INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION in AKITA
5th Meeting CHERRY PICKING REPORT 1st July 2009 Met at Mr Donunts Aeon Goshono. Left at 9.40 a.m. J.I.

Despite the rain, which eventually stopped, we arrived at JUMONJI SAKURANBOU MATSURI. Telephone number for navigation 0182-23-9320.

This takes place between mid June and the first week in July. Six members took part; Mrs I/K/N/A/M and Mrs K drove us superbly and safely there and back.

Maybe because of the rain or maybe towards the end of the season we managed to have the whole Tano Tsuyoshi Cherry Farm to ourselves.

We ate as many as we could and slowly asked questions and learnt that there are so many different kinds of cherries. Napoleon, Satonishiki and Benishouhou.
Also, that the farm is roughly 50 years old and has been in the same family. We met 3 generations of the family there picking and sorting the cherries by size and type.

The trees there bearing fruit were planted 6 to 50 years ago. There were about 100 trees on the farm covering an area of 20 R. Mitsubachi and Mame Kobachi bees are owned and employed to pollinate the flowers. Pollination is also done manually with Ostrich feathers on long sticks. Plastic coverings are arranged over the trees to keep rain off to prevent damage and also protect the cherries from birds. Antiseptic is used on the fruit to stop any decay; this loses its toxic strength after a few hours. On harvesting, great care is taken and they are manually sorting by size and type. The farm is linked to The Japan Agricultural Farmers Association and the cherries are sent to many places throughout Japan. So far they have sent their cherries to Hokkaido, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.
Lunch was taken at a very authentic Japanese restaurant, in Furusato Mura, serving traditional Akita udon(Inaniwa udon), which was delicious! Here wonderful conversation between the ladies took place, sharing many ‘international experiences’ and making a firmer bond of friendship between members of IWA.

Recommending IWA should visit here again, however, it could be a little on the expensive side.