Looking for fresh vegetables, delicious soba, and an activity to do with the family? Boy, do I have a place for you. This summer, you should get in the car with the family and head on over to Tsukuba's Mizuho Village Market.
Tsukuba 's Mizuho Village Market
This village market is located in Yagihashi area of Tsukuba. The train station is really far from this place so I highly suggest going by car.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo went to this place on a hot day in July for some cold soba. We parked in front of the market area and decided to check out the market before we went to the soba restaurant next door. I had always heard about this place and wanted to check it out. I also heard that at the beginning of the month, this place has different food cars and stalls that come by to sell what they are cooking. Hi-5 burgers also comes by sometimes.
Inside the Market
My wife and I parked our car in front of the market and headed inside. The market has a lot of fresh vegetables from around Tsukuba. Farmers are able to sell their produce which looked really fresh but we're a bit expensive. There was also fresh meat, a small bakery, and plants for growing your own vegetables.
After a little while of walking around the market, we headed to the soba restaurant for some lunch.
Mizuho Village Market Soba Restaurant
Next to the market, there is a sort of outside area for eating and events. Next to that is the soba restaurant. It is a big restaurant with a huge water wheel next to it used for making soba. The restaurant is only open till 3:00pm so lunch only. It is a pretty big restaurant. There are two floors for dinning and a really nice but small outside Japanese garden.
Inside
The inside of the restaurant is really Japanese and old. My wife was having flashbacks of her younger years in her grandmother's house when she checked out the restaurant. The restaurant is all sitting on tatami mats so very traditional.
The menu is, you guessed it, soba. I didn't see an English menu so it might be a bit difficult for non-Japanese speakers. I wanted cold soba but my wife wanted to try something with a little bit of duck in it.
Ten Mori Soba
This soba is a cold soba with a small plate of tempura as a side. The tempura was shrimp, sweet potato, and another green vegetable which I wasn't sure what it was. The tempura was honestly OK. Nothing really special about it. The soba dipping broth was also OK. Tasted like any other mentsuyu I have ever had. The soba though, was pretty fantastic. I have gone to soba restaurants and been disappointed in the soba before, but this place really does have excellent soba. It was a little chewy but very tasty. This soba might be the best soba I have had in this area of Ibaraki.
Kamojiro Soba
That soup you see in that picture is kamo, or duck as you would say in English. It was a hot soup with huge pieces of meat inside. I liked my soba but I loved my wife's soba. Even though it was a hot day and I wanted something cold, this hot soba dish was a nice choice. The soup tasted so good. Not too heavy and not too oily. Mix the soba noodles in there and it was a heavenly dish. I highly recommend the kamojiro, if you are OK with eating duck that is.
After we finished our lunch and delicious soba, we payed the staff and headed for an adventure outside.
Sunflower Maze
Right in front of the soba restaurant is a cute looking sunflower maze. My wife and I decided to try it out right after lunch. Little piece of advice, don't do what we did which is try this maze at around 2:00pm, and if you do, bring a parasol. The sun really beams down on you in that maze.
The maze costs about 300 yen per person and it is actually quite fun. I believe the maze will be open till August 28th, but you might want to go now if you have a chance. The sunflowers may not last that long.
My wife and I paid the sunflower maze staff the entry fee, were given an adventure paper, and we headed inside.
Where am I?
When you enter the maze, it isn't as simple as get in get out. You are given a paper which you use to get stamps and answer quiz questions in the maze. Meaning you have to explore all of the maze. If you get all the stamps and all the questions correct, you can participate in a lottery to get a free bag of rice. Everything is in Japanese though, no English. The maze was really great. The Ibaraki Eats Duo was surrounded by sunflowers. We had the occasional bee fly by us, but nothing to worry about. We explored the whole maze, got our stamps, and answered the quiz questions.
We had a lot of fun in the maze, and after the maze we went to the ticket window and bought some kakigori to cool down. The maze has a shaded eating area for you to cool down and relax, which is where we had our kakigori. It was a really fun day but way way too hot.
Tsukuba's Village Market is a lot of fun. You can buy produce from farms around Tsukuba, eat fantastic soba, and run around a sunflower maze. I really hope to come back when the village market has an event going on or something. Or I might come back later in the year to pick some vegetables.
So if you are looking for something fun to do while shopping for groceries, why not give Tsukuba Village Market a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, happily slurping some of the best soba in Tsukuba.
Enjoy!
For more information on Tsukuba's Mizuho Village Market, check out their website;
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