Bessō Takigahara
Foraging, Fermenting + Seasonal Cooking
An edible retreat in rural Japan
Location
Takigahara, Japan
Dates
May 16 – 25, 2025
October 2025 TBA
Cost
$2,600USD
This program is an insight into the source of our food and an opportunity to learn from the symbiotic relationship that exists between humans, the land and the sea in Takigaraha village.
Description
Spend 10 days living in step with the edible landscape of Takigahara: a rural community in Japan where people coexist with nature, and neither the mountains nor the long culture of food cultivation has moved for centuries.
From chopsticks to ingredients to plate, together we will build a meal from our surroundings: carving bamboo, harvesting wakame, foraging edible plants, fermenting, and embracing the practice of seasonal cooking. This will be enjoyed as a feast on our final night in a restaurant we craft for each other and the people we’ve met over the course of the project.
To connect more deeply with our surroundings, we’ll take part in Japanese language and culture classes, as well as a writing workshop centred on place-based creative non-fiction.
To document our experiences, we will also be hand-covering journals with washi: traditional paper we’ll make ourselves. These may be filled with recipes, stories, snippets of conversation, Japanese phrases, drawings, maps, lists, analysis.
Held in a locally owned and beautifully restored Japanese farmhouse nestled at the foot of Kurakake-yama, this program provides an opportunity to embrace sustainable ways of living with nature and others.
Japanese breakfasts and innovative chef-cooked dinners will be provided most days, and guests will be sleeping in shared accommodation in a space that has been furnished by some of the greats in contemporary design, including Zaha Hadid, Achille Castiglioni, Eero Saarinen and Jasper Morrison.
As well as communal dining and relaxing areas, Takigahara Farm has a co-working space, an on-site café and a natural wine bar.
16 places only.
Satoumi + Satoyama
In the Japanese language, sato (里) means village, umi (海) means ocean and yama (山) means mountain.
Over thousands of years, the harmonious coexistence of people and nature in parts of Japan has created irreplaceable ecosystems that are deeply intertwined with human well-being and biological diversity: satoumi (sea villages) and satoyama (mountain villages).
Ishikawa – the scenic and fertile prefecture Takigahara is located in – is home to both, giving way to a mosaic of terrain: mountain, forest, sea and flatland.
In practising and preserving these precious ecosystems, villagers maintain a deep and interdependent connection with the land and the sea: growing rice and vegetables, farming chickens, foraging edible wild plants, hunting boar, harvesting salt, fishing in moderation and tending to seagrass beds.
In 2015, Japanese designer Teruo Kurosaki visited Takigahara to investigate its moss gardens. As well as a charming village with a rich spirit and dwindling population, Kurosaki-san found an abandoned farmhouse – which he then renovated, furnished and transformed into a community space.
“It is my hope,” Kurosaki-san explains, “that other cities and people will hear this and come here to learn. Then it becomes a kind of movement, a new type of village for the future.”
In contemplating a sustainable tomorrow on a liveable planet, we believe there is so much knowledge to glean from Takigahara village and satoumi-satoyama lifestyle: from the value of seasonal eating to an awareness that mutually-beneficial relationships can, do and must exist between humans and the natural world.
This philosophy is especially true for those of us who live in urban and suburban environments where connections like this have largely been severed.
Inclusions
Return pick up from local train station by our hosts
9 x nights shared accommodation at Takigahara farm
9 x breakfasts
8 x dinners (7 chef-cooked and one meal we will cook together for ourselves)
5 x Japanese language and cultural classes
Bamboo chopstick-making workshop
Wakame harvesting field trip
Washi-paper making workshop
Journal making workshop
Creative non-fiction writing workshop
Fermenting workshop
Foraging field trip
Spring vegetable cooking workshop
Guided hike to the top of Mt Kurakake
Note that one dinner and all lunches will be self-funded. Takigahara Café is located on site, and everything on their menu is assembled from vegetables grown in local soil.
Meals
Japanese breakfast will be served each day featuring fresh eggs from Ako’s flock, who live next door to the farmhouse and roam the property throughout the day.
Dinners will be artfully prepared for us most nights by Chef Susa and assisted by local cook Naochan. Chef Susa is committed to exploring what is delicious for people, bodies and the planet, and is very interested in the culture, history and stories that only exist on the table.
He’s excited to create a meaningful menu for us each night using locally grown and sourced ingredients, all of which will be paired with Japanese wine, mead, beer, sake and amazake depending on the meal (drinks can be purchased with cash for an extra amount).
Program Schedule
Day 1: yōkoso | welcome
Afternoon arrival in Takigahara
Evening barbeque with villagers
Day 2: washi to nikki | paper & journal-making
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Washi paper-making workshop with Ako
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 3: yasou to katari | wild plants & storytelling
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Foraging field trip and workshop with Yamashita-san and Anna
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Writing workshop with Gemma
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 4: wakame | seaweed
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Wakame harvesting field trip with Miwa-san, ama diver
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 5: yama | mountain
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay (takeaway for mountain climbers)
Guided hike of Kurakakeyama
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 6: kyūsoku | rest
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Dinner in town (self funded)
Day 7: shio koji | ferment & seasoning
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Shio koji workshop with Anna
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 8: ohashi | chopsticks
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Chopstick-making workshop with Nari-san
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 9: haru no aji | taste of spring
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Bessō cooking bonanza, restaurant & afterparty
Day 10: ja ne | goodbye
Japanese breakfast at Craft and Stay
10am check out
Accommodation
For the duration of our time in the village, we will be housed in Takigahara’s Craft & Stay facilities, which are the central nervous system of the farm. This 130-year-old double-storey house has been renovated for modern comfort and is a space where traditional art informs contemporary design choices.
Roomy, high-ceilinged and made with original farmhouse timbers, the guest bedroom is located on the second floor – housing 16 sleeping nooks in bunk-bed style. Each bed comes with a curtain partition for privacy. There are three toilets and two showers.
We get that as adults you may not have shared a room for a long time, if ever, but this communal living is part of the project. There’s something about brushing your teeth alongside your neighbour that encourages communication, compromise and mutual understanding.
Guests are welcome to roam the open land, hike the mountains and swim in the nearby streams, which are all shared with the people of Takigahara Village. Within the farm grounds also sits a natural wine bar, open to all. Then there’s Takigahara Cafe: a local eatery selling lunch, light meals, coffee and drinks throughout the day; it’s an unofficial community centre and a great place to meet and chat with locals.
Location + Getting There
Takigahara Craft & Stay is located on Takigahara Farm, at O-66 Takigahara, Komatsu-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture.
The nearest station is JR Kaga Onsen Station (20 minutes’ drive).
Currently, the best way to reach Komatsu is by train or a flight from Tokyo.
Flight: Several airlines operate flights between Tokyo (Haneda Airport or Narita Airport) and Komatsu Airport (KMQ). Flight durations are relatively short – around 1 to 1.5 hours. From there, it’s an hour by train and bus to our pickup location.
Train: If coming from Tokyo, take the Hokuriku Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo Station or Ueno Station to Kagaonsen Station. The journey takes approximately 3 hours.
Car: If you decide to drive, parking onsite is available; you can rent a car in Tokyo and take the Hokuriku Expressway to reach Komatsu. The journey by car will take roughly 6 to 8 hours, depending on traffic. Do be aware that road tolls in Japan are expensive.
Application Process
We are looking to assemble a diverse group of community-minded folk who wish to gain a deeper understanding of food provenance, re/connect with the natural world and travel in a way that is slow, respectful and sustainable.
At Astray, we are determined to foster a space that is safe and inclusive for all – meaning we do not tolerate any form of bigotry, discrimination, abuse, marginalisation or insulting behaviour on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, religion, background, skin colour, race, religious belief, job, sexuality, gender identity, socioeconomic class, caste, disability or age.
Interested applicants should fill in a contact form telling us a little about who they are and why they wish to participate in this program. We will endeavour to get back to you within a week.
Bessō Takigahara
Foraging, Fermenting + Seasonal Cooking
An edible retreat in rural Japan
This program is an insight into the source of our food and an opportunity to learn from the symbiotic relationship that exists between humans, the land and the sea in Takigahara village.
Location:
Takigahara, Japan
Dates:
May 16 – 25, 2025
October 2025 TBA
Cost:
$2,600USD
Spend 10 days living in step with the edible landscape of Takigahara: a rural community in Japan where people coexist with nature, and neither the mountains nor the long culture of food cultivation has moved for centuries.
From chopsticks to ingredients to plate, together we will build a meal from our surroundings: carving bamboo, harvesting wakame, foraging edible plants, fermenting, and embracing the practice of seasonal cooking. This will be enjoyed as a feast on our final night in a restaurant we craft for each other and the people we’ve met over the course of the project.
To connect more deeply with our surroundings, we’ll take part in Japanese language and culture classes, as well as a writing workshop centred on place-based creative non-fiction.
To document our experiences, we will also be hand-covering journals with washi: traditional paper we’ll make ourselves. These may be filled with recipes, stories, snippets of conversation, Japanese phrases, drawings, maps, lists, analysis.
Description ↯
Over the course of 10 days, we will take part in a series of workshops, field trips and community hang-outs in Takigahara as we slowly craft a meal from its fertile surrounds.
Held in a locally owned and beautifully restored Japanese farmhouse nestled at the foot of Kurakake-yama, this program provides an opportunity to embrace sustainable ways of living with nature and others.
Japanese breakfasts and innovative chef-cooked dinners will be provided most days, and guests will be sleeping in shared accommodation in a space that has been furnished by some of the greats in contemporary design, including Zaha Hadid, Achille Castiglioni, Eero Saarinen and Jasper Morrison.
As well as communal dining and relaxing areas, Takigahara Farm has a co-working space, an on-site café and a natural wine bar.
16 places only.
In the Japanese language, sato (里) means village, umi (海) means ocean and yama (山) means mountain.
Over thousands of years, the harmonious coexistence of people and nature in parts of Japan has created irreplaceable ecosystems that are deeply intertwined with human well-being and biological diversity: satoumi (sea villages) and satoyama (mountain villages).
Ishikawa – the scenic and fertile prefecture Takigahara is located in – is home to both, giving way to a mosaic of terrain: mountain, forest, sea and flatland.
In practising and preserving these precious ecosystems, villagers maintain a deep and interdependent connection with the land and the sea: growing rice and vegetables, farming chickens, foraging edible wild plants, hunting boar, harvesting salt, fishing in moderation and tending to seagrass beds.
In 2015, Japanese designer Teruo Kurosaki visited Takigahara to investigate its moss gardens. As well as a charming village with a rich spirit and dwindling population, Kurosaki-san found an abandoned farmhouse – which he then renovated, furnished and transformed into a community space.
“It is my hope,” Kurosaki-san explains, “that other cities and people will hear this and come here to learn. Then it becomes a kind of movement, a new type of village for the future.”
In contemplating a sustainable tomorrow on a liveable planet, we believe there is so much knowledge to glean from Takigahara village and satoumi-satoyama lifestyle: from the value of seasonal eating to an awareness that mutually-beneficial relationships can, do and must exist between humans and the natural world.
This philosophy is especially true for those of us who live in urban and suburban environments where connections like this have largely been severed.
Return pick up from local train station by our hosts
9 x nights shared accommodation at Takigahara farm
9 x breakfasts
8 x dinners (7 chef-cooked and one meal we will cook together for ourselves)
5 x Japanese language and cultural classes
Bamboo chopstick-making workshop
Wakame harvesting field trip
Washi-paper making workshop
Journal making workshop
Creative non-fiction writing workshop
Fermenting workshop
Foraging field trip
Spring vegetable cooking workshop
Guided hike to the top of Mt Kurakake
Note that one dinner and all lunches will be self-funded. Takigahara Café is located on site, and everything on their menu is assembled from vegetables grown in local soil.
Japanese breakfast will be served each day, eaten together in the communal dining room and featuring fresh eggs from Ako’s flock, who live next door to the farmhouse.
Dinners will be creatively prepared for us each night by Chef Susa, assisted by local cook Naochan.
Chef Susa is committed to exploring what is delicious for people, bodies and the planet, and is very interested in the culture, history and stories that only exist on the table.
He’s excited to create a meaningful menu for us each night using locally grown and sourced ingredients, all of which will be paired with Japanese wine, mead, beer, sake and amazake depending on the meal (drinks can be purchased with cash for an extra amount).
Day 1: yōkoso | welcome
Afternoon arrival in Takigahara
Evening barbeque with villagers
Day 2: washi to nikki | paper & journal-making
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Washi paper-making workshop with Ako
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 3: yasou to katari | wild plants & storytelling
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Foraging field trip and workshop with Yamashita-san and Anna
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Writing workshop with Gemma
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 4: wakame | seaweed
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Wakame harvesting field trip with Miwa-san, ama diver
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 5: yama | mountain
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay (takeaway for mountain climbers)
Guided hike of Kurakakeyama
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 6: kyūsoku | rest
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Dinner in town (self funded)
Day 7: shio koji | ferment & seasoning
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Shio koji workshop with Anna
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 8: ohashi | chopsticks
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Chopstick-making workshop with Nari-san
Japanese language and culture class with Ariya
Chef-cooked dinner
Day 9: haru no aji | taste of spring
Japanese breakfast at Craft & Stay
Bessō cooking bonanza, restaurant & afterparty
Day 10: ja ne | goodbye
Japanese breakfast at Craft and Stay
10am check out
For the duration of our time in the village, we will be housed in Takigahara’s Craft & Stay facilities, which are the central nervous system of the farm. This 130-year-old double-storey house has been renovated for modern comfort and is a space where traditional art informs contemporary design choices.
Roomy, high-ceilinged and made with original farmhouse timbers, the guest bedroom is located on the second floor – housing 16 sleeping nooks in bunk-bed style. Each bed comes with a curtain partition for privacy. There are three toilets and two showers.
We get that as adults you may not have shared a room for a long time, if ever, but this communal living is part of the project. There’s something about brushing your teeth alongside your neighbour that encourages communication, compromise and mutual understanding.
Guests are welcome to roam the open land, hike the mountains and swim in the nearby streams, which are all shared with the people of Takigahara Village. Within the farm grounds also sits a natural wine bar, open to all. Then there’s Takigahara Cafe: a local eatery selling lunch, light meals, coffee and drinks throughout the day; it’s an unofficial community centre and a great place to meet and chat with locals.
Takigahara Craft & Stay is located on Takigahara Farm, at O-66 Takigahara, Komatsu-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture.
Currently, the best way to reach Komatsu is by train or a flight from Tokyo.
Flight: Several airlines operate flights between Tokyo (Haneda Airport or Narita Airport) and Komatsu Airport (KMQ). Flight durations are relatively short – around 1 to 1.5 hours. From there, it’s an hour by train and bus to our pickup location.
Train: If coming from Tokyo, take the Hokuriku Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo Station or Ueno Station to Kagaonsen Station. The journey takes approximately 3 hours.
Car: If you decide to drive, parking onsite is available; you can rent a car in Tokyo and take the Hokuriku Expressway to reach Komatsu. The journey by car will take roughly 6 to 8 hours, depending on traffic. Do be aware that road tolls in Japan are expensive.
We are looking to assemble a diverse group of community-minded folk who wish to gain a deeper understanding of food provenance, re/connect with the natural world and travel in a way that is slow, respectful and sustainable.
At Astray, we are determined to foster a space that is safe and inclusive for all – meaning we do not tolerate any form of bigotry, discrimination, abuse, marginalisation or insulting behaviour on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, religion, background, skin colour, religious belief, sexuality, gender identity, socioeconomic class, caste, disability or age.
Interested applicants should fill in a contact form telling us a little about who they are and why they wish to participate in this program. We will endeavour to get back to you within a week.