West Okayama · Kurashiki FunaoNo.1026★★★Open in map →
Okayama Muscat
— Kurashiki's glasshouse grape country
Almost all of Japan's Muscat of Alexandria is grown in Okayama, under glass rather than in the open. In Funao, on the west bank of the Takahashi River, the cooperative's farm stand sells the graded fruit where the houses stand.
- FromOkayama Station
- ~55 minJR train, then a walk
- Get off atNishi-Achi Station (JR Sanyo Line)
- From there
- Okayama Muscat
Where it is
14 more notes in Okayama · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Takahashi Riverthe broad river between Nishi-Achi and Funao, crossed on the way west
- Funao branch officethe village centre, where the city branch, the hall and the community-taxi stop sit together
- JA Funao farm standthe cooperative counter where graded muscat and local vegetables are sold
- Hillside glasshousesrows of grape houses stepping up the slopes north of the village
How to actually get there
- Okayama Station → Nishi-Achi (JR Sanyo Line, towards Kurashiki).
- Nishi-Achi → Funao (about 35 minutes west on foot, crossing the Takahashi River).
- Reach the JA farm stand in the village centre, then look north to the glasshouses on the slopes.
- JR Sanyo Line, then west on foot
- Okayama Station →(JR Sanyo Line, towards Kurashiki and Fukuyama)→ Nishi-Achi, then about 35 minutes west on foot, crossing the Takahashi River into Funao. The walk is roughly 1.8 km as the crow flies and runs on flat village roads. Trains on this stretch are frequent through the day, so no timetable planning is needed.
- Return from Nishi-Achi
- Walk back east across the river to Nishi-Achi and take the JR Sanyo Line to Okayama or on to Kurashiki. Grapes fare badly in a warm bag, so make this the last stop of the day rather than the first.
About the place
Muscat of Alexandria is the grape Okayama built its fruit reputation on, and roughly nine in ten of Japan's crop comes from the prefecture. It is grown under glass rather than in the open, which is why the ground west of the Takahashi River is lined with houses instead of bare vines. Funao, on the west bank in Kurashiki, is one of the strongholds: greenhouses climb the northern slopes and fill the flat land to the south. JA Hare-no-Kuni Okayama, the regional agricultural cooperative, runs a farm stand in the middle of the village, where the cut fruit goes out by grade — gift bunches on the top shelf, household fruit below.
How to enjoy it
The stand opens at 8:30 and closes at 16:30, pulling in to 16:00 for the first three months of the year. Muscat of Alexandria reaches the counter from late May, Shine Muscat and New Pione follow through the summer, and the late variety Shion closes the season in autumn. Outside the grape months the shelf turns to sweet peas and vegetables, so pick the date around the fruit.
Background & history
Muscat of Alexandria travelled out of Egypt long before it reached Japan, and Japanese growers could not make it work outdoors. Okayama succeeded in 1886 by putting it under glass, the first in the country to do so, and the glasshouse has defined the crop here ever since. Funao's own advantage is its shape: hills to the north, flat land to the south, and the water of the Takahashi River between them. Newer varieties such as Shine Muscat and New Pione later joined the same houses without pushing the original out.
Before you go
- Cash
- The stand is free to enter, and the fruit is priced by grade — a gift box and a household punnet are not in the same bracket. Bring cash: a rural cooperative counter is not somewhere to assume a card will work.
- Before you go
- Closed over the New Year period, and on Saturdays through the winter months, when the counter also shuts earlier. Outside the grape season the shelf you came for is simply not there.
- Another way
- Without a car there is also the district's shared community taxi, the Funao line, which runs from the south exit of Shin-Kurashiki Station to the Funao community hall beside the stand. It keeps a fixed timetable from Monday to Saturday and needs no booking. Drivers have parking for 35 cars.
- After you get off
- From Nishi-Achi Station, head west and cross the Takahashi River into Funao. The stand is on the road through the middle of the village, just north of the community hall.