Daio Wasabi Farm Restaurant

My mother was finally able to see this place after 6 years. The area is beautiful and mysterious in some places. We were there in Spring so we saw the snow cap mountains around the farm and a cool little cat that decided to be our tour guide. They have a nice souvenir shop around the entrance and a little food court with wasabi infused snacks. Make sure if you have kids to keep them on the trails.

If you like wasabi or don't this farm is a great place to check out on how Wasabi is grown. They are open on rainy days although you'll definitely need an umbrella or poncho to walk around. The food shops here great. You have to try the wasabi soft serve. They are great and it's not spicy. Plenty of parking space and it's free. All in all worth going and we need to go on a sunny day next time.

While it is a popular destination for tourists, visiting at the opportune moment reveals its true beauty, making it a delightful discovery for those who appreciate wasabi and stunning landscapes. The establishment features two exceptional restaurants, and to the left, there are vendors offering quick bites and sweet treats, such as ice cream often complemented by the delightful flavor of wasabi. I can only imagine how breathtaking this location would be during the sakura season.

Visited 大王わさび農場 (Daio Wasabi Farm) on a Monday morning. Entrance is free and there was plenty of parking available. It wasn’t crowded, which was nice, but unfortunately it was raining, so we couldn’t fully enjoy walking around the farm. Since it's summer, the wasabi fields were also covered with black nets to protect the plants from the heat, so visibility was limited. Still a peaceful and interesting place to visit, just better to come on a clear day!

Really beautiful landscape, walks along the wasabi fields. There is an exhibition, but mostly in explained in Japanese. Unfortunately the fields are covered to protect the plants from sun/ heat. You can still see them, but the views would be better in the cooler months, when the covering is not necessary. The Gift shop had a huge variety to choose from. And surprisingly, the wasabi ice cream was very delicious!

Good place to visit and see the way wasabi is grown. Its like a park (free entrance) you can stroll around for up to an hour or so. Beautiful green plenty of shade and nice views across the farm and surroundings. The boat tour is a bit overrated and short only 20 minutes not going in the farm. There is a fish pool with beautiful trout. Not alot of information on wasabi making itself. There is a restaurant on site.

Daio Wasabi Farm is Japan's largest wasabi farm, covering approximately 15 hectares. Established in 1915, the farm utilizes the area's pristine spring water, fed by melting snow from the Northern Alps, to cultivate high-quality wasabi. In addition to exploring the wasabi fields and watermills, visitors can sample a variety of wasabi-infused products at the farm's restaurants and shops. Offerings include wasabi soba, wasabi tempura, and the unique wasabi soft-serve ice cream. Admission to Daio Wasabi Farm is free, making it an accessible and enriching destination for those interested in Japanese agriculture, cuisine, and scenic beauty.

Fun and beautiful wasabi farm. Short walking trail made accessible to tourists for free, as well as a small museum where they provide explanations of wasabi types, background and about the farm. Multiple food sports at your disposal on the farm and great views.

This is Japan's largest wasabi farm, so if you like wasabi you obviously came to the right place. The farm grounds are beautiful. My friend and I enjoyed the relaxing stroll through the scenic trails, visiting the cave shrine, and watching the pristine streams of water flow gently through the wasabi plants. We were lucky to be the only visitors on the farm for the serene experience. Now the carnival-like food stuff is unfortunately more of a gimmick. The Disneyland of wasabi this is not. The strength of the wasabi in all of the foods we tried was pitiful, but I guess you can't be too careful. The croquette was tasty and creamy but sorely needed the extra wasabi mayo/sauce to give it an edge. I also tried the wasabi ice cream which tasted exactly like green tea ice cream. Pretty disappointing. Later in the day we ate in their wasabi-themed restaurant, which again is still pretty gimmicky but the food quality is a little better. The wasabi soba bowl and wasabi curry were okay dishes with only faint hints of wasabi. A major surprise to me was the "wasabi juice", which was essentially wasabi-infused lemonade. Mix in the amount of wasabi to your liking and you've got a pleasantly refreshing beverage with a real kick!

Pretty cool farm. My first experience at a Wasabi farm. There are a few dining places as well as photo taking areas (overlooking the farm). Had lunch here and the food was great. The dining area next to the toilet (on the right). Most of the food has wasabi on it. Whether it is the sauce or sliced wasabi. Was pretty delicious and the food served before our group arrived. There are also two stores. One is handicraft related goods (keychains, wooden sculptures, bento containers, etc). The other one you could buy wasabi related foods (snacks, bottled wasabi, fresh wasabi, etc). You could buy some souvenirs there too. Outside the latter store, there are two food related shops (croquettes or soft serve). I tried the soft served store - wasabi soft serve and wasabi beer. Price wise was considered cheap and portion was quite good. Taste wise, if you think it will be spicy on the throat, not really but it has a sweet tangy after taste. Love those - must try when you guys visit here ;) According to the tour guide there isn't much wasabi farms left in Japan as it is hard to grow in a uncontaminated environment (fresh water, etc). You could see the steps of how they grow Wasabi on one of the pictures I took. Great experience and definitely a tourist worthy place ;)

We very much enjoyed our visit to Daio Wasabi Farm. My family likes gardening and the outdoors so this was right up our alley. We were staying in Matsumoto and took the O'ito line train to Hotaka station. We accidentally purchased express train tickets to Hotaka at the cost of $60.00 us for four people one way. No big deal but was more than I expected for a short train ride. We took the slower train back at a cost of approx $4.00 us per person. The ride was less than 45 minutes through the beautiful mountains. We arrived at the Hotaka station and had no trouble getting a taxi or communicating where we wanted to go. I saw reviews talk about biking to the farm from the station but with my kids in tow that would have been a tall order. It's probably about 4 miles without (much) English signage. There is no charge to walk the grounds of the wasabi farm and it was much more enjoyable than I expected. You can walk the trails of the beautiful property. There are caves and shrines to explore as well as the working farm. All of the signs were in Japaneses but we got the general idea that wasabi needs constant fresh clean water to grow. The day we visited it was not crowded at all, maybe 20 other visitors. We did see a couple of tour buses parked in the lot so I imagine it could be crowded at times. There are several restaurants on property but we only had the ice cream. You can order milk or wasabi. I chose milk but hubby tried the wasabi. Wasabi ice cream is odd. My 11 year old son who enjoys being outside and gardening enjoyed this very much. My 14 year old girl who old likes shopping and eating was in it for the ice cream but she did admit it was pretty cool afterwards. To arrange a taxi back to the train station I asked the office lady (in bad Japanese) and a taxi arrived promptly. Hint, taxis want your name and destination when they are called. Argh! What are they asking ? lol If you are looking for a quiet day in the country I definitely recommend a visit to this farm. We hope to return one day.