Today, I’ll start the second report about Niji-no-Sato continuously from “Japanese Garden”.
Passing through the walkway of iris garden, I strolled along the large pond. You know what ? Japanese Garden is, I guess, the most expansive area that has 2 iris gardens, Rhododendron Wood, Hydrangea garden, The tunnel of Wisteria and Daffodil Garden. Natural flowers in or between gardens are also cute ! Scent of them, in the invigorating breeze may make you crazy for lunch.＾＾ You can have a decent lunch in a restaurant in Japanese Garden but if you want to enjoy some of local foods, why don’t you go on to the next area, “Izu Village” that is exactly what I did.＾＾ｖ

Izu Village is something that makes me feel Japanese old-style. It’s too many to introduce every shop here but to put it in short, you can enjoy Japanese noodle, “Soba” or “Udon”, rice dumplings, Japanese tea, coffee and even our traditional sweets of old-good-days, “Dagashi”. I happened to find a lovely shop. Roasted Ayu, the sweetfish ! This is supposed to be our conventional fish and cooking. I could show you the picture here but let me introduce it exclusively in the next report.
You can also buy local specialties such as Shiitake Mushroom, homemade food, artworks and things like that.
Now, full enough ?

After having had too much, you need to take a brief walk, right ? Following the path in the Maple Forest leads you to the “Takumi Village”. You will get startled at the sight of houses there. All thatched, just as if you were lost in the village of Ninja in the movie!
Believe it or not, these houses are as real as you are in this world. The guide-board says, they accepted these houses of 150 - 300 years ago to preserve them before the small village was about to disappear for the construction of the Dum.
Now what can you do in this village ? You can see our old housewares and toys, or you can go through Japanese traditional crafts such as Japanese papers, wood-works and Yuzen printings. I stepped into “Yubokumin” and talked with a craft-worker. She told me we could make doorplates as in the picture in about 10 minutes. She also told me how to color them. Surprisingly easy and quick !! Give it a try !

Doorplates in Yubokumin

Japanese Paper

Back again through the path in the “Maple Forest”, I went up the stairs in Izu Village, finally to get to the first point, “British Village”. Visiting UK was one of my dreams in my school days but I don’t have to now……no, no way, that is a different story, isn’t it ? I’d love to, for all that. ＾＾；

For your general information, it takes about 2 hours for walking around in “Niji no Sato”. Lunch and drink can be brought in. In summer, kids can play in the Water Park in Canadian Village. Better to take towels. For the visitors who don’t want to walk much, Romney Railway & Romney Bus are available. See the route in the brochure, please. The fare, as of June, 2010, is as follows:
Romney Railway ： ¥400 for adults／¥200 for children under 12
Romney Bus ： ¥200 - ¥400 for adults／¥100 - ¥200 for children under 12
For more information, please see the official website !＾＾
Next time, I’ll talk about Ayu !

Good days ＾＾

Niji no Sato
Access From JR Mishima Station ⇒ By Izu-Hakone Railway to “Shuzenji”
⇒ From Bus Terminal #6 bound for “Niji no Sato”
Admission ： ¥1000 for adults／¥500 for children under 12
Closed ： On Tuesdays, mid-Dec, Late Jan
Opening hours ：
April – September 9:00-17:00
October – March 9:00-16:00

“Shizuoka Guide” is our official English website for sightseeing, always with you ! ^^