A Long Journey
A few weeks ago my wife and I went with friends to a lovely place in the middle of beautiful green fields in Yamanashi Prefecture, to pick strawberries.
The roads along the way during journey from Tokyo were heavily congested. I must admit as a 6ft tall man with an often slightly aching back and neck, sitting so long in the back seat of a car was quite uncomfortable. But the reward for enduring this discomfort was delightfully sweet!
The Greenhouse
Our destination, a huge greenhouse full of various kinds of strawberries. We were greeted by a really friendly older gentleman, the proud and humble owner who apologised for his inability to speak English for my sole benefit. This was not a problem as my wife can speak English and had no problem translating things to me.
He explained that we would be guided to a row with two kinds of strawberries, heavenly sweet ones on the right and wonderfully slightly sour ones on the left. We were each provided with a pair of scissors and plastic bag in which to discard the green tops, and advised we eat as many as we can!
Strawberry Picking (And Eating)
The sweet ones were almost sugar sweet, so fresh juicy and delicious! The sour ones tasted like strawberry flavoured sour sweets and were equally delicious!
There were bees flying all over the place, busily going from flower to flower, pollenating and ensuring a plentiful supply of amazing fruits. Nature’s buzzing little workforce.
After a time we were guided to another row, once again a different variety on either side, with a few white strawberries mixed in amongst the red. And once again, we filled our mouths and stomachs with some of the best, most juiciest fresh strawberries I have ever eaten!
Ice-Cream!
After a while we were so gorged on strawberries, it was time to leave the growing area of the greenhouse. We were kindly invited into the office space where four chairs were set for us around a table. The kind man gave us some milk ice-cream and provided a bowl of freshly picked strawberries.
The friends we were with taught us how to make our own fresh strawberry ice-cream by first digging a small pit in the top of the ice-cream and “smushing” up the fruit into it. Smushing and mixing, we soon had our very own delicious and fresh strawberry ice-cream!
The Journey Home
After checking the road congestion for the way home, we decided to say thank you and goodbye to our friends, opting instead to take the train home.
The train was a much older type than we usually see in Tokyo, and was a very fun experience. Trains in Tokyo are often fairly smooth and mechanically rather quiet inside.
This train had that classic “kerplunk kerplunk” sound is it tootled along. The perfect end to a wonderful day strawberry picking with friends!
