Day two was our winery visiting day.
We got up and ate a typical Japanese breakfast, of fish, rice, fried egg roll and miso soup and took the free shuttle bus from our hotel to the station, then a train heading for Katsunumabudokyo Station.
When we arrived at about 10am, the tourist information booth was open and we got some maps and good advice from the man there, but the winery bus hadn't started running yet. I suppose it was too early for people to start drinking.
We got a taxi and went to the area with the most wineries near each other. The first one we went to was called Soryu Winery. They had two wine machines there. For 500 yen you got 3 tokens. One token gets you a sample of wine in a taster cup. We went through all the available wines and bought a bottle of white which tasted the best.
We left the winery and walked across the road as we had seen an interesting building. It was a little museum with information about how wine making came to Japan. It was 200 yen to go in and the friendly staff gave us a little tour.
Across the road was another winery, but the price for trying these wines was pretty expensive, so we didn't bother. Next to that winery was another small museum all about wine making, which was free, so we had a look.
Heading off across the little Hi River, we approached the Chanmoris winery. This place was very nice, with a shop on one side of the open entrance and the tasting area on the other side. There was only one staff member there, we paid her for tasting and she gave us the instructions about how to pour the wine, only 1.5cm for each wine ticket, of which there were four each. Then we were left to go the the tasting room on our own and judge for ourselves how much 1.5cm was.
After this tasting, we were feeling a bit tipsy and hungry, so we made our way to the restaurant which was in the same car park as the winery. It was Italian food, but not particularly tasty, which was a shame, as wine and Italian food are perfect partners.
Strolling along the Hi River past the orchards, with full bellies and a nice warm, fuzzy feeling inside, we made our way towards the Katsunuma Wine Village, another winery, with some very pleasant staff. After sampling some more, we got another bottle for our cellar.
We kept walking along the river, up to the main road and to a temple called Daizenji. It was 500 yen to go inside the gardens and see the temple, so we decided instead to go in the shop and reception area, get a temple stamp, and try their wine, the white was a decent vintage.
With a lot of walking and drinking under our belts, we took the little high road back towards the station. I really don't like the Japanese attitude of trying to destroy the Earth as quickly as possible, but here you can see one example of this, the fires from the vineyards, burning the old branches, something that's illegal in the UK, was happening all over the valley, and the smog hovering in the distance. Apart from that it was a nice view.
The road twisted around down into the vineyards again and we wound up at another winery, Chateau Katsunuma.
The place was teeming with old people as we and they sampled some truly horrible wine from tiny barrels. There was a man behind a bar, who catered to the more discerning visitor, or for those with more than five minutes to spare, which we found out that the old people didn't have, being part of a coach tour rushing them around Yamanashi. Soon the tour members went and we had the place to ourselves and the man behind the bar gave us sample after sample. We got out of there just as the next group of weary travelers were rushing in.
Apart from this winery, which was near the highway, we didn't see any other customers in any other of the wineries all day.
As we kept walking towards the station, we made a little detour to the hill nearby and the winery / hot-spring on top of it.
This was Budou no Oka. For a little over 1000 yen each, we were given a sampling dish and shown downstairs to the huge cellar, where we could help ourselves to as much wine as we wanted from hundreds of bottles. After soaking in the wine, we went and had a soak in the hot-spring next door, before missing the bus and having to walk back to the station, by now very pleasantly drunk.
The day was fantastic. If you're a wine lover, I strongly recommend it. Mainly drink the white wines though, as we never found a decent red the whole day.
You can buy the wine and get it delivered back to your house at a time which suits you, for a fee, but it means not carrying heavy bottles around all day, so that's a plus.
The day was warm, after the mornings chill disappeared, and we were warmed by the intake of wine also. The people in the area were friendly, and we ended up spending less money than we thought we might.