Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

A special menu of “shaved ice & frozen cucumber” and “shaved ice topped with tomato juice” are now gaining popularity at a café in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. After being frozen without adding any water, these fresh organic vegetables are topped on the shaved ice. The café named “Inner Beauty Bar” is operated by “john masters organics Tokyo,” which is well known as a shop of organic hair-care products. Their sales-boosting marketing words are saying “Enjoy shaved ice of a new feel.” The special menu has two kinds of vegetable shaved ice: “Tropical Green” with frozen cucumber & pineapple on the top, and “Fresh Tomato,” which costs respectively 850 yen (excluding tax) … Continue reading →

One of the largest greenhouse complexes in Japan begins its operation at Shimanto-cho in Kochi prefecture this summer. It covers a land area of 4.3 hectares in the town. Tomatoes will be produced by using a cultivation solution in the greenhouses. Most advanced technologies of wood chip-fired boilers and Dutch-style environment controlling are demonstrated there. Three companies plans to cultivate tomatoes at the greenhouses in the farming complex. It is expected that they will produce 1,651 tons of tomatoes in a year, which is equivalent to almost 30 percent of the total shipment in Kochi prefecture. In the area of the complex, they also have a facility for studying cultivation … Continue reading →

Kumamoto prefecture on July 14 marks three months since the first of two massive earthquakes struck the prefecture. Lots of campaigns names as “Supports by consumption” for supporting revitalization of the quake-hit areas are still going on at consuming societies of big cities in the country. A popular restaurant “Tsubameya” at the Ginza-streets in Tokyo, serving “Aka-Ushi” (red-colored cattle) beef of Japanese Brown Cattle fed in Kumamoto prefecture, begins on July 15 special sales of steaks and hamburgers with beef of the cattle which received the highest award at a dressed carcass fair held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Meats Market this June. “Taking this opportunity marking three months since the … Continue reading →

Taking advantage of the scorching hot season of summer in Japan, green tea companies are making hard efforts to increase consumption of their products with “cold-brewed green tea.” When the green tea is poured with cold water, not with hot water, it has been found, the cold green tea increases a percentage of functional constituents which are to boost people’s immune system. In addition to such information, a fashionable glass-container like a wine bottle has been manufactured to facilitate an increase in cold tea consumption. This fancy bottle is a kind of green tea brewers with a strainer installed at its mouth. Although cold green tea has been one of … Continue reading →

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) made an announcement on July 12 that the Government of the United States of America dropped a barrier to imports of Unshu mikan (orange), also known as “satsuma orange,” produced at four prefectures such as Kumamoto and Nagasaki in Kyushu Island. It has been banned for Japan to export to the United States Unshu oranges produced in the Kyushu region, due to outbreaks of Japanese orange fly, a kind of citrus pest infesting the fruits, at the orchards in the region. The two governments of Japan and the United States reached an agreement on July 11 that the United States removes an embargo … Continue reading →