秋津野ガルテン

Our first stop on the Kumano Kodo — Akizuno Garten in Kii-Tanabe. A former school with warm rooms, generous meals, and the kind of calm that makes you forget the miles ahead.

One of the most beautiful and peaceful places to spend some time. We took the sweets workshop and hand cream workshop! It’s easier if you speak some Japanese but the staff is so lovely and accommodating to everyone. The food and sweets were incredible and perfectly handcrafted. Easily worth the trip for a chill afternoon while traveling!

A hushed and inviting green tourism complex, one that has been converted from an old elememtary school, for some rest and recreation, replete with lush greenery, precious wooden furnishings and architecture, and an exceptionally warm staff. Their 900 yen buffet is a steal, for all the natural cooked foods lovingly prepared - with even some condiments being hand made - and adeptly seasoned by housewives from around the region. A lot of the ingredients used in their breakfast, lunch and dinner plans are freshly sourced from nearby farms, particularly so for oranges and plums. Incidentally, they sell fresh produce at wholesale prices outside their buffet lunch restaurant. Comfortable and large rooms, despite the fact that some of their amenities are a tad old, with their refrigerator showing signs of rust, smelling stale, and being a bit sticky to the touch. You will, however, find them very well worth the price that you would pay. There's a lot of heart and pride that goes into their pricing, services and activities. Highly recommended vacation spot for a quick getaway.

There's three different businesses going on in this place; hotel suitable for leisure and workations/seminars, an all you can eat buffet restaurant with food made with locally grown ingredients AND a dessert shop focusing on Wakayama's famous tangerines. The place is a community-business! The hotel was a wooden elementary school reformed into a hotel, so there are many quirks and elements of the past still scattered all over the place. As you walk past the classrooms, you could almost just feel the kids running around with you. :) There are also bicycles provided for those who want to go for a quick ride around the area. The hotel actually provides experience tours, focusing on the tangerine farms around the area, e.g. making tangerine jam or even planting your own tangerine tree. The dessert shop sells finished processed products, like sweets and cheesecakes and crepes and juices; an excellent treat any time of the year. The place itself is a 20-min car ride from Kii-Tanabe station. It is also accessible by the local bus!

Lovely place for a Japanese buffet and sweets. Also insightful presentation of Japanese citrus fruits in a nostalgic wooden school.

This facility has guestroom, restaurant, cafe, and meeting room. It is noticeable that this building was used be an elementary school, and now running by a local campany. Moreover, most of stockholder are farmers living in this town. For tourist information, handy to KUMANOKO-DO, and English is available. Breakfast is Japanese menu only like cooked rice and miso soup and so on.

What a wonderful place! A quick ¥1900 taxi ride from Kii-Tanabe Station. Left fantastically fortified for a long day on the Kumono Kodo.

Built in an old school. Nice large Japanese style rooms, interesting food and information about local produce.