I finally understand the reason why I am falling so far behind documenting my personal Japan travel journey now. For work trips and other sponsored trips, I can submit my blog posts overnight and I am very proud that I hardly ever asked for extensions and I think some of my clients are pretty pleased to receive a full blog draft 2 days post-trip.
But when it comes to my own…
The problem is, I have too much to share. I want to go deep into every single details, I want to fact-check, filter through every single photo and pick the best, and I know for sure that I have this bad habit of drifting away to other completely unrelated anecdotes mid-way telling a story when something triggers my emotions, in fact the last blog post I wrote was supposedly about the amazing home appliances in a Japan home but as soon as I sat down and stared out of the window, impressed at the scale of Tokyo’s vast sophistication and my own tiny existence here, right in my fav city in the world, everything felt so surreal my fingers forgot about what they wanted to type before.
Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, right.
So… sometimes one blog post can take me a whole day or more to complete. And I hardly have one whole day at one sitting to spare without having to clean up spilled kakigoori or mediate bickerings over broken crayons every 5 minutes.
I just thought – I don’t owe it to anyone, so I’d do it properly and thoroughly when I had time.
I never did.
Yesterday we went fishing. It was a short afternoon. Caught one tiny fishie, went to soak in the onsen, and then went back home to watch Spirited Away. When I checked my DM, many people were asking about the quiet getaway. And then I thought, maybe I don’t have to craft such a flawless, grammatically coherent post every time.
Maybe I can do frequent, short, Cheat One™ posts as long as they are informative enough to benefit people who needed some traveling ideas.
And here’s one attempt.
(Anyway, I need to learn how to cut down the intro and go straight to the point. I totally failed my journalism lecturers.)
So.
Okutama 奥多摩
I’m not sure if he got the idea from watching TV, but Junya said he wanted to go fishing. Initially camping by the river sounded like what we needed, but the camp site was fully booked so we decided a small day trip to Okutama, away from the city crowd.
Cheesiepetits were ready for their summer activities!
To get to the fishing spot, you can come to Okutama Station. Be prepared so spend almost 2 hours if you come from the city center. Then take a 10-minute walk to Hikawa International Trout Fishing Spot.
Hikawa International Trout Fishing Spot
It’s definitely not international-standard, but when I arrived at the site, two things crossed my mind.
1. Wait, this is Tokyo???
2. Ok obviously I don’t know Tokyo. At all.
Of course, Tokyo is the size of an entire Singapore, so there are bound to be endless surprises and rich nature such as this.
Bonus? It was extremely cooling, a big contrast to the humid Tokyo heat.
And let’s try fishing! The fish species here is called “Masu”, a kind of river trout. You can rent a rod and fish bait (the fish bait is very delicious-looking ikura!!) for half day at JPY1600. And then you can fish to your heart’s content.
The streams were pretty calm and many people return home with fruitful catch. That was our fish!
You can either bring the fishies home to cook or bring them to the canteen in the building to have them freshly grilled for you.
Moegino Yu Onsen
Just about 5-min walk away is a hot spring facility where you can relax and spend the rest of your evening at.
Entrance fee is only JPY800, and it’s free for kids below elementary school, so the petits entered for free and they received two bath hankie from the very kind staff T_T.
No photos were allowed in the onsen, of course, but just imagine being surrounded by lush green with the summer soundtrack playing at the background by the Japanese cicadas. Loved it. Totally a #cheesiething. You know, my stuff = onsen, shrines, non-mainstreamness. (It was a small stream haha.)
Anyway.
If you ask if it’s worth traveling 4 hours in total just to visit this place when you are on a 3-day activity-packed trip in Tokyo, the answer is probably not really.
But if you are weird like me, who don’t mind long trains, schedule-less wandering, who is sick of the mainstream cliches, who has a little bit of extra time on your Tokyo exploration, or who is a hardcore Tokyo addict like me who wants to leave no rock in this metropolis unturned, and also love eating fish, please do visit Okutama for lots of negative-ion recharging to get you ready for your next adventure.
Here are some other attractions of Okutama:
1.Hiking! There are a few hiking tracks that looked really good!
2. Camping! This time we didn’t get to do it but here’s something for you to outdoor buffs to consider.
3. Nippara Limestone Cave – recently catching with all the Insutabae (Instagenic) trend, this cave is lit up in colors and it is rather cold inside the chamber, so it could be a pretty cool rest-stop from the summer heat!
Till then! More Japan goodness to come! ^^
