00:03 John Daub: Hey everybody, I'm away from Tokyo in the beautiful area of Sakura in Tochigi Prefecture. Look at the mountains over there. How you doing everybody? These are strawberry greenhouses and I'm here filming a main channel episode trying to get my bearings on all of the stuff that has to do with strawberries.

00:25 John Daub: Japanese strawberries, of course you all know that, are just so famous, they're so sweet, but they weren't always like that. Historically they were tart and sour just like strawberries from back in the past. I see a train passing over there.

00:48 John Daub: So in this episode I wanted to share with you my experience here for about 10 minutes so that you are here when I do release this main channel episode. But all of these greenhouses, I've been talking with the owner of this and watched them this morning.

01:10 John Daub: I woke up at 4:30, drove up here, got here before 7:30 for the morning delivery to the JA (Japan Agricultural co-op). It's like a bank over there. They've got 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, like I think 13 of these greenhouses.

01:35 John Daub: Each one of these greenhouses, they have different varieties of them, but the Tochiotome variety is probably the most famous. I want to show you inside real quickly. You can see this is what it looks like here. That box over there is where the bees are.

01:55 John Daub: So the bees are important to be in here to pollinate all of the strawberries. During the afternoon when it warms up inside here, the bees come out and they're out. You can still, you can kind of see them.

02:15 John Daub: But the variety of the strawberries, I think this is a Tochiotome. Tochi meaning Tochigi, the area, the variety of it. And they're massive. There's a couple of them right there. Right now, very nice people.

02:35 John Daub: I, we called them up and asked them for permission to film here. And they said, sure, come on out on the 12th. That's it. That's how it is. So we got a permit to film here. I got a permit. I'm just, I'm the only one here.

02:55 John Daub: I guess I could take you into one over here. They have white strawberries as well, which I thought was fascinating. I can show you some of them here. The greenhouse is open. But I got a chance to try.

03:20 John Daub: They also have one called Skyberry. It was almost as big as a baseball. I put it in the palm of my, I put two of them in the palm of my hand. I could just barely fit two. You can't fit any more than two of those.

03:45 John Daub: I think they might have some Skyberries in here. Let's take a quick look into, there's a rental car I came in right there. Take a quick look at this. Do you see it? That's a Skyberry right there.

04:10 John Daub: I guess you need to, a proportion that you need to see just how big it is. That's my hand to give you an idea. That is massive. It is very heavy.

04:35 John Daub: The difference with the Skyberry is that the Skyberries are very, very juicy and not as sweet. So it's almost like drinking a drink. You feel very satisfied, like a strawberry drink to it. So good. It's so huge.

05:00 John Daub: I think in the pack, usually they put, what is it like, eight of them in there. You can only put five barely in the same pack. It is, it smells so good in here as well. They're right now packing. I get a chance to go in there and watch them do their thing.

05:25 John Daub: The thing that I'm most impressed with, and this will be in the episode, is that the farmers do this all themselves. I thought it would go into some, they, they bring the raw material into, uh, some warehouse and then they have staff that, that sorts it all.

05:50 John Daub: Um, but that's not the case. The farmers do that themselves. There's the Milky Berry, which is a variety of white strawberry here in Tochigi. I thought that was fascinating and it smells so good.

06:15 John Daub: Each one is perfect. They, they take a lot of detail in making it look so perfect and they're hand packed. I didn't realize that. So to me, I, now when I go to the supermarket, I'm going to have a lot more, um, appreciation for how beautifully they're packed in these plastic containers, um, and then shipped out.

06:40 John Daub: Now, they ship a lot of this stuff, um, to people for online orders. But this morning we took a shipment to the, to the JA, which is the co-op, uh, for shipment. Look at them, the beautiful packaging.

07:05 John Daub: Japanese customers are probably the finicky, most finicky of them all. So you can see that it has to look really beautiful. They, he's got a brush and tweezers, so that makes sure if they find any flaws, if they can try to fix it up.

07:30 John Daub: If not, uh, there's a bucket over there where they put the ones that don't work and I guess they make jam out of it or something. I thought that was really cool. You can see, this is the Skyberry. Look how massive that is.

07:55 John Daub: That one doesn't, that one looks okay. Um, some of them are just, some of them are really symmetrical, but I think it's more about just having a volume of it. But I really did like this guy.

08:20 John Daub: It says here it's a, a Tochi. Actually, that was a different variety. The Skyberries are really good. I can show you, um, the white strawberries here. This is the Milky Berry. Here's one right here. There you go.

08:45 John Daub: There's a Milky Berry and there's the flower. So the bees are going to be pollinating that. And it doesn't take very long. For them to go from, um, flower to berry to product, a strawberry.

09:10 John Daub: The white ones are the hardest to make and they don't actually sell the white ones to the co-op I heard. Oh, here's a, here's a really nice one here. That one's getting close, ready to harvest.

09:35 John Daub: These are pretty big. You can see really beautiful. Those are, those are sweeter. But I didn't know that Japan, how many varieties of strawberries do you think that they have? Japan has 294 and counting varieties of strawberries. 294. That's craziness. That's a lot of strawberry varieties.

10:00 John Daub: So there's a strawberry for everybody, but the biggest ones, the most famous strawberries, everybody knows about them. So I think, uh, uh, like Tochiotome, which is the variety of strawberry that they have here.

10:30 John Daub: Um, there's the, uh, Amo. What is it? The Am, Am, Amaou. Amaou. One in Fukuoka. There's a bunch of them. Like, I don't know a lot of the varieties. That's one of the reasons why I'm making this episode.

10:55 John Daub: But Tochigi has five main, five main, um, uh, strawberry varieties. Or, uh, and, uh, cultivars, I guess you'd say. And, uh, there's, and each one of the farmers will have other ones as well. So they can sell that in different ones.

11:20 John Daub: The great thing about this business, and again, if you're living in Japan, you can order them, you can order them online. See if I can, yeah, there you go. You can order them online.

11:32 John Daub: Uh, uh, Kotake-san is, is, is the owner of this place. There's a scale right there. We went to go to weigh the strawberries. Um, they take online orders, so it's nice to have a variety of different strawberries to sell.

11:32 John Daub: So they have, I think, uh, five, five, five or six kinds on this particular farm. But again, there's 294 and counting. And counting.

11:32 John Daub: The reason why I came to Tochigi was obvious. It's close to Tokyo. So I could do this on a day trip. Um, I, I'll go show you the, the, um, QR code.

11:32 John Daub: But it's also because it has a reputation of being strawberry kingdom. So there you go. Uh, I thought this was fascinating. So you get a chance to look into it.

11:32 John Daub: They're not that expensive, but it's gonna be more expensive than, um, in your own country probably. They put a lot of love into the growing these strawberries. So you can tell.

11:32 John Daub: I was just shocked that, I was like, wait, you do that all right here? He says, yeah. They packed them up at home. Then they take it packaged to the co-op. I'm like, wow, you guys really do put in a lot of work into, into your, in love, into the packaging and the growing of the strawberries.

11:32 John Daub: The strawberries starts in, they start growing them in September. And, uh, like getting the soil and everything. And it starts in December. And I'm gonna ask them.

11:32 John Daub: I got a lot of questions from the Patreon supporters. Thank you so much, guys. I'm gonna be asking some of the questions that, uh, you asked on Patreon for this main channel episode to try to get a handle on this.

11:32 John Daub: Because I'm just wondering, like, why summer? Why is this something that is, uh, uh, grown? Or, sorry, why winter? Why is this something that's grown in the winter, for example? Because I appreciate it.

11:32 John Daub: And yes, we are supporting a small business. So all of these are small businesses, all these strawberry farmers here. Fascinating. And I love getting out of Tokyo.

11:32 John Daub: It was a great drive, although it was, uh, 5 in the morning that I left. I woke up at 4:30. I left at 5, 5:15. And I got here at 7:15. So it's about 2 hours to get here.

11:32 John Daub: And, uh, got here. I saw the sunrise. I'm gonna sleep really well tonight. I think that's Nico over there Nico is not very far away, but this is Tochigi. This is Strawberry Kingdom It's a famous place for them.

11:32 John Daub: And yeah, I'll be here. I gotta go interview the the Headquarters for the JA strawberries and then I'll be driving back home and try to edit this episode real quick But a lot of variety a lot of different varieties It's beautiful. It's beautiful place.

11:32 John Daub: It was minus four degrees when I arrived here and with the Sun coming out It's really warmed up quite a bit. So I'm starting to I took off my jacket So I feel a lot more comfortable, but I thought this is great.

11:32 John Daub: I As they're picking them and they had these special bicycles that you're gonna see in the main channel episode They had these like bicycles that go down the lane of it to protect the sides of it I thought that was fascinating and a great would you do so you don't have to bend over you're already sitting on the bicycle that kind of wheels down the lines of the Strawberry greenhouses that was that's genius to do it

11:32 John Daub: But to get a chance to see how Japan grows strawberries and grows different fruits I think it's great for you guys to see that because it's a chance for you to see Japanese culture in action. So Let's go over here.

11:32 John Daub: I'll be sending the postcards UFO Bob your postcards getting sent Tomorrow since I get back postcards came in they look really good Riku bets through the Japan Japan's coldest town There is the postcard for this month. Thanks guys

11:32 John Daub: When I was there was minus 28 All right. Here's the QR code. You guys want to scan it take a screenshot and then you get a chance to Get a chance to do that. But yeah, there you go.

11:32 John Daub: I'll see you back in Tokyo I gotta go get myself some lunch, but thanks so much for watching if you liked it hit that subscribe button and See you soon. What done a just a little bit of a nugget from the Japanese countryside I'm glad I came