Stawberry-picking and Sake Taste-testing in Oirase

Another day, another Facebook Reporting event! This time, we ventured all the way out to Oirase, on the far eastern side of Aomori.

Oirase is in that yellow-orange color! It's quite far from Aomori-shi, as you can see...

Oirase itself is a pretty small town, home to only about 24,000 people and one of the most interesting festivals in Aomori (the Salmon Festival, which I will post about soon). Most of the people live in or near the city; the rest is farmland or uninhabited! The economy here is largely dependent on agriculture, so we got a tour of a company called "あぐりの里" (lit. "Agri[cultural] Village"). This company has several greenhouses which allow them to grow various tropical fruits which are not found easily in Japan, such as bananas, papayas, dragonfruit, cacti, and even coffee bean fruit! Some of these greenhouses are also used to grow strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, and other produce that can't normally grow during the harsh Aomori winter.

Hydroponics: the method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil

Hydroponics is used to grow lettuce and other various kinds of leafy vegetables.

Also, tomatoes!

Edit: This isn't a dragonfruit...it's a passionfruit!

I never thought that I would see my first banana tree in Japan...

This brought back some fun memories from my grandma's back yard...

Did you know that coffee beans are actually seeds that come from a fruit? (Here's another random fun fact: "Did you know that cashews come from a fruit?")

Papayas~!

After our tour through the greenhouses, they showed us their animals on site, an omiyage shop where you could buy local souvenirs and freshly-baked goods, a farmer's market where you can buy fresh local produce, and finally, an all-you-can-eat buffet where you get to eat food grown in their greenhouses! For ￥1,300, you get a tray that you can load up with a wide assortment of foods such as spring rolls, curry, croquettes, pasta, strawberry pizza (surprisingly, it tasted much better than I thought it'd be), desserts, etc. The stand-outs were dishes that highlighted fruits and veggies! I loved the fact that you could drink all the fresh apple juice you wanted~!

The farmer's market

There are windows where you can watch the staff prepare fresh-baked goods and smoothies! In this picture, they are making the crouton-looking things on display.

While we were sitting at the restaurant, stuffed from overeating, our guide came up and told us that we were doing all-you-can-eat strawberry picking next! Ryan and I had just done an all-you-can-eat Christmas buffet the day before, so we were feeling really, really full. We were led to a large greenhouse specifically used for picking strawberries and, to our relief, we were told that we could only pick two strawberries to eat (if we had any more, I might've passed out). After, they gave us a box and told us that we could pick as many strawberries as we could fit inside it. Normally, this experience goes for about ￥600...which is a bit pricey compared to strawberry-picking back in the states, but it was a lot of fun!

This is a small fraction of the strawberry greenhouse area. These pathways were made so that even customers in wheelchairs could also participate in strawberry-picking!

The strawberry-picking experience

To conclude the tour, we paid a trip to the Momokawa Sake Brewery. The tour involved taking us through various parts of the factory and, in the end, tasting five different kinds of sake. Since I got to tour a whiskey factory in Taiwan, I was excited to learn a bit about the process of sake-making; however, I couldn't fully appreciate the sake-drinking experience since I don't like the taste of it...

When the first sake of the new year is made, a new sugidama (the round ball of branches above) is brought in. Originally green, it fades to brown as months go by. Supposedly, when the leaves turn brown, the sake has aged enough to drink! At the end of the year, the old sugidama is taken down and burned at a temple.

The bottling/labeling process

Five different kinds of sake. The green bottles were quite powerful (especially the light green sake)...and the red one was the fruitiest (and most bearable in my opinion).

That's all for this time; hopefully I get around to posting about the Salmon Festival and other recent explorations soon (before I'm swamped by more and more grading)!


これから私の翻訳はすごくまずいから、許してください。。。>.<;;


次のFacebookリポーティングイベントの話です！今回、遠いおいらせ町に行きました。おいらせは2.4万の人口がありますから、結構小さい町です！おいらせ町以外で人が少ないから、たくさん空地があります！農業はこのエリアの大切なものだから、習うために、「アグリの里」という農業の社会に行きました。「アグリの里」は（グリーンハウスのおかげで）いろいろなトロピカルフルーツを植えられます（例えば、バナナやパパヤやドラゴンフルーツなど）。そのグリーンハウスは青森の厳しい冬にもレタスやトマトやほかの緑な野菜を植えられます。

グリーンハウスツアーの後でツアーガイドは動物（ウサギとニワトリ）とおみやげショップとファーマーズマーケットを見せて、食べ放題のレストランで食べました。値段は￥1,300。いろいろな食べ物のバライエティから選べます。食べ物は「アグリの里」のグリーンハウスと他のローカル農業から野菜と果物を作った料理でした。特に、春巻といちごピザはおいしかったです。フレッシュりんごジュースもおいしかったです。いっぱい食べてしまいました。。。

後で、いちご擦りしました。二つのいちごを食べさせられて、小さい箱をいっぱい入れました。すごく楽しかった！

最後に、桃川の醸造所に行ってみました。酒を作ることについて習うのは面白かったですが、酒の味が大嫌いから、酒を飲む経験は少し楽しくなかった。ちょっと残念なのに、今、酒のおみやげを買いたかったらいろいろな酒を勉強になってよかったです。

以上です。次の国際交流イベントを楽しみにしています！