Chino, Nagano, Japan｜はちみつ蔵

I stayed here with a Japanese acquaintance for one night and the owners were lovely. My acquaintance made the reservation and took care of most of the details--the owners do not speak any English. We didn't have dinner here, but for breakfast, they were able to accommodate my lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. I think they could probably accomodate a vegan diet for breakfast, at least, given the only animal products in breakfast were eggs and honey. But again, this would have to be communicated in Japanese. The rooms have notebooks for visitors to write about their travels instead of magazines or whatever else. My room had two volumes, with the first starting in 2006! Unfortunately the rooms didn't have AC or even a fan, so I had to open the windows fully at night to get comfortable in the warm August night. It cooled down quickly though. They have Japanese honeybees (Apis cerana japonica) on the property that are set away from the building. I was really surprised that the bees were much more docile and small compared to European honeybees (Apis mellifera). Visitors who stay overnight can try monofloral honey samples for free, if you only visit the honey store it is ¥100 per sample. There are about 12 different honeys available to sample, including Japanese honeybee honey! I was shocked at how different the Japanese honeybee honey tasted, even compared with European honeybees. They sell many kinds of honey in the store, as well as books, candles, wax chips, and tenugui. I bought several jars of Japanese honeybee honey as omiyage for my friends in the US--the owners said that in 3 years, they got only 10kilos of honey from their hives! The Japanese honeybee doesn't produce much honey, but what they do make is delicious and definitely something you should try if you're in the area!

Each flower from which the bee collects nectar has a different taste. The taste of cherry blossoms, the taste of mandarin oranges. . For 250 yen, you can try more than 10 kinds of food, so you can have a wonderful experience!

The food was well prepared and wonderful. Even if you use it with small children, there is a space where you can read picture books, so I think you can spend a relaxing time. I used it for skiing in winter, but it was my first time in summer. It was cool and great.