Author Topic: Citrus in Japan  (Read 857 times)

deRoode

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Citrus in Japan
« on: January 10, 2023, 04:32:56 PM »
For those who are interested, I was to be able to visit Japan last December. During the trip I was lucky to find many different Japanese citrus.

Yuzu harvest season had just ended. You could find yuzu at any major grocery store, and often Kabosu and Sudachi as well.


Premium yuzu at 3€ each



Kabosu grown in Tokyo. The owner, an old coffee lady, insisted that the flowers attract many swallowtail butterflies each year.



In Tokyo I found many antenna shops. These shops represent a single prefecture. A great spot to find many different citrus-related products and fresh fruits including Jabara citrus from Wakayama, Yuzu from Koichi, Kabosu from Oita, Shikuwasa from Okinawa and Sudachi, Yukou and Awa Suzuka from Tokushima. Awa Suzuka is apparently a hybrid between Sudachi and Yuzu. It was recently released and Tokushima is currently trying to promote the citrus. I found some more information here: https://4citrus.com/english/ . It was quite an impressive fruit.




Dekopons were promoted a lot! Very high quality and tasty fruit, but often priced at at least 6€ per fruit, often double of that. I did look like there were different varieties of dekopons, since the I saw different sizes and colorations of the fruit. But this could be an other class of dekopon.



I visited the Koichi prefecture to look for some Yuzu farms. I mostly saw Citrus being grown in plastic tunnels. In the mountain region of Kochi, Yuzu was instead mostly grown unprotected. It was pretty impressive to see the scale on which yuzu was grown. Almost all of the yuzu I found was the very seedy kind. In fancier restaurants, I was sometimes met with seedless yuzu and sudachi. Unfortunately I have not found any seedless varieties in Europe. In Japan, it was simply available on Amazon.







Oolie

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2023, 04:40:51 PM »
Kochi is a trek, but beautiful.
I hope you enjoyed the trip.

bussone

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2023, 04:50:25 PM »

In Tokyo I found many antenna shops. These shops represent a single prefecture. A great spot to find many different citrus-related products and fresh fruits including Jabara citrus from Wakayama, Yuzu from Koichi, Kabosu from Oita, Shikuwasa from Okinawa and Sudachi, Yukou and Awa Suzuka from Tokushima. Awa Suzuka is apparently a hybrid between Sudachi and Yuzu. It was recently released and Tokushima is currently trying to promote the citrus. I found some more information here: https://4citrus.com/english/ . It was quite an impressive fruit.

Interesting that they are directly targeting Awa Suzuka to hobby farmers.

pagnr

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2023, 04:06:04 AM »
In Tokyo I found many antenna shops. These shops represent a single prefecture.

Any particular area or neighbourhood in Tokyo ?

deRoode

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2023, 06:06:31 AM »
In Tokyo I found many antenna shops. These shops represent a single prefecture.

Any particular area or neighbourhood in Tokyo ?

Yes, all of them are at walking distance from Ginza station. Most of them are in the same shopping centre, some of them close to that shopping centre. Search for Yurakucho and Ginza antenna shops

pagnr

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2023, 02:17:00 AM »
Thanks for that info about Ginza, good to narrow down the locations.
The Kabosu look interesting. I usually saw green Sudachi and Kabosu in the shops, not these older fruit.
You found them in a coffee shop ?
I also enjoyed finding Citrus trees in peoples gardens, along with Ume plum trees and Flowering quince.

Tortuga

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2023, 11:47:59 AM »
I’ve seen in Japan they price their fruit by quality in a different manner. You can get one piece of fruit for $80 that’s wall hanging worthy or you can get a run of the mill for normal price or somewhere in between. It’s interesting. The Japanese like to gift fruits a lot similar to gifting alcohol in America. (You can tell when a friend got you something cheap or fancy). I wish the US shared similar culture

pagnr

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Re: Citrus in Japan
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2023, 03:33:43 PM »
The "Gift Fruit" in Japan also has a level of presentation attached, nicely boxed along with beautiful fruit.
Even the regular fruit gets much more attention to quality and presentation than in Australia.
The Sumo Dekopons in Australia don't look as good as the ones in these pics.
Fruit here  is very variable in shape size and neck, warty skin, and often been in storage too long.
After I got some fruit with seeds, I gave up buying them.
I guess in Japan they also have an outlet for other uses like Juice or Candy for Dekopon fruit?
I am pretty sure I also bought some at normal prices in a 4 pack from a suburban Japanese supermarket.