Ecorin Village

When I found out we would be spending the summer in Sapporo, I started making a list of things to do in the area and adding to it as I came across new ideas. One of the places that has been on the list from the very beginning is Ecorin Village - home to a small farm, vast themed gardens, and perhaps most intriguing, the world's largest tomato plant! How could we possibly leave without checking that out!

Wednesday we took the train about 20 minutes outside of Sapporo to explore the village. Our first stop was the famous tomato plant. Let me tell you, this thing did not disappoint! It was huge; taking up an entire small greenhouse:

The view from above - this is all one single plant. Or maybe it would be more accurate to call it a tomato tree? The greenhouse has a sign welcoming visitors to "Tomato No Mori" (tomato forest), which seems an appropriate name. This one plant covers an area of 920 square feet; that's bigger than a lot of one bedroom apartments!

According to the information provided at the village, while a typical tomato plant will produce 20-30 tomatoes each season, this one will yield more than 13,000! Crazy! While it is not a special variety of tomato plant (these are the same as any you'd buy in a store), it is grown hydroponically. All I can say is WOW!

When we were done marveling at the tomato tree and the surrounding vegetable gardens, we walked over to the farm area of the village. On our way we saw pastures of sheep and alpaca.

We arrived at the farm just in time for the tractor tour. Before it started, the guide handed Fiona a duck whistle. She's never tried one before...

Clearly she thought it was much funnier than I did!

It had to be confiscated about five minutes into the tour or I wouldn't have made it!

The farm was pretty much what you'd find at any farm around the world. We saw some miniature horses and alpacas, fed some sheep...

...watched a sheep dog show...

I have to say it was pretty impressive to watch a dog steer a heard of sheep through the demonstration gates set up in the pasture.

We felt alpaca fleece...

...and of course, what visit to a farm would be complete without a sheep race?! Fiona was cheering for pink.

Unfortunately, her sheep (who was named Sachajune) brought up the rear and got last place. Bahakoon, my favorite to win, took second!

Fiona tried to reward Sachajune for her strong effort, but she was too ashamed of herself to accept...

By the way, how do you like our loaner jackets from the farm? I'd love to know about the microclimate of the area the village is set in. When we left Sapporo it was nearly 80 degrees, but when we stepped off the train just 20 miles away it was downright cold and windy. We were walking around freezing until we made it to the farm where they opened up a large closet holding at least 50 jackets available to borrow free of charge. I can only figure it's a common weather phenomenon for it to be significantly cooler there motivating them to offer jackets for use. Whatever their reasoning, we were grateful to have them!

After a morning on the farm, we were hungry, so we stopped in at the adorable hobbit house-like restaurant, Ten Man.

I didn't really know what kind of restaurant this was, but being that it was really our only option, we went for it. Turns out it was the most amazing (and afforadable!) fresh vegetable buffet that included a few curry dishes. This may actually be the best meal I've eaten since we got here. It was also Fiona's first foray into buffet style dining. She was in awe! "I can keep getting more of whatever I want??" See this bowl of corn? She pretty much ate the entire thing herself - one small bowlful at a time.

After we had both polished off several plates of deliciousness, Fiona looked at me and said, "Mommy, my tummy is fuuuuull!" I replied with, "Oh man! That's too bad! Did I forget to tell you there's a dessert buffet?" Her response was the most hilarious speechless giggling:

Somehow we both made room for some ice cream. I had to try the three Hokkaido made seasonal specialties - milk (sort of like vanilla, but without the vanilla flavor), pumpkin, and cantaloupe. They were all phenomenal, but the cantaloupe took the prize for me. It tasted just like biting into a perfectly ripe, juicy cantaloupe. And cantaloupe really holds a special place in my heart. Every summer my grandparents would drive up to visit us from southern Idaho. On their way, they'd always stop and pick up the most delicious cantaloupe to bring with them. I can still hear my grandma saying, "We stopped for some Hagerman melons," as would pull one out and start slicing it for us. The entire kitchen would be filled with the sweet smell of cantaloupe and my brother and I would eat it as fast as she could cut it. Now any time I taste cantaloupe, I'm immediately transported back to my pre-renovation, orange and brown childhood kitchen filled with the excitement of grandma and grandpa having just arrived for a visit. Isn't it amazing how tastes and smells can do that?

Anyway, returning from my trip down memory lane...

After lunch we set out into the VAST gardens of Ecorin Village. I wish my mom could have been there with us! Even an unknowledgable gardener like myself was thoroughly impressed. How they managed to keep up garden after garden defies all reason. We did see probably a dozen gardeners pulling weeds and performing upkeep, but I don't know how they every stay on top of it all. These pictures are just a small subset of what we saw. Truly impressive!

Fiona's favorite part of the gardens were the small hobbit or gnome looking houses sprinkled about. Like the little houses we say at Shiroi Koibito Park, they were all intricately furnished, but they were also larger making them a kid's dream to explore:

I loved everything about the gardens, but my favorite was probably the series of interconnected walled gardens. One of my favorite books from my childhood is The Secret Garden, and walking through these gardens immediately made me feel as though I was in that book, exploring the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor.

There were fountains and ponds...

...gazebos and elaborately terraced gardens...

...mysterious secret tunnels to actual secret gardens...

...and flowers! Beautiful flowers in every color of the rainbow...

We could have spent several more hours there exploring. In fact Fiona almost decided to skip our dinner plans with Jason to do just that, but in the end, the lure of seeing a new visitor to Sapporo drew her away. One of the post docs from Jason's group at UMass is visiting the group here at Hokkaido University and ever since he arrived Fiona has been dying to see him. Introducing Sky to the "white slide" easily won out over more garden explorations.

It was a fun ending to a very full day!