Higashimatsuyama is famous for pear picking. There are about 20 tourist pear farms in Higashimatsuyama City, Saitama Prefecture. However, in 2021 due to the Coronavirus only eight of them will offer pear picking. Of those 8 one of the farms has two different orchards, hence the map below has 9 places pin pointed. This event post shares information for the 2021 pear picking farms in Higashimatsuyama. The other 12 orchards are just selling pears this year.
Pear picking in Higashimatsuyama
Pear picking season starts in early September in Higashimatsuyama (Saitama, Japan). However, due to the weather some of the farms are expected to be ready for picking the last week in August. Higashimatsuyama City highly recommends ringing each farm to see when their season will be. Generally the season lasts until at least early October, often mid October. But due to the earlier start for some, they may have an earlier finish too. The standard price is 500 yen admission fee to the pear farms and 500 yen per kilo of pears. Varieties include Kousui, Chojuro, Housui and Niitaka.
Pear Orchards
Most of the farms are located in the Higashidaira area of Higashimatsuyama, which is located close to main route 407 and commutable from the Tobu Tojo line Higashimatsuyama station too. A couple of the pear orchards are also close to Shinrinkoen station, also on the Tobu Tojo line. They are all mapped below. Most of the pear orchards not only have no website, they weren’t on Google maps either! I’ve added them by their co-ordinates on the map below.
①Yanagisawa Kyo Pear Orchard – phone: +81493230320
②Ueda Pear Orchard – phone: 0493-22-2591
③Nashiyasan A – phone: 090-4089-2681
❹Nashiyasan B – phone: 090-4089-2681
⑤Nashikko Farm – phone: 090-4810-1374
⑥Waku Waku Farm – phone: 0493-24-1131
⑦Yanagisawari Farm – phone: 090-9144-4551
❽Kato farm – phone: 0493-22-4277
⑨Kato pear orchard – phone: 0493-24-0567
With the Coronavirus situation, many things have changed. Please do phone in advance to make sure the farm is open the day you want to go and to get more specific directions to the orchard you want to go to. The Higashimatsuyama city official website also have them (and pear selling shops) mapped out here (click).
Things to do in Higashimatsuyama
How about a riverside barbecue after you pick your own pears? Kurakake BBQ area in Higashimatsuyama is a lovely place for river play and riverside barbecuing. It is also one of the most popular blog posts on In Saitama in 2020!
Saitama Children’s Zoo is without doubt Higashimatsuyama City’s top attraction, but you will also find dozens of other things to do in Higashimatsuyama on this blog, a small sample:
- Higashimatsuyama Agriculture Park and Heuvel Cafe
- Peace Museum of Saitama 2020 | HIGASHIMATSUYAMA
- Garden and Cafe Prunus | HIGASHIMATSUYAMA
- Yakyu Inari Shrine, the Baseball Shrine| Higashimatsuyama
- Botanen Playground | HIGASHIMATSUYAMA
September is also grape picking season in Saitama. Some of the vineyards didn’t open this year on account of the Coronavirus, but one of the most famous – in Tokorozawa – is open and season has began.