■Cool Japan: Fruits
NHK Cool Japan "Fruits" edition.
Fruit is found in every country, but these days we are in an era where various Japanese fruits are exported overseas as luxury brand fruits.
"Luxury"
Japan is now abundant with fruit, but when Mr. Kokami and I were little, we had apples and oranges, but bananas and pineapples were rare and "special."
I'd never even seen a kiwi.
If someone is seriously ill and bedridden, the standard gift is a fruit platter.
I wanted to get seriously ill.
The occasional luxury of fruit is enjoyed modestly and with gratitude.
I carefully remove the skins from the bananas, pineapples, kiwifruit, apples, and mandarin oranges and eat them with gratitude.
By the way, the first fruit parlour in Japan was apparently opened by a fruit shop during the Taisho era, and fruit parfaits were on the menu at the beginning of the Showa era.
I think it was quite a luxury.
"strawberry"
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, there were only 35 strawberry varieties in the 1980s, but by the 1990s the number had increased to 87.
As of 2018, 250 varieties have been registered.
In other words, the population has increased more than seven-fold in 40 years, and the driving force behind this was local warfare.
Nowadays, there are many varieties that are only native to the prefecture and are not permitted to be produced in other prefectures.
This is to prevent other prefectures from producing unpalatable food and tarnishing the brand.
This program also showed how regions are competing with each other over branding strategies for both chicken and udon noodles, but there is also a fierce battle going on when it comes to strawberries.
Next time you eat strawberries, why not think about the effort that went into them?
"Dried persimmon"
Dried persimmons first appeared as a ceremonial sweet in the Engishiki, a document dated 927, 1,100 years ago during the Heian period.
For over 1,000 years, it has reigned as the king of precious sweets.
By the way, the white powder on the surface is crystallized sugar from the persimmon fruit, and it is said that in Japan, this was once collected and used as a sugar substitute.
Persimmons are said to have originally been brought to Japan from China, but were improved in Japan and spread overseas, where they are now called "kaki" using the Japanese pronunciation.
A veteran of Cool Japan, improving quality and distributing products worldwide.
Japan, which once craved tropical fruits, has now evolved its fruits to be enjoyed by people from other countries.
I was reminded that this was also Cool Japan.
