Asobian: Shizuoka Japanese Farmstay

In the heart of the Kawane Green Tea Region you can find the Asobian Farmstay, which overflows with hospitality, making it the perfect place for those seeking respite.

The kind host is a retired gentleman who will immediately make you feel at home, welcoming all peoples from all nations. Entering the large traditional family home, you find yourself taking a deep breath in and out, a heartwarming feeling of restfulness.

The house itself boasts a large dining room with traditional tatami mats, overlooking the vegetable garden and letting in the cool mountain breeze, as you relax with a tea from the local plantations. The shared common areas include a living room with a wonderful kotatsu (heated table) to laze around, a large kitchen for those dining in, and a playroom / library for a game of ping-pong or reading some haiku poems. The owner is also a published haiku author, so you can enjoy reading some of his original works in the library too.

Outside you find a well kept vegetable garden, which the guests can help to tend, or to harvest from if the timing is right. At the time of our visit, we could harvest sweet potatoes, and throw them immediately into the backyard steamer to cook to perfection. We proceeded to fill the BBQs with the garden vegetables and some local meat, enjoying the backyard that backs onto a local woodland.

The owner then surprised us by setting up the Nagashi-somen (Running-noodles) game, where thin somen noodles are released down a bamboo waterway, and the aim of the game is to catch the somen with chopsticks before they fly past down the chute. It was my first time trying this, having only seen this game on TV dramas, and I definitely recommend that you all try it. Fabulous fun!

Overall, if you're looking for accommodation out in the Kawane region, or somewhere to relax and finish your thesis perhaps, then this is the place for you!