This is Day 2 of our mini road trip from Kanagawa when we hit our most northern point and the two main reasons for the drive! Check Day 1 here (Akebonoyama Park, Koga Kubou Park, Bamboo Forest) for our intermediate stops along the way if you missed it.
Our stay at the Toyoko Inn includes a free breakfast, so we made sure to take advantage of that to start the morning even if it meant getting going a little later. The eating area in this hotel was a bit small and they provided take out/disposable containers instead of plates as most guests would end up eating in their rooms. We made sure to get there early and got a table though.
My husband drove us from Utsunomiya to Zao Fox Village in just about 2.25 hours. We arrived a handful of minutes after it opened at 09:00am and were among the first in the parking lot.
Enter the facility and purchase your admission tickets (1000yen for adults, cash only), get a safety briefing/warning and then continue on in. Upon immediately entering the free-range "forest" area, you cannot stop to take pictures and should continue along the path for a bit away from the door/gate. There will be foxes everywhere all doing their own thing! When we arrived, most were curled up and sleepy. This was good, so we got used to being in the environment and see them a bit up close without really getting in their way.
The terrain goes uphill and downhill but there are clearly paved paths where humans are supposed to walk. Foxes will go wherever they please!
There's a closed off elevated platform near the middle where staff sell small packets of food for 500yen. Even though it was early, many of the foxes knew what it meant when people started to gather in this covered structure and gathered around!
We spent about 45 minutes-ish just slowly walking around the grounds with the foxes. Some of them were playful and some nagged each other, but for the most part, they seemed to keep to themselves at this time of day.
Back outside the free range space, you'll find bathrooms, benches and different types of foxes in labelled smaller enclosures, some individual and others paired up, to introduce the different species so you can observe them up close. There's quite a few foxes as expected, but there are also rabbits and guinea pigs on the main level too.
On the bottom level, there are more traditional larger farm animals like lambs, goats and mini horses.
It's not a huge facility, but we spent more time there than I had initially anticipated (not a bad thing), especially because we took our time walking around and looking at all the animals in the enclosures as well.
Overall, we had a pretty good time! I've never seen a fox outside of a zoo before, so it was interesting to me to see how they interacted with each other or just hung around.
It wasn't too crowded when we went (around the opening time on an overcast Sunday in early April), although it did start to fill up a little more with larger groups when we were leaving, closer to 10:15. If you're someone who typically likes zoos and/or loves foxes, it's definitely worth a visit, especially if you have a car for access. While you're not really supposed to directly interact with them in the free range area, at least there's an the option for feeding!
Lunch at Hikarian
The Shiroishi area (where the fox village is located) is known for umen! Umen noodles aren't made with any oil, are short in length and quite skinny. It reminded me a lot of somen noodles. Hikarian specializes in umen and is only open at lunch time, starting from 11:00. We parked in front of the shop at around 10:45 and took our place in a growing line that formed outside the closed doors of the restaurant. We were lucky to be the last party who got a table in the first seating! If you're interested in eating here, it is best advised to arrive early or expect to wait - there was quite a line when we left.
The menu does include English and pictures, so it's easy to figure out what you want. We ordered the chicken umen (hot) and the dipping umen with 3 sauces (cold). The water and tea is self serve. Since we were last seated and took a while to decide what we wanted, our order did take a little while (everyone else in the entire restaurant got their order in first), but it was understandable and also worth the small wait. This ended up being my husband's and my parents' favorite meal experience of the weekend! Definitely recommend stopping here if you're in the area.
We stopped by the shop located in front of the restaurant (it's associated with it) as well. When paying, we were given 4 coupons (1 per meal) for 1 free small gift with minimum 1100yen purchase. We ended up using all of the coupons, spending a lot more here than we would have otherwise without it, haha.
The "free gift" was a single umen serving, value of approx 110-130yen I think. We were excited to take it home to have later and also share with family and friends for them to try too!
Ebisu Circuit Drift Taxi in Fukushima
We left Shiroishi and made a brief stop at a Uniqlo in Fukushima before heading to Ebisu Circuit! I had requested a Drift Taxi session for the afternoon on this day about a month in advance through their website and confirmed everything through email in English (all super easy).
We had a small mix up at the vehicle entrance for Ebisu Circuit which is also the entrance for Tohoku Safari Park and where you would pay a per person fee if you're coming in to use the tracks at the circuit. If you're going for Drift Taxi, be sure to tell the staff that at the entrance - you should NOT have to pay anything to get in.
We ended up being a few minutes late as I didn't anticipate what was involved after getting to the vehicle entrance, but followed the signs to get to the East area, including a very narrow tunnel to get to the track where motorcycles were doing their runs. We were welcomed into the office when we told them we had a Drift Taxi reservation. Suenaga-san, who I had been corresponding with by email for the arrangements, gave us a brief in English and also had us fill out our names/info for insurance.
When I made the reservation, the base price for the Drift Taxi experience was 30,000yen (+500yen for each guest, up to 3) but apparently the price went up as of April 1, 2023 to 45,000yen. I had no idea about that, but Suenaga-san told us that it would be OK for us to pay the previously listed price, which was nice since that's what I had planned for it to be when I made the reservation.
My parents were staying back, so I used very bad, broken Japanese to ask Suenaga-san what would be OK for them to do in the East track area. They could basically go wherever they wanted (off the vehicle track, of course). And apparently they could have even driven our personal car behind the drift taxi to follow us around and watch. Unfortunately, neither of them have licenses for driving our car, so they just stayed put (not that they wanted to go through the tiny tunnel anyway lol), but it seems like there's no problem for non-participants to just go around and watch if you can get yourself around!
In any case, my husband and I got in the backseat (opting to sit together), and off we went! There's plastic dividers in the car which I'm guessing were recent additions due to COVID protocols, but don't really hinder your experience that much.
This was just the first taste of what was to come! I'll admit, I did start feeling a little iffy after even only this beginner track lol.
We moved onto another area and I also managed to survive the second track as well. However, I did request a small breather after it to get some fresh air since the car was a little warm. By the third track, I knew it would probably be best if I sat it out, even though the experience was so much fun.
I asked to step out of the car at the introduction of the next track and was able to get some photos and video outside the car instead!
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I did the same thing for the fourth and final track as well which is supposed to be like a mountain road. My husband switched from being alone in the backseat to the front seat for this one since he started feeling a little iffy as well and Suenaga-san recommended it.
I hopped back in the car after and we returned to the East track area after that, taking about 35-40 minutes total with the drift taxi. The time went by pretty fast, but still felt like quite a bit.
Honestly, it was such a cool experience, and I'm so sad I only got to really do half of it. Motion sickness for activities like this that I would typically enjoy with no problem started hitting me really hard all of a sudden about 1.5 years ago, and it really sucks. At the same time, I'm also glad I was able to get some third person shots of the car in motion to share as well because it's just so amazing, and I was able to share it with my parents who couldn't come out with us. Suenaga-san always seemed 100% in control, in good spirits and was very patient with us, especially me needing to get in and out of the car.
We had a really good time overall! This is a bit of a pricey activity, but you can absolutely tell the level of expertise Suenaga-san (or I'm sure any driver who takes you out) has, and it's definitely a unique experience. We have a lot of respect for what they do and you could tell the other personal drivers and observers at the track did as well when they stopped to watch. I never felt once unsafe and the sickness is really just my (body's own) fault. If this interests you even a little bit, I would encourage you to budget for it and give it a try!
a brief stop at Tohoku Safari Park
So, I mentioned that Ebisu Circuit shares a vehicle entrance for Tohoku Safari Park lol. While Suenaga-san was driving us around to the different tracks, I noticed that when we passed through the parking area, you could actually just stop and see some of the animals! I had needed like a 15 minute break in the East track parking area even after being done in the Drift Taxi, but while we were making our way out, it didn't seem like an issue for us to just stop in the Safari Park parking area to stop for a closer look. (I didn't mind having a bit more of a break outside of a moving car anyway lol.)
I mostly just chilled out by the car, but there a decent number of larger animals you could see from just this area and even a red panda and tanuki as well. It was a nice small side benefit of stopping by the Drift Circuit for my mom who loves to see different animals.
Kaiseizan Park in Koriyama
Back on the road, we went further south a bit into Koriyama. About 40 minutes away by car, we stopped by Kaizeizan Park to just be another place to pause and break up the longer driving distances. It turned out to be a great decision because the sakura in this park was in FULL BLOOM and had so many trees that all seemed to be in sync. We arrived at around 16:30 which seemed to be when a lot of families were leaving and had no issue getting parking.
Clear blue sky and the sun starting to set, creating some shadows and slightly golden glow. It was hard to capture in a single photos because the trees were a bit spread apart, but it was really gorgeous in person because they were all so full of flowers.
It was getting a bit chilly with the wind, so we started to make our way out and passed this Pokemon playground equipment - with a gigantic Chansey! (The other side was hallowed out with slides/platforms). All cute and pink to match with the flowers.
We exited just as the sun was setting, spending just over an hour in the park.
Dinner at La Cuccuma
In looking up dinner options near Kaiseizan park, this one looked really interesting based on the reviews! La Cuccuma features "fried pizza" or pizza fritta which is kinda like a deep fried calzone? They generally specialize in Napoli style Italian food. It's a short walk from the park and a bit small but not so hard to find if you're looking for it.
Upon entering the restaurant, one of the owners informed us that they only had enough dough for 1.5 (so 1 full size & 1 half size or 3 half size) fried pizzas. That was not a deal breaker for us, especially because we just had the food/snacks from the stalls at near the park, so we eagerly sat down. After much deliberation, we decided on a full size Completa and a half size Salsiccia e Friarielli. We also got 2 servings of cesar salad. I didn't get a picture, but my mom really loved the dressing for it and the vegetables were fresh and apparently local from Koriyama!
Not the prettiest pictures since what makes them unique is what's hidden inside, but they were excellent and had really interesting flavor! Super fun to try.
We also decided to order dessert! This is the tiramisu (available only on weekends) and the baba. I'll be honest, I don't know what baba is lol. But my parents and husband said it has a bit of an alcohol taste. The tiramisu was also really packed with flavor and quite good.
Thank you to this husband and wife team for being so patient and welcoming! The wife spoke very good English and helped us with the menu a lot since we were unfamiliar with a lot of the Italian terms lol. We were the only ones in the restaurant (since we took the last servings of dough), so my dad ended up chatting with them a bit before we left.
This restaurant is definitely a recommendation from me if you're in the area. The name in Google Maps is "揚げﾋﾟｯﾂｧ La cuccuma ラ•クックマ" if you need to search for it. Be sure to get there before they run out for the day!
We returned to our hotel back in Utsunomiya with the remaining 1.5 hour drive to finish Day 2.
Two of the activities we hit this day were the impetus for traveling out to this area - Fox Village and Drift Circuit! These were the farthest away from our house and both activities that we felt like we should do while living in Japan and having easy access to a car (versus trying to come back as tourists later). My husband spent about 6 hours total driving this day, covering about 470km getting us back and forth!
Both were definitely unique experiences that I'm glad we did, and somehow we were still wow'd at the end of an exciting day by the sakura in Kaiseizan Park too. Not to mention both meals we had this day were excellent and local to each area as well. (Although I guess you could argue that Napoli food is not Japanese, but it was a small local restaurant lol.) Overall, despite the motion sickness, I would definitely consider this a great day of travel and had so much fun.
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