Back To Japan
A full report from our recent trip to Japan. In 2025, Marcus Rowlerson travelled to the country for the first time to learn about the fresh produce. (Read more here.) For this latest trip, Marcus was a guest of the Japanese government. He says: “This time it was all about meeting people and making connections. I came back with hundreds of business cards to follow up.”
WASABI
“The wasabi farm was such a special experience. It’s up in the hills and mountains. Stunningly beautiful. They haven’t been affected by the global warming - the air and water is crystal clear. No one is allowed to go up there. It is a Unesco Heritage site. It is very old - built in 1891, I think. They have been growing wasabi up here since the 1600’s. They account for about 60% of the wasabi in Japan. It reminded me of watercress growing in the UK.”
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PEACHES
“A lot of peaches are grown in Yamanashi. The area is a flat plateau like a bowling green. Everyone was saying the global warming was having an impact here. The peaches are finishing earlier so we visited orchards higher up the edges of the valley, which are a bit behind. In the valley everything is either peach or grape. It is patchwork of small farms - often run by just a couple of people. In the orchards, the peaches are pruned so there is just one fruit per branch which is paper wrapped. They pollinate by hand. We visited a high tech factory totally dedicated to peaches with special machines that tested the sugar levels and quality. There were endless trucks turning up with trays of peaches. There is just one wholesale buyer that takes nearly all the fruit - except for the absolute cream which is sent to people like us. They have built incredible relationships with the growers.”
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MELONS
“We met a fourth generation Crown melon grower - established 1921. They reduce the fruit to one melon per plant. They told us that even with a century’s experience there is still an element of guesswork in terms of selecting which fruit will be the very best. Fuji is the absolute top grade. In the area we visited they were harvesting about 2000 melons a day and in the whole of July and August they had not see one Fuji yet. They have to be absolutely perfect. An absolutely perfect piece of fruit. We later went to a melon auction in Ota Market in Tokyo. There were about 20 elite buyers standing on the terrace to view about 25 boxes. I was told off quite viciously for filming there. The auction was all over very quickly - two or three minutes. “
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GRAPES
“In the vineyards, each bunch is typically reduced from around 100 grapes to 45 per bunch. Shine Muscat is obviously special. But a huge highlight was seeing the Queen Muscat - the best of the best. They are super sweet. An Alphonso mango comes in at about 20° Brix. These are 27° Brix. We were told that climate change means that the grape harvest is finishing early. I met a father-and-daughter team in one vineyard. She was a sommelier of grapes - that is the level of expertise and passion you find here. It is like the Olympics for fruit. They way the grew grapes was different to what I have seen in the UK. The spacing is far wider, for example. In the UK the would plant maybe three vines for every one planted here. “
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