The main building also has bathrooms available, as well as a lot of seating both inside and out. I had hoped to let the baby crawl around on the grass, but it was so wet that we switched off on carrying him in the carrier for the most part, which he wasn't thrilled about. There is a bit of walking involved, and it seemed that some of the flowers closer to the main building had been clipped already, so we had to walk up to the top area to find the best flowers. However the paths are mostly paved, so it is not a difficult walk at all, even for the younger kids. There are also a few benches to rest on along the way.

After walking around and taking lots of pictures, we headed back down the slope for a treat and a break. It has mostly stopped raining by that point, so after heading back down to the entrance building on the chair lift, we finally had the chance to let the baby crawl around a bit before finally heading off to lunch. We had passed a small hole-in-the-wall style place on the way up that had soba and udon dishes, and some local grilled river fish, so that was our destination after we left the park. And we were especially happy that both kids got the chance to nap in the car once they had eaten!

Our second destination of the day was Harada Farm, a big fruit-picking enterprise in Numata that was very popular given how many people were there when we arrived. We had made reservations in advance, but I had made them much later as I overestimated how long lunch would take. We arrived over an hour early, but luckily they were very flexible and we were able to change the times for our fruit picking experiences, which I was very grateful for! Our first experience was peaches, so we got our tickets and started to walk to the orchid. Of course, half way there our daughter needed the bathroom, so we turned back and went back to the main building, as there were no bathrooms out in the fields and trees. I would say that while there was a crib for changing a baby, it didn't look well-kept, so I was glad that the baby didn't need a diaper change. Bathroom break taken care of, we tried once again to get to the peaches.

Each group is given a ticket with the number of people who will be participating in the harvesting. At three, our daughter was included, but under two is free, so the baby was not. Each paying person gets to pick two peaches, then as they are not ripe right when you pick them, they are also given a third ripe peach to eat right then and there. So our first job was to pick our peaches.

Successful at our peach picking endeavors, we took our sticky kids back to the main building for our second fruit experience, grapes! This time we waited for a bus to take us out to the vines, but otherwise the procedure was exactly the same. When we were there, there were two kinds of grapes to pick, the small Delaware grapes, and larger Buffalo ones. We wanted to try both, so we decided that one parent would each take a kid to pick one kind of grape. As we got there though, we realized that the grape types were right next to each other, so we got to stick together instead and just pick both kinds! And again, once you pick, you are also able to eat some there on the spot. They were delicious!

As we ate our last few grapes, the bus came back to pick us up. We had also been given a ticket for a free drink and dessert in the cafeteria, so after an afternoon snack, filled with fruit and smelling sweetly of lavender, we called it a successful day, and headed back home with more fruit to eat in the coming days. It was a great experience for our kids, and fun for the adults as well. Thank you Numata for a cool day!