We visited Azumino Daio Wasabi Farm in Nagano

With my friends, today I went to Daio Wasabi Farm in the city of Azumino, Nagano, the prefecture situated next to Niigata where I live. Taking an expressway, it took a few hours to get there by car.

Azumino Daio Wasabi Farm

Azumino Daio Wasabi Farm is Japan’s largest wasabi farm, nationally famous as a popular sightseeing spot in Nagano. Actually, this time was my 7th or 8th (I don’t remember which) visit to the wasabi farm.

Although today was a weekday, there were a lot of people visiting there. In fact, in the wide parking lot, quite a few cars from various regions were parked.

Food Court

Soon after entering the wasabi farm, this roofed food court welcomed us, where several food stands were offering a variety of dishes, and each had its specialty featuring wasabi.

For example, this ice cream parlor’s specialty was the soft serve with wasabi flavor.

Another shop was selling a wasabi croquette.

Later, I heard that this food court is especially popular for these 2 wasabi-flavored specialties.

Souvenir Shop

There was a souvenir shop right next to the food court, where you can choose souvenirs and gifts from a wide range of foods using wasabi.

Highlights 

Passing through the souvenir shop, we reached the entrance to the wasabi field, where there was an information map, and we decided where to go next.

From the place where the map lies, we had a distant view of the wasabi field and enjoyed the full picture.

When you head to the left side of the entrance, in a few minutes, you can find the famous brook and watermills that appear in the film directed by Akira Kurosawa “Yume (夢: Dreams)”.

If you go to the right from the entrance, you can soon arrive at an open space with a bronze statue of wasabi, near which there were some restaurants.

One was offering buckwheat soba noodles with plenty of wasabi.

And another’s specialty was a rice bowl dish topped with hon-wasabi named “Hon-wasabi Don (本わさび丼)”.

After enjoying the sightseeing tour there, we left the farm, headed to a popular soba restaurant in the city center, where I ordered the “Ten-Zaru (天ざる: Tempura Zaru Soba)” pictured above, which tasted great!

Wasabi-Zuke Pickles

After coming home from Nagano, I enjoyed the “Wasabi Zuke (わさび漬け: pickled wasabi)” that I purchased at the souvenir shop in Azumino Daio Wasabi Farm, drinking chilled beer.

Today was such a satisfying day!