When you are traveling without a friend from the area, the general information center is a great place to visit. Akizuno Garten is a general information center for Akizuno town, keeping its long history from ancient Japan. They provide information on guides, tours, accommodation, restaurants and everything else you need to know.
Akizuno Garten is located inside a renovated wooden elementary school. It has many facilities such as lodges, the mikan batake (mandarin farm), local farmer restaurants, the Valencia Batake (cafe), handmade sweet shops, and an activity center to experience the local life and culture. Once you step into the wooden building you can feel the nostalgic atmosphere.
Accommodation:
The lodge is a 2 story wooden building. There are 7 Japanese style rooms equipped with air conditioning, a bathroom, a toilet, a small refrigerator and free multilingual Wi-Fi.
Restaurant:
Mikan Batake is a local farmer restaurant. Mothers around Akitzuno Garten cook dishes using vegetables and ingredients that they grow on their own farm. You can enjoy local, homemade meals. The breakfast and dinner are Japanese style meals. Lunch is buffet style, and you can enjoy more than 30 different types of healthy dishes.
The Activity Center:
Akizuno Garten has many interesting spots you can explore on your own. Another option is to arrange a tour guide if you want to experience different kinds of activities, such as the Kumano-kodo walk. There is a mandarin farm where you can pick mandarins directly from the tree owned by farmers and enjoy them. There is an all-you-can-eat mandarin picking event that goes on for an hour on the field. You can bring back bags of fresh mandarins that you picked as a souvenir. Akizuno is also famous for umeboshi (pickled plum) making. Akizuno umeboshi is well-known around Japan. At the activity center, you can make bookings for farmhouse stay experiences. It is so fun.
Homemade Sweet Shop “Valencia Batake”:
Valencia Batake is a sweet workshop that provides cooking lessons using local fruits. I joined the mandarin jam making workshop. It is so good and sweet. Valencia Batake is also a café that makes handmade sweets. Throughout the year, around 80 different kinds of mandarins and oranges are harvested in Akizuno.
For your information:
We recommend that you contact the Akizno Garten information center. Akizuno Garten provides tours, guides, food and accommodation.
Related website:
http://agarten.jp/index.html (Japanese)