Aoyama Gakuin's Trip to Yamanashi

On Friday, the International Exchange Center from my school organized a trip to the Yamanashi prefecture. Yamanashi is a rural mountain area, being there was really refreshing compared to being in the city all the time.

It was about a 2 hour bus ride from our campus to the first location, where we rode a ropeway up a mountain. At the top was a shrine and a view point for Mt. Fuji. We were alloted twenty minutes and then were told to return to the base of the mountain to eat lunch.

 (Mt.Fuji)

(The leaves are starting to change)

Lunch was amazing, and very filling. It consisted of various local dishes and a special noodle dish which was similar to udon.

After lunch we returned on the bus, and drove to a community center type building, to make a kaleidoscope, which was actually very fun. It was also very interesting to see the inner workings of a kaleidoscope. 

Then it was back to the buses, where we relocated to a grape vine area. We were allowed to cut grapes off the vine and eat them right away. It was really nice to finally have a decent amount of fruit, because I rarely eat it here because it is too expensive.

Here is a video of the highlights of the trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQFG-WcLGfg