Michi-no-Eki Shiki-no-Sato: Wakayama City's FOOD HUNTER PARK

Overview

FOOD HUNTER PARK is the reinvention of Shiki-no-Sato, a long-standing farm-and-nature park on the eastern edge of Wakayama City and, unusually, the only michi-no-eki (roadside station) inside the city itself. The grounds are vast, 25.5 hectares or roughly five Tokyo Domes, split between a woodland for watching birds, insects and plants and a flowering orchard garden, with big playgrounds, lawns and a day-camp and barbecue field folded in.

The retail-and-dining core runs on a 'Be Wild' theme divided into five named zones: a water market selling more than fifty own-brand products alongside fresh local fruit and vegetables, a flame hearth for barbecue, a tree garden of green space, and an earth farm where you can grow vegetables under a farmer's guidance. At the centre is the fire kitchen, Hi-no-Shokudo, a renovated timber building serving lunch and cafe dishes built on local produce; its afternoon-tea set, with additive-free sweets and two hours of free-flowing drinks, is reservation-only and changes with the season.

Signature plates include the Shiki-no-Megumi set, a twelve-dish spread with a seasonal main and Nachikatsuura tuna, plus plum-vinegar karaage and a dense wood-fired shokupan that is the park's most popular bake. It opens 10:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and from 9:00 at weekends, closed only over the New Year, about fifteen minutes from the Wakayama interchange with free parking.