The city of Nerima sponsors a farm visit event each year in the fall. For a fee of ¥3,000 for adults and ¥2,500 for children ($27/$22), we could join an all day excursion. My husband was on call for his job and needed to stay near a Wi-Fi connection, so our son and I decided to join my friend and go without him. He didn't mind because he could binge-watch Netflix shows all day that I don't want to watch. We all need a break once in a while.
The excursion included: a visit to an Asian pear farm to pick a pear, a bento lunch in a park, and a stop at a sweets factory, all aboard a tour bus.
We met at the bus station at 8 am in the morning. My friend beat us there. She confirmed a couple details of the day with my husband and then he left us as we got on the bus. I was impressed that there were 3 buses filled to capacity. We all had assigned seats to make everything easier for the staff to keep track of us throughout the day.
After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at the Asian pear farm. They actually grow lots of produce and rice on the property. We saw rice patties, strawberry plants, and vineyards with the last of this year's grapes in addition to the small grove of Asian pear trees. Each type of produce was covered in some manner - by plastic tarps to make a greenhouse or blue netting to keep out a variety of pests. While it doesn't make for beautiful scenery, it is a popular farming practice in Japan.
We walked to a blue net wrapped group of trees and walked through the large entrance. I had to duck just a bit, otherwise my head hit the low hanging fruit. At 5'6", I was shorter than the ceiling of plastic hardwire cloth, but did not miss the fruit.
We were instructed that the person who picked the largest Asian pear would win something extra. Then we were let loose to find our one precious pear to pick. My son immediately started pointing and shouting "that one momma, that one!" I distracted him for a little bit with samples of the fruit that were offered on tables in several locations. But soon I just had to bite the bullet and let him pick his pear.
He picked a large one and I lifted him up to get it. When he was twisting his pear, he knocked a second one to the ground. So, that was mine...
We weighed our pears. His came in at 1016 grams (2.2 lbs) while mine was 953 grams (2.1 lbs). While we waited for other people to weigh their pears, we learned that the pear crop this year is much smaller than most years. The Asian pears hate the August heat almost as much as I do! Last year, the heaviest pear was 1.8 kilograms (4 lbs!). Since I felt like I was decimated in the summer weather, I completely understood the plight of the pears.
Once we had all weighed our pears, we walked back toward the bus. There was a large shop filled with various types of produce, gifts, and prepared foods for purchase. I bought a couple more pears and 2 bags of mushrooms that will be delicious in dinner later this week.
We then hopped back on the bus to head toward our next destination.
To be continued...
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