Mother Farm — Attraction in Futtsu

Pros Scenic Futtsu/Chiba country drive to Mother Farm. Sprawling grounds, stunning views of valley/grounds; fields of flowers. Cute piggy races. Fun animal viewing/petting areas; tortoise, goats, sheep, duck parade, rabbits, capybaras, boars, lamas, alapacas, dogs, etc. Feed horses, goats, etc. Ride horses. Small bungee jump and zip line. Delightful sheep & dog show. Cow farm & milking. Small amusement rides. Fruit & flower picking orchards; blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, poppies, etc. Temples & gardens. Satisfying restaurants with killer views of the valley. Plenty snack and drink options, seating areas, or picnic areas. Clean facilities/grounds Well-maintained restrooms, hand-washng stations, smoke pits, trash/recycle stations throughout park. Massive parking lots (900 yen; all day). Optional bus access throughout park.

Cons Lengthy drive from home. Traffic driving on aqua way to Chiba and back is the typical nightmare for being on Japanese roadways. Prices are fair, but overall adds up quickly with the plethora of activities. Zip line weight limits may be issue if gaijin, just depends.

Helpful Tips Wear comfy shoes and clothes for a ton of walking and and be comfortable. Bring plenty sun protection. Bring picnic...

A great experience located just outside Tokyo in Chiba. The only downside is the travel time and congestion on the Tokyo Bay Bridge both to and from the Chiba side.

The farmer who owns this farmland is super entrepreneurial and, judging from the crowds we saw while there, he probably makes more money from the tourist attractions he setup than selling the farm produce itself (which you can buy at the large farm shop near the entrance and some of it is really good to boot)

There are many attractions such as fruit-picking, animal performances and landscape sights but for me the highlight of the farm has to be the berry-jam-making and butter-making workshops ( find and tap the Workshop location in Google Maps a bit to the left of the Farm entrance on Gmaps to find my detailed review on that ).

All things considered, it provides a great change-of-pace from the endless seeing of standard city sights like temples, shrines, memorials and shopping in central Tokyo. And on the way back to Tokyo, you can drop by the nearby Honey and Mead Factory and the Farmer's Market. In short, it's a great day out for...

We went for the half day half price ticket and even got discounted 100 yen for wearing Japanese jinbei/yucata in the weekend when they do fireworks. The Piglet speed race was very cute. In general they don't have so many animals. by the time to go pet the rabbits, a huge queue was formed just to do that. We were hoping to see the many sheep coming down the hill but that part was canceled probably because of the fireworks. The carpet of flowers was very pretty though they had pink petunias. Although it says Farm they don't sell any vegetables, instead they have the expensive sausages and cheese. We didn't buy any because Japanese cheese is purely horrible and nothing like what cheese is supposed to be. The Merry go Round part is at extra cost. So if you really want to see animals better skip all these and instead go to that part where you pay 1600yen just to play 60min with some animals. This park is probably great for...