This article is based on a visit made on Thursday, 10 May 2018.
Edit 9 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.
Previously on Sekai Ichi, I embarked on a tour of flower parks in the Kanto region. It got off to a rocky start, having encountered rain and a post-peak bloom at
Hitachi Seaside Park. Fortunately for us, the rain gave way to sunshine as our tour bus drove west to our next destination, but it wasn't another flower park. Instead, it was something the tour company likes to bundle in with these kinds of tours: strawberry picking at the Itigo-no-Sato (いちごの里, lit. 'strawberry village') farm. ("Itigo" is an alternate spelling of "ichigo", which means "strawberry".)
At Itigo-no-Sato, along with other strawberry farms across Japan, you may book strawberry-picking sessions. For 30 minutes at a time, you get to go into a greenhouse like this and pick as many strawberries as you desire. You're also allowed to eat the ones you pick, but only on the spot, since you can't take them out with you.
Three kinds of strawberries are grown at Itigo-no-Sato: "Tochi-otome" (とちおとめ), "Tochi-hime" (とちひめ), and "Skyberry" (スカイベリー,
Sukaiberī). A few trivia points for y'all: 1) The "tochi" in the first two stands for Tochigi prefecture, where this farm is located. 2) The skin of "Tochi-hime" strawberries is so soft and delicate, that the farm does not ship them out to other markets; you can only pick or buy them here. 3) The way to tell when a strawberry is ripe is if the leaves on top stick upward. As you can see in the picture above, this was one of the riper strawberries I managed to find.
In the centre, you can see the green flesh of a baby strawberry. Compare the leaves of the ripe strawberry above to the one here, which are curled down over the berry, and you can tell this one needs some more time to grow.
The strawberries harvested here are sold in many products at the on-site gift shop, including the stunning array of desserts shown here.
Itigo-no-Sato doesn't just specialise in strawberries; they grow various other fruits, some of which you can also set up picking excursions for. And for some reason, they keep a few animals on the premises, like this goat who I almost caught standing inside that little blue bucket.
A closeup of one of their other goats.
Strawberry sign-off selfie! After this pleasant diversion, our tour would move on to the second of our flower parks, next time on Sekai Ichi!
Hours: Strawberry picking is available seasonally from December through May. 30-minute sessions may be reserved over the phone (+81 028-533-1070, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM JST) or through their website (below).
Costs: Strawberry picking costs ¥1,300-2,100 for 30 minutes, depending on the time of year and the type of strawberries to be picked.
Address: 408 Okawashima, Oyama-shi, Tochigi-ken 〒323-0058
Access: The train station closest to Itigo-no-Sato is Oyama Station. From Tokyo Station, take the Tohoku Shinkansen (Nasuno/Yamabiko, 40 minutes, ¥4,130 reserved, JR Pass OK) or the local Utsunomiya Line (85 minutes, ¥1,520, JR Pass OK) to Oyama. From there, take a bus (25 minutes, ¥200)
(schedule) or taxi (15 minutes, ~¥2,500) to Itigo-no-Sato.
Website:
(Japanese)
