Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

500 grams of premium Sato Nishiki cherries fetch record-breaking 1.4 million yen at the first auction of the year

TOKYO — The first auction of the year was held on Jan. 5 at Tokyo’s Ota wholesale market, with a number of Takarabune treasure boats decorated with colorful vegetables put on sale. The largest 3-meter-long boat was sold for 500,000 yen, the same price as last year. Dealers at the auction hoped for the earliest possible recovery of the areas in the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture hit by a powerful earthquake on New Year’s Day. In addition to two largest boats, four large boats were sold at 150,000 yen each. An official of Maruni Co., an intermediate wholesaler which bought the boat, said, “We are worried as there are … Continue reading

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Hospitalized patients enjoy virtual strawberry picking using sense sharing technology

IBARAKI, Dec. 22 — Patients hospitalized at Shimuraomiya Hospital in Hitachiomiya, Ibaraki Prefecture, experienced on Dec. 21 picking strawberries virtually in a hothouse located 10 kilometers away. The patients wore on their arm a sensor that transmits their movements to a robot in a remote location using a technology called BodySharing. They cheered and clapped as they saw in a monitor a robot picking strawberries. The technology, which has been developed by H2L Inc., a startup based in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, involves detecting with a sensor an arm’s muscle movements, as well as the inclination of the arm and the speed of its movements, and sending the data to a … Continue reading

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A wide variety of daikon radishes displayed at washoku exhibition in Tokyo

TOKYO, Dec. 17 — Slim, long, round, red, big — the replicas of 25 local daikon radish varieties from across Japan is attracting attention of visitors at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo’s Taito Ward. The display is the main feature of a special exhibition on washoku Japanese cuisine that illustrates how the unique culture of Japanese food was formed, from various perspectives including science and history. The exhibit was organized to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of washoku’s inclusion in the list of intangible cultural heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2013. It is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry … Continue reading

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A new take on Japanese traditional New Year’s food — stacked boxes of fruits

TOKYO, Dec. 12 — As Japan awaits the first New Year holidays after the legal status of the novel coronavirus was downgraded to a common infectious disease, a new type of osechi traditional New Year’s assortment of food is attracting attention — one filled with various kinds of fruits. Funasho, a major intermediate wholesaler operating at Tokyo’s Ota Market, sells at its online store fruits osechi, a set of three stacked boxes containing domestically-grown fruits in season. It is their first attempt to sell fruits in triple-stacked osechi boxes. In the first box, large-size white strawberries from Saga Prefecture and red strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture are placed next to each … Continue reading

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Gem of the region: wind-hanging persimmons of Hata, Higashi Izumo, Shimane Prefecture

SHIMANE, Dec. 4 – Hata Region in Higashi Izumo Town, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, is in the busiest season for producing Maruhata Hoshi-Gaki (Maruhata-brand dried persimmons). Sheds dedicated to drying persimmons, called kaki-goya in Japanese, are filled with curtains of yellow-red persimmons dancing in the wind. A 75-year-old farmer and owner of a shed, Chie Morihiro, sorts and peels locally-produced persimmons on the first floor and hangs them in the well-ventilated rooms on the second and third floors. She processes approximately 1,300 persimmons a day. She carefully controls the rooms’ moisture by opening and closing the windows to air dry the fruits for about a month until they turn light … Continue reading

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