While you may be familiar with the word Zen, the best way to start a path to understanding this branch of Buddhism is to experience it for yourself. And this can be done right in Yokohoma, Tokyo’s neighbor city.

We have been farming in Yokohama for over 500 years.After cultivating rice and vegetables, raising pigs and chickens, and growing flowers, we began producing “Ohisama Shiitake” in 2012 and “Ohisama Kikurage” in 2014. In addition to prioritizing safety and quality, we aim to share the deliciousness of food, as well as the enjoyment and importance of agriculture. To this end, we offer experiences such as mushroom picking, BBQ, and at-home shiitake growing kits.We are also committed to environmentally friendly, sustainable farming. Electricity generated by solar panels and other renewable energy sources is used in our mushroom cultivation. Spent mushroom beds are not discarded but returned to the fields as compost, creating a sustainable cycle for growing delicious vegetables.At the farm, you can also try experiences such as using a hand-pumped well and entering an air-raid shelter. At our farm stand, in addition to fresh shiitake and kikurage mushrooms, we offer a variety of processed products, including tsukudani, caramel popcorn, and potato chips made with dried shiitake powder, and pasta kits packaged in collaboration with welfare facilities.

Herbivorous animals such as koalas, elephants, and giraffes are raised here, as well as rare animals such as rhinos and Arabian oryx. Our gray kangaroo walk-through exhibit allows visitors to walk through and observe them up close. At the "Familiar Life Museum," we preserve the natural environment in and around the lush garden, a place where children and adults alike can learn about animals, from insects to small mammals. The adjoining Kanazawa Nature Park has a 100m roller slide which is popular with children, and a BBQ area.The zoo will extend its opening hours on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in August, and will hold a special summer evening event where the zoo will open to the public at night, an experience otherwise unavailable to the public. The zoo will be decked out with projection mapping and bamboo lanterns, and visitors will be given a chance to experience a view of the animals at night, more active than in the daytime!

Located in Kanazawa Ward, this fireworks festival is organized for civilians of the ward and is held on the last Saturday of August. Every year 3000 fireworks are set off offshore from Umino Park. The festival has a history of over forty years, and the fireworks can be enjoyed all across the area. Everybody waits eagerly for the giant "Starmine" fireworks to be set off at the end of the night.

Ryugeji is one of the old temples that was founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo and Mongaku Shonin in the outer harbor area. It enshrines and is famous for Boke-fuji Kannon (dementia prevention). It also enshrines Jizobosatsuzazo and Daikokuten (the God of Wealth), which is one of the Yokohama Kanazawa Seven Deities of Good Fortune. The temple is also known as the temple of peony.