Wasabi Farm

Our adventure is leading us to the Izu peninsula in Shizuoka prefecture.

After a 3 hours train journey from Tokyo we finally reached Shuzenji. Riding an old 70’s train.

This area of Japan is well known for his top class Wasabi , in fact the Wasabi plant is known to originate from Izu. Shuzenji and his area is also famous for his high-quality onsens and Ryokans.

Wasabi shops everywhere.
We found our “Ryokan” for two night. It was actually very cheap (25 euro per night with breakfast .. ) and looked nice on the pictures. Where is the trick .. ?

Nestled in a valley , welcome to “Live max Hotel”. This name doesn’t sounds so Japanese right ? We found out that this was a Hotel chain actually. This was definitely not like the pictures we saw on the net. It’s amazing how different can be the reality sometimes !

Yukata and “Traditional” washi window ! Japanese art at his finest… Also our Tatami was black and made out of plastic. This was a fun experience for sure but nothing like the nice Ryokans at all.

Enjoying delicious traditional meal at “Live Max Hotel”. Not many restaurants in this area so we had theses guys from the vending machine ! Chemical dinner , bon appétit !
“Cup noodle” is a very famous brand of instant noodles in Japan. One cup cost around one euro and is packed with MSG (an artificial flavoring known to be cancerigen). Anyway, this meal was fun.

The area is great to take small hikes as well. We also had a dream. The dream to discover the infamous “Wasabi farms”. Maybe we will find one on our way.

Starting the day with nice lighting.
The countryside of life. Another pace of life.

Sweet little water area on our way.

Getting up and up toward a famous waterfall. We heard about Wasabi ice cream there. Sounds interesting. Let’s see.

Finding a really cool café on our way to the waterfall. We couldn’t resist.

Piknik café. A coffee place made only with wood. Everything inside is handmade by the owner himself. He lived in Australia for a few years and came back to Japan with this dream. Today you can enjoy fine coffee and delicious food in a homy place.

Avocado / salmon sandwich with a sour cream / Wasabi sauce. It was simply delicious. The café owners also bake bread everyday , hence the bread used was fresh and really tasty. A fantastic and inspiring place to try in Izu.

The owner was so friendly , we told him about our Wasabi desire.. and he ended up offering us to visit … a private wasabi farm !
How lucky we are. Sometimes, with a dream in mind , everything comes together and the magic happen. Somehow in the universe , the planets all align and your wish becomes reality. Today we didn’t even put any effort to find a Wasabi farm , it just came to us. Gently and smoothly.
We choosed not to go to the waterfall and instead go to this private farm. This so called farm received many prices and has a very good reputation in the area. The café owner was a friend of them. Also it is not open for tourists to visit. Tsuiteru ! how lucky.

Walking toward the farm before the night.

Welcome to the Wasabi farm.
Entering a new world.

Wasabi leafs.

The plantation was huge and surrounded by scenic nature. Wasabi loves water that’s why he often grows next to rivers. It usually take one year to grow one wasabi root. In this farm they even grew two-year wasabi roots ! Wasabi can grow all year long but is more produced during the winter season. Each pool contains similar staged Wasabi roots therefore the harvest only happens in one pool at the time so that the farmers are not overwhelmed by a huge amount to harvest in one go.

Wasabi and water landscape. This farm is a family business that started 3 generations ago. According to the owner their farm was not big. They are about 6 people to work here.

This is where it all started. One day the gran grandfather (as a kid) played with his friends and find by accident this natural water spring. From then the Wasabi farm all started and every year it got a bit bigger to what it is today.

The sweet farmer with her “Wasabi” dress.

We got lucky to enter this private farm today. We learned more about Wasabi and met some shiny people along the way. We tried their fresh wasabi and Dang ! It was fantastic indeed.

There is more to discover in this area , let’s find out tomorrow !
See you then.