know how to play golf. And if you thought that his sports prowess ended there, think again. He’s great at soccer and he’s an accomplished martial artist. But hands down, my favorite part of the day was just a little bit after the talent show where I got to carry an absolutely massive owl. I was pretty nervous because they have such sharp talons, you know, to cut things and I’m almost entirely made of things. But it was really cool to feel how lightweight an owl is. And if you thought the day couldn’t get any better than that, boom, tiny owl. I mean, look at him. He’s just a little guy. Tickets were 1,800 yen, which is a little bit out of our usual price range, but it was really good. And their gift shop had all sorts of bird themed goodies, especially of the shoe bill. Then it was time for us to stretch our wings and flap our way to Yamanashi. Food on the road rating. There is nothing better than just eating some fast food while driving on the highway. Is it dangerous? Is it a little scary? Yeah. But like it just screams America, doesn’t it? Hamburger on the road. The only thing that really like kills the whole mood is I’m on the left side, not the right side. Backwards country. After a little bit, we got our first view of Mount Fuji. He’s a little shy. He’s hiding. At least the clouds around Mount Fuji. But we couldn’t stick around and wait for the clouds to clear up cuz we had a mission. I had read online that there was going to be a festival by the lake near our hotel. So, we were really booking it to Yamanashi. And once the sun had gone down, it was time for the festival to begin. I’m sorry, but now it’s the best day. It’s getting a bit hungry. It’s the time we also have deer. With the festival over, it was time to check into the hotel. I had managed to find a pretty nice place down by the lake, but I was nervous because it was definitely lower than lakehouse prices. But to my surprise, it was actually a really nice hotel, very spacious, and it even had a wonderful view of the lake from the window. There it is. Look at that. I mean, you can’t see because I’m in the way, but that’s going to be beautiful in the morning. And it was beautiful. I still can’t really believe that we got the hotel for the price that we did. But I’m not telling you where that hotel was. That’s a secret I’m taking to the grave. But now for the moment of truth. Could we actually see the great Mount Fuji? Or like so many other travelers, will our dreams be lost among the clouds? Uh, yeah, baby. It was a beautiful day. I mean, crystal clear. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, which is great cuz we had a lot of Mount Fuji centered activities planned for the day. Starting with No, not you 7-Eleven. Get out of here. If we’re going to any convenience store, it’s going to be the Fuji hating Lawson. Starting with Oshino Hawkeye, the eight seas of Oshino. And by seas, they mean little ponds, little man-made ponds with koiish in them and really blue water and a lot of coins and jewelry. And I swear I saw a bike down there. It was a pretty cute village with some touristy shops and some food stalls. And you could even go into some old thatched roof cottages and see the well-maintained interiors of them. But as a 6’2 American, it only serves as a cruel reminder that I will never fit properly in Japan. Seriously, I banged my head like three times in this stupid little building. But no matter where you go in this village, you’re greeted by a beautiful view of Mount Fuji. And on the rare occasion, more ducks. More ducks. Ducks. Ducks. Ducks. Ducks. I fed the ducks. I fed the ducks little pellets. It was adorable. Love ducks. Ducks. Ducks. Ducks. Sadly, we couldn’t spend that much time here because we had a very full day ahead of us. And on top of that, we still had to be able to drive home in the evening. So, Q travel montage. Yay. We booked it to uh hold on, I got to check my notes here. Arauryama Sen Park where we walked up like 200 stairs and then when we were done with the 200 stairs, we walked up another 500 stairs just in order to see a beautiful temple and and truly one of the best views of Mount Fuji that we’ve seen all day. I mean, look at that money shot, baby. Then we went back down to the car. Thankfully, no stairs this time. On the way down, we met a British guy who was also filming a vlog. You’ll see more of him later. We drove by Fujik, which is home to a roller coaster that used to be the fastest in the world. Then, we arrived at the Narusawa ice caves. That’s right. We’ve been near Mount Fuji, above Mount Fuji, and now we’re going to go inside Mount Fuji. I feel like we’ve said Fuji so many times in this video, it doesn’t really sound like a word anymore. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. Fuji. This isn’t the first Japanese cave that I’ve been into, and they’re always a fun time. But I’m a little bit worried about the little end of it that’s called the hell hole. Are we going to die? Only one way to find out. Now seems like the perfect time to introduce our British tagalong, Lavick. There should be just enough time for him to endear himself to you before his highly likely demise in the cave. Oh, look at these two nerds pretending to be Lord of the Rings characters. Look how fast two random dudes can become friends in the middle of the woods. Then it was cave time. Let me tell you, these caves were so cold. How cold is it? It’s so cold that they actually use the caves to store ice during the summertimes. That wasn’t even a joke. In the past, they used these caves to store seeds in order to control harvest cycles. Here, I would have just used it to keep my Dr. Pepper cold, but now it’s primarily just a tourist attraction. The walking path was pretty easy. I mean uh it was a very challenging journey and I had to employ many feats of strength. Many many feats of strength. I even saved our crew for uh from certain doom. But in the battle between Dan and Cave, Dan was victorious. And as an added bonus, our British friend Lavick made it through, too. But sadly, it was at this point that we had to part ways and time for us to start finding our way back home. But not before we get dinner first. Yamanashi Prefecture is known for an udon soup called hoto. So, we stopped by the restaurant Kosaku to pick some up. The place smelled incredible and there were a lot of options. So, we ordered two bowls and sat back and relaxed completely unaware of the mistake that we had made because when the food arrived, we noticed something. It’s uh it’s big. Mhm. I think we screwed up. I think we were supposed to get one share. I think that’s what these are for. Oops. But after the first few bites, I was really glad that we each got one. It was so good. I couldn’t stop eating. The miso soup and the vegetables were perfect for a cold day. Plus, it had a little bit of Japanese pumpkin in there. It was the perfect warm meal to fuel us up before our long trip home. Can’t heat that up. It’s dying. It’s a circus. It’s a whole dang circus. But I think we were the ones who were clowns cuz we thought that the drive home was going to be easy. No such luck. The mountains were covered in snow. Visibility was very low. GPS got us lost at least once or twice. But thanks to my expert driving skills, we made it back to familiar territory. Favorite tunnel. Disco time. Disco. Disco. Disco. Disco. Disco. Hey. Flashing. Never seen a flashing before. Sadly, those lights only signal that our party is over. And what a great party it was. Before this trip started, I knew nothing about Hamomatu or Yamanashi. But it really goes to show that there are no boring places in Japan. While Tokyo and Kyoto are filled to the brim with tourists, it’s actually a great time to see all of the undiscovered gems around this wonderful island. But I hope my humble little video was able to give you a glimpse into all the adventures you can have here. I, for one, intend to see every corner I can in the short time I’m here. But hey, if you made it this far into the video, thank you so much. It would mean a lot if you would drop a like on this video. Hey, leave a comment below with any ideas of places you want me to visit. Anything I missed on my trip or just experiences that you’ve had in Japan. I’d love to hear about it. But also, I stream every week on Twitch from Tuesdays to Thursday, 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. JST. Look me up, Captain TV. I’d love to chat with you, so please come and hang out if you have the time. We also have a Discord, too. Come join our pirate crew. We’d love to have you. Oh, hey. Uh, what are you still doing here? Really? Yeah. Okay, fine. One more time. Sleepy owl. Sleepy. Sleepy. Cuckabo. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Bunch of pigeons. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Sleepy owl. Look duck. Sleepy owl. Harry Potter. Sleepy owl. Wo. It’s dancing owl. Not an owl. Water foul. Simon owl. Penguins. news a big news and hot

Yamanashi Prefecture, home of the mighty Mt. Fuji. I spent some time driving around this beautiful prefecture and found all sorts of hidden gems that I want to share with you!

This is my second attempt at making a travel vlog, and I’m pretty pumped with how it turned out. Thank you all so much for your patience as it took a whopping 3 months to put this together. I hope you enjoy it!

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