The Mito International Association holds a number of workshops throughout the year for foreign residents. The association usually chooses unique experiences that foreign residents wouldn’t normally have the chance to participate in. Which makes them even more enticing to us. For this tour we made New Year’s wreaths and got a guided tour of the Mito Municipal Botanical Park. We then stopped off for lunch at Uchihara Aeon Mall, before making mochi at the Mito City Forest Park.

Mito Municipal Botanical Park

We started the morning at 9:30 am at the Mito City International Association. As we were getting checked in we saw that a friend we had made at a previous event was also attending. We were super happy to see them again and excited to spend more time with them. After getting checked in we got a complimentary bottle of green tea and headed out. We took the short 20 minute chartered bus ride to the Mito Municipal Botanical Park. We were pretty impressed with our bus driver who managed to make some pretty sharp turns with our full size charter bus.

After we got off the bus, we took a quick walk to the parks botanical museum. We went to the second floor and there were a number of tables set up for the wreath making workshop. After a brief demonstration we got directions in both English and Japanese. Assembling the wreaths was quite fun and it was interesting learning about the meaning behind each piece. After, we got bags to store our wreaths in.

After the wreath making workshop we got a guided tour of the botanical garden. The garden had a number of green houses with a large variety of plants and flowers. The amount and variety of flowers in bloom was surprising. The park was very nice and probably the most scenic in the spring and autumn. We definitely want to come back during those times. As the tour ended, we got back in the bus and headed to Uchihara Aeon Mall for lunch.

Kamakura Pasta

When we got to Uchihara Aeon Mall, we knew exactly what we wanted for lunch. We went to Kamakura Pasta on the north side of the mall. The restaurant serves a wide variety of pastas with either spaghetti or fettuccini noodles. There is an option for all you can eat bread. We always get the bread option. The bread is fresh from the oven and delicious. We wrapped up lunch and headed back to the bus.

Mito City Forest Park

We took a 15 minute drive north to the Mito City Forest Park. Once again our bus driver did not disappoint with his driving skills. He took the bus up a windy one way forested road with ease and managed to park in a spot with little room for error. Along the road we saw some beautiful fall leaves. As we got closer to the parking lot, we noticed that the Mito City Forest Park had quite a few other visitors.

Mochi Making

The mochi workshop is in the Forest Park’s learning center. We washed our hands and donned aprons and bandanas. Freshly cooked mochi rice was brought in and was placed in a large wooden mortor. We took turns pounding the mochi rice with large wooden mallets. After about 20 minutes the mochi rice had fused together into a thick paste.

Since there was so much, we were able to both eat some and take some home. We then separated the mochi into individual servings and added multiple toppings. We added kinako (soybean powder), maple syrup, chocolate sauce, and red bean paste. My personal favorite was the maple syrup. After wrapping up we looked around the learning center and saw this cool display of acorn art. We looked around a bit more before heading out. The bus took us back to the Mito International Association and we said our goodbyes.

Final Thoughts

We really liked the tours and workshops that the Mito International Association offered. They are all really unique and fun to participate in. The participation fee is always nominal and a great value. The staff of the association are all really nice and are able to communicate the topics and directions in English. We look forward to participating in more events in the future.

Note: Attendance is usually limited and foreign nationality citizens are given preference.

Here is the link for the tour.

Here is the link for the Mito International Association’s website where they post future events and workshops (Under the “Topics” section).

More to come…