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I live in Kofu. Kofu is the seat of the prefectural government of Yamanashi, but it is a kind of countryside, so it's a very calm city. I like this calm atmosphere very much. But, actually, I hope that Kofu became more lively city.　In fact, many people try to make Kofu better.
At first, I want to explain the location of Kofu. Do you know Tokyo? Yamanashi is next to Tokyo. It takes about two or three hours from Kofu to Tokyo by train. Kofu is located not so far and not so near from Tokyo, so I think Kofu is good place to sightseeing as a day trip for urban inhabitants who feel little tired of their tight life. And for foreigners, Kofu is also nice place to visit, because people in Kofu is kind, in my opinion. Indeed, many people have welcoming feeling to accept foreign visitors.
As I said before, it holds campaigns constantly for visitors. One of them is Fuurinkazan fair. It is involved in Takeda Shingen who is famous as a historical character of Kofu even of Yamanashi. He died because of illness, but some people believe that if he could survive longer, he would have dominated in Japan during one period. Recently, his life was dramatized for television. So, many people came to Kofu to visit places which remembered in connection with Takeda Shingen. One of goods is a Shingen Kitty which only sells in Yamanashi. The right side of picture is a Shingen Kitty. This kitty wears armor, because Takeda Shingen was a sumurai. There are many kinds of Kitty goods in Japan. Each prefecture designs limited sale kitty goods involved in each prefecture's speciality. There is a web site which introduce . If you want to know specialities of each prefecture in Japan, please see it. Kitty-chan!

Then, I want to introduce speciality of Kofu. I think Shingen- mochi is a most famous sweet as a souvenir of KofuYamanashi. It is rice cake covered with soybean flour and we eat it with syrup mixed water and brown sugar. I think it isn't elaborate sweet compared to other prefectures' specialities, but it enjoys long-standing popularity for visitors. I think it is difficult to eat it because a white plastice vessel full of rice cake and soybean flour and easy to spill soybean flour from the vessel. There is a web page to introduce a perfect way to eat Shingen-mochi. Prease learn how to eat it before you come to Kofu.

If you ever come Kofu, please look for Shingen kitty and try to eat Shingen-mochi m(_ _)m