Marutou wasabi Farm is a small wasabi farmer in the back of the mountain in Izu.

Although it is a café on the 3rd Sunday
of every month, it will be suspended for a while due to the influence of Typhoon No. 15
that hit Shimoda on September 9, 2019.

Our home is a wasabi farm, which lies in a small hamlet nestled in the mountains of Shimoda on the Izu peninsula. The babbling of river water and the calls of birds and frogs echo around the gorge. We enjoy the bounty of wild plants and fruits all year round. Elderly grannies and grandads can be seen at work in the fields. In one sense there is nothing out of the ordinary about this place, but it has an aura of tranquility.

We open up our traditional farmhouse’s tatami room, adjoining wooden veranda or engawa, and garden to the public once a month to hold what we have named the Engawa Café. Customers are also free to stroll through the woods. For those who just wish to rest on the veranda and walk through the trees we ask for a donation of \100 for our ‘Satoyama Maintenance Fund,’ satoyama being the traditional human-influenced rural landscape here in Japan.

The Engawa Café sells home-made juices and herbal tea, as well as farmhouse snacks such as tea-flavoured sweets and pickles. You are welcome to bring your own food or drink to consume on the premises. Make yourself at home in our secluded rural retreat. We hope that you will be able to escape from the hectic pace of your daily lives and enjoy a peaceful and relaxing time in our house’s engawa.

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