We held the Satoyama Classroom 2025 - Let's Grow Winter Vegetables Together!

In the "The Countryside of Kyoto" area, which recreates a rich, natural rural landscape, vegetables are cultivated every year from autumn to winter after the rice harvest.

Once again, we recruited participants and grew vegetables from seeds together with the children, culminating in a harvest.

■1st "Satoyama Classroom 2025 - Let's Plant! Edition"

On October 11th, while the weather was still warm, the 15 children who had been selected gathered in the "The Countryside of Kyoto" area.

The students are divided into three groups: one for carrots, one for radishes, and one for green onions. They will grow a total of six types of vegetables over a period of three months.

After hearing from the animal care staff about the vegetables we'll be growing, it's finally time to plant them.

Be careful not to let the seeds get too hard together, and gently remove the seedlings so as not to break their roots before planting them.

We finished our first activity looking forward to seeing how things will develop.

For this vegetable growing project, we're mixing fully matured compost into the soil to provide nutrients. This compost was made using leftover food from the food area of ​​the "Kyoto Music Expo 2024" music festival held at Umekoji Park.

We grow vegetables while appreciating the resource cycle, creating food from food.

■2nd "Satoyama Classroom 2025 - Let's Grow! Edition"

On November 15th, when the heat had subsided, we held our second event.

We take care of the plants by spreading fertilizer, pulling out weeds, and thinning out overcrowded vegetables to create space for them to grow larger.

Even thinned-out vegetables can be enjoyed.

We all shared it and took some home.

After tending to the fields, we went to visit the "Compost Station" in Umekoji Park, where they make fully matured compost.

At the compost station, food waste is broken down and fermented by microorganisms to create compost. During our visit, leftover food from the "Kyoto Music Expo 2025," which was held a month earlier, was in the process of being transformed into compost.

When we actually opened the compost station, we found that some of the food still looked like food. We all tried to guess what kind of food it was.

While surprised to see familiar ingredients, the children enthusiastically shouted, "Rice!" and "Pork bones!" They learned that things that would normally be thrown away can be utilized with a little ingenuity.

■3rd "Satoyama Classroom 2025 - Let's Harvest!"

On January 17th, after the new year had begun, the harvest day finally arrived.

First, let's look back at the growth of the fields so far, and now it's finally time for harvest.

We will harvest the six types of vegetables we have grown so far, one by one.

We pull up the large leeks and leafy greens with all our might, and for the carrots that didn't grow very big, we search for the largest ones we can find, and harvest them with great excitement.

■ Fully Matured Compost Handover Event

The compost from the compost station we visited in November was successfully completed, and a handover event was held on April 17th.

A animal care staff from Kyoto Aquarium, who is in charge of the Satoyama (traditional Japanese rural landscape) class, also participated and took a commemorative photo with everyone involved in making compost.

From early summer to autumn, we will once again cultivate rice in the terraced rice paddies.

We'll be sharing updates on our rice cultivation in future columns! Stay tuned!

Kyoto Aquarium is running a sustainability promotion project called "AQTION!" which aims to pass the baton to the future of our planet.

We will work together with children and local communities, who will shape the future, to address global and societal issues that can only be seen through the lens of an aquarium.

For more information about AQTION!'s activities, click here.