The destination for this two-day, one-night weekend program is Azumino City, Nagano Prefecture, where the weather is perfect.
The "Fruit Farm Experience" allows participants to experience the fruit farming process from spring to autumn. This was the second time this program was held in June. This time, participants were able to enjoy not only the fruit farming but also the food even more.
On the first day, 17 participants (4 adults) gathered in Shinjuku early in the morning and boarded the Azusa Shinkansen for the thrilling departure. Surprisingly, despite the limited seating, card games, sweets exchanges, and origami competitions were held, creating endless excitement. From Matsumoto Station to our destination, Hitoichiba Station, we took the local train. Mixing in with local passengers and hikers, we enjoyed the views of rice fields and the Southern Alps from the train window.
When we arrived at our lodging, Chikyu-yado, the bamboo slide for the Nagashi Somen noodles was already set up in the garden. A fierce battle broke out in time with the shouts of the Chikyu-yado monks and staff...! But that only happened at the beginning. For most of the time, everyone took turns enjoying the Nagashi Somen noodles, Nagashi Tomatoes, and Nagashi Jelly, and everyone agreed to share.
In the afternoon, we visited Azumino Friend Farm, where we had a farming experience at a peach and cherry farm, and took a detour to an apple farm to see the fruit growing, enjoying a wide variety of fruit.
At the peach farm, you can try bagging the peaches. Apparently, each fruit is individually bagged to protect it from pests and strong sunlight. At the lodging, each person will place a special bag with a colorfully painted design on it, and place it on their own peach. We look forward to the day when we can see the peaches growing through the bags. We also put our hopes in the bags that they will grow sweet and not succumb to the wind and rain.
At the cherry farm, we harvested the cherries just before they were ripe and enjoyed them fresh! We aimed for bright red cherries that were high up in the trees to pack into takeaway bags. As we were leaving, we looked back at the trees and noticed that the red color that had been peeking through the leaves before the harvesting experience had disappeared, as if a storm had passed through...
This is what it looked like just before we washed off in the public bath! With permission, we climbed onto the back of a light truck parked on the farm. We were surprised to see that all 17 participants managed to fit into the back of the truck. The adults were also pleased to see the faces of the children full of adventure, trying to suppress their envy. You wouldn't see a scene like this in the city. The public bath had an indoor bath as well as an open-air bath, and we washed away the fatigue of the day with the magnificent scenery as our backdrop.
Upon returning to Chikyu-yado, we immediately had dinner and then had some free time. Some people gathered around the campfire, some borrowed a telescope to observe the surface of the moon, some prepared bread for the next day's lunch, some played tag with the cat that had come to play, and some built secret bases in their rooms. There were so many activities going on in this one old house that it was hard to count them all.
The big event on the second day was rice planting! We borrowed a corner of a local shared rice field. Participants planted the rice as neatly as possible, following the example planted by local residents... At first, the participants slowly put their feet in the mud, skeptical, but before they knew it, they were fascinated by the feel of the cool mud. After cleaning their feet in the irrigation channel, everyone was absorbed in searching for frogs! Thumb-sized frogs were found everywhere. Participants who were not fond of frogs were absorbed in searching for beautiful stones on the path beside the rice paddies.
For lunch, each child tried their hand at baking bread. They wrapped the dough around a bamboo stick and turned it around to bake. As the freshly baked bread would soon be their own lunch, everyone, adults and children alike, were serious about the task! They ate it with homemade apple jam and side dishes prepared by Chikyu-yado. "It's delicious, chewy," "It's burnt! It's bitter!" were the cheers of the children as they savoured their homemade bread.
After bidding farewell to Chikyu-yado and Hitoichiba Station, the children went to the souvenir shop at the station, each using their own pocket money to make purchases. Adults only provided a little support, just keeping an eye on the cash register, as older participants helped the younger participants with their shopping. While some participants were exhausted and slept soundly on the Shinkansen train, many others played card games with gusto all the way to Shinjuku Station. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to be brimming with confidence as they met up with their families and presented them with the cherries they had picked and harvested themselves as souvenirs.
The next fruit farming experience program will be in August. We are looking forward to seeing how the fruits grow from the heat of midsummer to the "fruit season of autumn"!
I apologize for writing this last, but I'd like to briefly introduce Chikyu-yado, where I stayed for two days. "Azumino Chikyu-yado: A Ryokan of Encounters and Experiences" is a community-run inn that practices a lifestyle incorporating nature and agriculture, with the concept of being an inn where people from both within and outside the region, Japan and abroad, can become friends (some of the introduction is borrowed from the Chikyu-yado website).
The participants in this program had the opportunity to explore the entirety of this over 80-year-old farmhouse. The Chikyu-yado community, who watched over them, provided delicious meals for us after we exercised and occasionally lent us their wisdom and strength. It was undoubtedly thanks to the existence of Chikyu-yado that even a large group of children was able to enjoy nature to the fullest without worry.
Our founder, Akagi, participated as one of the leaders this time and has written down the passionate feelings he felt through his interactions with the owner of Chikyu-yado, Bou-san, in the founder's blog below. Please take a look!
Founder's blog: "The important 'encounters' and 'gratitude' when creating a program"
