Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A surprising sign of winter

In Minnesota, where I grew up, signs of winter include: bare trees, snow, frozen lakes, hot chocolate, and cars that won't start in the morning. But here, on my bike ride home from school today I noticed a sure sign of Japanese winter: strawberries.

Yeah, they're the season's first crop & cost about 4 dollars for a small pint; but, I definitely noticed the blow-up strawberry hanging from the little shed announcing winter's arrival. Farmers grow the berries in green houses & schedule them to be ripe usually from January to March.
I frequently buy produce from this small shed & the owners, who are probably in their 80s or 90s, smile, bow, and thank me whenever they see me checking out their latest harvest. It's a neat system really. The farmers put the produce into lockers with glass doors and mark how much that 'locker' costs. There's a slot for coins & when the correct amount is inserted, the door pops open & you can take the contents of the locker. This system is kind of 'high-security' considering many others in my neighborhood simply have a wooden shelf in front of their house where they place the food & set a box next to it for payment. But with $4 strawberries in high demand, I don't blame them for using locks :) Welcome Winter! Bring on the strawberries!
Little shed with a red strawberry hanging from it, letting the world know what's for sale today!
Green houses surrounded by rice fields

2 comments:

jess said...

The signs for winter are the same here as they are in MN. They just come in september instead :) It would be AMAZING to hook up somewhere. Time wise though, I don't know if that is going to work out. Because of Josiah's graduation, I will be stateside by May 20. It would have been awesome to have this summer to travel though :(

Anonymous said...

mmmm good-just thinking about strawberries makes my mouth water. mmm good.
I love you
Amanda