Welcome to the third episode of our series: UMAMI OF JAPAN! In this series we travel Japan and visit the different farming communities to learn about the special produce that grown and shipped across the country.

Okuda-san is the one respected man that takes good care of strawberries fits for higher-class people. That strawberry is without any question the best.

I have so many great memories from strawberry picking in Japan every year~ when I first went to Japan, as a foreigner I thought the fruit was “too pretty” or artificial looking and that was not delicious or appealing to me. In my country “good” fruit looks organic and has many natural imperfections and different shapes. It’s such a big contrast in ideas right?? I thought Japan must throw away all the imperfect fruit and how sad and wasteful that was too. Of course those were just my very first impressions as a foreigner in Japan!! I know now, of course that the Japanese are fruit ninja masters and have turned growing fruit into a complete art form! Japanese fruit really does taste so much better!!! I love it!!!There is so much more variety in flavor. That’s one thing I really miss about Japan now I’m back in my own country. Even fruit bought straight from farmers in Australia, isn’t made with anywhere near as much love or care. My Japanese partner always complains about the fruit here and doesn’t trust it 😂 sometimes I can’t even eat it, it’s so bad even though we just bought it home (especially dried up mikan full of seeds). We have “wagyu” here everywhere now in Australia-I’m waiting patiently for “wafruits” to make their way into our markets haha!!’

It’s a very interesting story.👍 Have you been able to compare the taste of these strawberries with the Amaou? (which are considered the largest strawberries in Japan).

How about bijinhime honey? There's honeybee there