Aiberry From Tounosho-machi

 "If you keep my secret, 

this strawberry is yours."

Tsugumi Ohba,

Death Note Box Set

A quick question before I begin this entry. What do you call strawberries which are grown with love?

Aiberry, or "love strawberry".

You call it Aiberry (アイベリー). "Ai" (愛) in Japanese, means love, and that is how you get the name aiberry. And I kid you not, because this is the king of luxury strawberries which goes as much as 500 yen a pop. Aiberry is touted as the 21st century equivalent of the cantaloupe, or "musk melon", which was typically the go-to fruit when foreign media wanted to demonstrate the utter ridiculousness of high-priced Japanese food culture. One best example was a pair of cantaloupe melons from Hokkaido which fetch 1.6 million yen in 2013.

Back to this strawberry of love (read: aiberry), it refers to a kind of large, sweet and fragrant berries found only in Japan. It represents Japan's best effort to date of getting strawberries to mimic watermelons, which still keeping sugar level high. Japanese strawberries are not grown commercially because they are too soft and would be hard to pack. But they are perfect for the home gardener. They have the most amazing taste. Very sweet and juicy.

First stop of the day - strawberry picking in Tounosho-machi.

Hayashi's Farm is one of the seven strawberry farms found in this town. And yes, it snowed that morning.

A banner which is written with the word "aiberry" (アイベリー).

As usual, the Chiba Kun Ambassadors are always given a warm welcome at each of the places we visit.

We had our forth and final Chiba Kun Ambassadors tour over the weekend and the first stop took us to Mr Hayashi's farm for ichigogari (いちご狩り). The idea is, we were given thirty minutes, and within this period of time, we get to pick and eat-all-we-can the strawberries in the farm. Sounds like a great deal, isn't it?

And guess what, this farm only grows aiberry! Thirty minutes to enjoy the delights of this rare gem!

Tada! The dozen long rows of strawberries ready to be attacked lol!

Aiberries from afar. Apparently, the smaller aiberries are as sweet as their gigantic cousins.

Lets take a closer look at these berries. On average, each pop measures about 10 cm long and 4 cm wide.

I was told that berries which weird shapes like this are generally sweeter.

We were given some short briefings on the berries grown in this farm, and what are the do's and don'ts while we are picking the strawberries. Among them, you should not wash the berries with water, since it might deplete the aroma. Just "blow on it" to get ride of any residue. Then you smell it, hold it up to the light to "enjoy the color", say goodbye, and then slowly eat the berry one bite at a time, savoring not only the flavour (each part of the strawberry has a different grade of "sweetness") but also the "structure".

When it is over, you can even appreciate the aftertaste and start to hunt for the next berry.

And so, we started our strawberry buffet-cum-breakfast hahaha!

Say i-chee-go!

Despite being busy with the berries, Ros and I still had time for selfie in the farm hahaha!

Everyone were in aesthetic to see such huge strawberries for the first time in our life.



Happy faces of Chiba Kun Ambassadors, enjoying the strawberries full of love haha! (photo credit: Ayako Uchiyama).

There are seven strawberry farms in Tounosho-machi and all of these farms grows the high-quality aiberry. There is a stretch, called the Strawberry Highway (いちご街道, ichigo kaido), in which there are direct-selling strawberries stalls set up along the route 356 in this town.

The best season to enjoy the strawberries is between February to March. The temperature difference between the warm day time and chill night time plays an important part in producing delicious strawberries.

The total damage done in thirty minutes.

I'll say this about Japan, when it comes to fruit, they pull out all the stops. Sure it may be expensive and all that, but this is one instance where you get what you pay for. In Malaysia, you can buy a bag of 20 apples for a couple bucks, but half of them may be duds, and they are small. And sometimes, if you are lucky, they will come with unexpected new friends (read: caterpillars lol!).

In Japan fruit is big! Farmers grow and care for fruit like they would their own children. Each fruit is individually wrapped in protective paper or maybe a plastic bubble, while it is still on the tree. The way they are groomed, pampered and polished, you'd think each piece was being readied for a personal meeting with the emperor or something.

The staff packing the aiberries manually, by grading them according to sizes and quality.

And here you are, just in case you wonder how much these red gems cost.

There are also other strawberry-based souvenir such as cookies and snacks.

And just a simple trivia about strawberries to cap up this entry. The actual fruit part of the strawberry are the little seeds on the outside, not the juicy red stuff you are eating.  Strawberries are actually not berries nor are they made of straw. They are actually what is known as an accessory fruit.

|| INFORMATION ||

Hayashi Strawberry Farm (林いちご園)
Opening hours: 10:00 - 16:00 (operates from early January - mid-May)
Price: 1,700 yen (eat-all-you-can for 30 minutes, between Jan 5 - 31), 1,500 yen for children between 3 -6 years old.
※ Price ranges according to season. Check the website for details.
Tel: 0478-86-4019 (Mon - Fri), 0478-86-1614 (Sat, Sun, national holidays)
Parking: 40 cars.
Address: 1120, Sasagawaro, Tounosho-machi, Katori-gun, Chiba Prefecture, 289-0602, Japan. 
Website: http://w01.tp1.jp/~a273350079/ (Japanese only)

Access: Train: From JR Sasagawa station (JR 笹川駅), 20 minutes by foot.

Welcoming 2014

"Learn from yesterday, 

live for today, 

hope for tomorrow" 

Albert Einstein

I hope it is still not too late to wish you all Happy New Year 2014!

Here in Japan, it is a long holiday for us. Nine-straight days of holidays, and in result, my biological clock has gone haywire lol! After a few days of lazing around and indulging non-stop in good food, I bet it will not be easy to return to work come Monday.

Osechi-ryōri (お節料理) from nearby supermarket. Note that this is not really the accurate representation of a typical traditional Japanese meal on New Year's eve. 

Watching the first sunrise of the year is an integral part of New Year's celebrations in Japan, as people gather at various viewing locations to pray for a successful year to come. After spending more than seven years in Japan, it was the first time I went to see the first sunrise.

The spot I pick was the Heiwa otorii gate nearby Haneda International Airport in Tokyo.

Upon reaching the spot, the volunteers were distributing hot shijimi (freshwater clam) soup and sake for free to everyone.

While everyone were waiting for the sunrise, this hot bowl of soup came just at the perfect time.

Sunrise time for January 1st, 2014 was 6:51 a.m. for Tokyo. As the clock ticks on, the crowd began to pill up and thirty minutes to the sunrise time, there were an estimated of 2,000 people, mostly locals who have gathered there. A couple of minutes before the sunrise, everyone started to look closely to their watches until the time came.

Finally, after more than an hour waiting in the chilly morning, we saw the first glimpse of the sun ray!

The very first sun light of the year, rising from the horizon.

Watching the first sunrise of the year from the land of the rising sun. Cool, isn't it?

Another shot of the sunrise by Tamagawa river.

No words or photos can describe the beauty we saw that morning. We saw the sun rising from the horizon, and in less than a couple of minutes, the whole thing is out. The sun was in blazing orange, round, and bright! It was simply gorgeous. Something that you have to see it with your own eyes.

I guess the freezing morning we endured was worth it after all.

The two characters on the torii gate, which read heiwa (平和), meaning "peace".

Located just a stone's throw away from Haneda International Airport, this torii gate wishes for the world peace.

Long lines of visitors who queued up for the hot shijimi soup.

My next destination was for hatsumōde (初詣). In Japan, the first event of the New Year is hatsumōde, which refers to one’s first visit to a shrine or temple in order to greet the New Year. There is no set period for this practice, but many people perform hatsumōde within the first three days of the year.

This year, my pick was Asakusa's Sensoji Temple, which opens up for this special prayer ceremony as soon as the clock rings at midnight and the new year begins. Unlike visits to this temple on other time of the year, the temple grounds and the Nakamise shopping street in front of Sensoji itself are decorated beautifully to welcome all visitors.

Kaminarimon Gate, the entrance to Sensoji Temple.

Beautiful wooden carving of a dragon just below the giant lantern.

Nakamise shopping street, which is beautifully decorated to welcome the year of horse.

The five-storey pagoda and the main entrance to the grand hall.

I am not sure why, but the temple was relatively not crowded at all. I get to walk into the main praying hall like almost immediately, without queuing like always. Perhaps it was the timing I was there. So, lesson learned. Go for your hatsumōde around eight to nine in the morning next time, and the place should be quite empty, unless you enjoy the crowd and long queues lol!

The main hall of Sensoji Temple.

The saisenbako (賽銭箱), an offering box for you to throw your coins into and make your prayers, was specially enlarged for new year's celebration lol!

Another tradition is getting omikuji (おみくじ), to foresee the future fortune.

 We were supposed to shake this case until a stick which has number written on it comes out.

Half fortune? Hmmm, not bad-lar I think lol!

After the visit to the temple, it was breakfast time. Miso saba mackerel breakfast set at Gasto.

Since Tokyo Skytree is just nearby, I decided to kill some time there, while enjoying the atmosphere of the shoppers fighting for fukubukuro, another new year craze which happens in Japan every year. This year, 1,000 lucky visitors will get to watch the first sunrise of the year from the tallest location in Tokyo - Tokyo Skytree's two observation towers - 350 meters and 450 meters up - opened from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. The winners were chosen by lottery, but guess how much one ticket cost? 

One ticket to watch the sunrise from Tokyo Skytree costs a whopping 5,000 yen! Crazy stuff. I'd better watch it from Haneda. Not only it is free, we were served hot shijimi soups to beat the coldness as well haha!

 Tokyo Skytree seen from Sumida river.

Acrobatic performances at Tokyo Skytree.

Not only there were quite good, they were fu*king funny as well lol!

And talking about new year, this year I got only two new year cards. A record low haha! Must be due to the fact that I moved to a new place since December 2012 and all my cards got bounced to the sender :(

Anyway, the two were from my lecturer in Nagaoka and another one from Shei Pien in Toyama. But the pick of the lot (not that many anyway lol!) was from Shei Pien.

Nengajō (年賀状) or new year greeting cards for the year of horse.

This one (keyword: horse, laughing) from Shei Pien really made my day. Thanks mouse! I am gonna miss her nengajō a lot after this!

Happy New Year again guys, and have a wonderful year ahead!＼(^O^)／