Strawberry picking in Peasantville Themepark

Please be aware of drowning. It would suck if you drowned while un-aware.

Last weekend we went with a group of Japanese families out to XiShan (Sat-view here) to pick strawberries at a farm. We rode out there for about 1.5 hours, then picked not-sweet strawberries for 20 minutes. Akiva and Kenaz had fun.

As I had no friends in this group and everyone spoke Japanese, I was bored to death. After 20 minutes, when people started to leave, I got a little crazy and decided we needed to pick a lot more strawberries to make this trip more worthwhile.

After this, we were to eat at a peasant restaurant. I thought we were going to go to a cheap hole-in-the-wall place and have rice and greens. Instead, we went to “The most beautiful mountain village in Suzhou city.”I’m pretty sure its the only mountain village in Suzhou. A sort of peasant themepark with several restaurants, a dog-training park, and some small fishing ponds. And some local peasants lined up to sell a small selection of fresh greens. It was pretty place though. Located in the hills near Mudu. Those hills are actually covered with graveyards…not a place you are supposed to go hiking in. There was a fair number of rich Chinese people there, whom I guess needed to get more in touch with their peasant roots. A lot of expensive cars in the parking lot. Not really a rural experience, but I guess its nice if you feel like seeing different scenery.

Akiva practices ninja-fighting moves

Kenaz looking for the bridge troll

We ate overpriced rice and greens. OK. They also served eggs with small white Taihu Lake fish, and a raddish stew dish. And some pork thing. And dofu mixed with greens. I was sort of in a bad mood and had a headache so I didn’t take pictures of my rice and greens.

Akiva and Kenaz had fun. Akiva first played a game in which he stood at the edge of a deep, dangerous drainage channel (with swift flowing water) and threw various objects into the channel until I chased him away. Later, he and his friends discovered interesting things that can be done with spare nails and scrap-wood. Just what peasant kids play with I guess.

Kenaz investigated the flowers and tried to do whatever Akiva did.