Day 9: Kikugawa
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
The next day, our plan was do take it easy, drive back to Nagoya and go out to dinner with Jutaro and Rie at a fun pizzeria near their place. On our way back, while traveling through the western portion of Shizuoka Prefecture, we got off the expressway to take a detour through the Makinohara Plateau, the largest tea planting area in Japan, located near the city of Kikugawa.
I had never seen tea plantation before, so I knew very little about what they actually looked like. I wasn't expecting these long bushes, and, especially, I was surprised to see that all over the rows of tea plants the farmers had installed these high poles with fan over them. Apparently, they are needed in the winter time to ensure that the plants are not damaged by frost.
For dinner, we met with Jutaro and Rie at Pizzeria Marino, one of their favorite pizza places in town. The pizza tasted really good, alas some of the toppings were a bit unusual. The pasta also was very tasty, prepared at the table inside a hollow parmesan cheese half-wheel.
After dinner, we went to a local drugstore to do some shopping...
