During my years in Japan, I have climbed Mount Fuji, camped alongside her lakes and marveled at the dramatic scenery of the Kofu Basin that surrounds Yamanashi Prefecture’s capital city.
However, never before had I ventured into the deep mountainscapes of the prefecture’s far west, so it was with considerable anticipation in late November that I joined a gastronomy-themed tour centered on one primal force: Yamanashi’s pristine source waters and the rich cuisine and liquors they help produce.
As my tour bus winds along the road stretching toward Hokuto, a city wedged among the Southern Japanese Alps on the prefectural border with Nagano, the landscape has just the slightest autumnal tinge. We pass through tiny villages lying at the foot of lush green forested hills amid vineyards, apple orchards and clusters of persimmons dangling from their branches.