【Ages 10-15】Residential Program to Learn the Behind-the-Scenes of 'Food' Away from Home: 15-Person Limited 'Shokutaku Ryugaku' Monitor Tour Recruitment Now Open!

Coelwa Co., Ltd. (Location: Sapporo, Hokkaido; President: Yodo Asonuma) will host a monitor tour for its residential experiential program, 'Shokutaku Ryugaku' (Dining Table Study Abroad), in Iwamizawa City, Hokkaido, for four days from July 22 (Wed) to July 25 (Sat), 2026, aimed at students from the 4th grade of elementary school to the 3rd grade of junior high school.

Through this program, participants learn about 'eating' through farming, hunting, and cooking, and ultimately serve the dishes they create to local residents. During their four-day stay away from their parents, they will live together and deepen their understanding and interest in food and daily life.

This summer, we are offering an authentic 'food experience' that can only be found in Hokkaido.

Changing Perspectives on the World Through Eating: The Goal of 'Shokutaku Ryugaku'

Vegetables and meat at the supermarket, and our daily meals. While we live in a convenient era, there are fewer opportunities to realize the process of how food is grown, transported, and delivered to our tables.

Furthermore, now that much of children's learning is confined to screens or classrooms, hands-on experiences using all five senses are becoming increasingly valuable.

'Shokutaku Ryugaku' is a four-day residential program focused on learning about 'eating,' set in the rich natural environment and food production sites of Hokkaido. Participants will spend time seeing, hearing, touching, and thinking with peers to deepen their learning.

During the program, they will also take care of their own daily needs, such as cooking and cleaning. By living away from their parents with new friends, they will nurture their ability to take on challenges, make their own decisions, and cooperate with others.

Authentic experiences encountered in their teens will significantly broaden their future values and perspectives.

These four days this summer aim to be a trigger for expanding children's worlds—moving from 'knowing' to 'wanting to try,' and from 'receiving' to 'creating for themselves.'

Set in Iwamizawa City, Hokkaido

Iwamizawa City is known as one of the country's most heavily snowy regions. It is also one of Hokkaido's leading agricultural areas, producing diverse crops such as wheat, soybeans, onions, and the brand rice 'Nanatsuboshi.' The area also has a history as a coal mining town where people built their lives while supporting each other.

What one encounters in this land that supports Japan's food is not just magnificent nature. Through interactions with the people who grow the food and those who live in the region, children will learn about the business of food and daily life. It is not just a 'nature experience,' but a field of study that broadens children's perspectives.

Features of the Program: Facing Life, Nature, and People

▶Feeling 'Receiving Life' with Your Body: Full-Scale Hunting Experience

In daily life, there is almost no opportunity to see what food looks like 'before it becomes meat.'

In this program, participants will join local hunters for an Ezo deer trap hunting experience and touch upon the process of how 'life' turns into 'food.' Through participating in parts of the dispatch process and touring the processing facilities, children will physically experience the workings of life before it reaches the dinner table.

We believe that the experience of facing life during their teens will lead to a deeper consideration of the meanings of 'Itadakimasu' (I humbly receive) and 'Gochisosama' (Thank you for the meal).

Afterward, there will be a BBQ where they cook and eat venison. In addition to comparing the venison with supermarket meat, children will deepen their thoughts on 'what delicious means' and 'what it means to eat' through dialogues with hunters and staff.

[Cooperation] Yusuke Fujishima, Iwamizawa City Regional Revitalization Promoter / Representative of 'Shika no Annya'

▶Diving into Hokkaido's Great Nature: A Day in the Farmland

There is learning that cannot be conveyed through a screen.

Paddy fields stretching as far as the eye can see.

Corn fields that exceed one's height.

An experience of tasting freshly harvested vegetables on the spot.

While moving their bodies in vast farmlands, children will feel 'nature' and 'crops' up close. Time that looks like play, such as hide-and-seek in corn fields or walking through farmland, is also an important part of learning.

Furthermore, our staff does not give detailed instructions on how to harvest. Children will not just complete content decided by adults; they will nurture their ability to think with their heads and cooperate with friends while liberating their hearts in nature.

▶Turning Learning into a Dish and Delivering it to 'You': Recipe Development and Hospitality Experience

It does not end with just experiencing it. Children will learn cooking from a different angle than home economics classes, and finally, they will challenge themselves to create original dishes as a team.

Under expert guidance, they will learn the basics of cooking as well as the 'secrets of umami' and 'changes in aroma due to temperature,' learning the 'mechanisms of food.' Afterward, they will devise original menus using venison and local ingredients.

Who do they want to deliver it to? What kind of dish do they want to make? By discussing and forming these ideas with peers, they will finally serve it to local residents. Receiving feedback like 'It's delicious' or 'That's an interesting idea' is also an important part of the learning.

Through the process of thinking for themselves, creating, and delivering to people, we provide an opportunity for them to change from 'receivers' to 'creators.'