Today we are here with Mr. Kuramochi-san!

Hello!

And we are at Kuramochi Strawberry Farms

where we're going to be picking some fresh strawberries

and then we're going to be making some ichigo daifuku with them!

Which is a Japanese treat!

Which is fresh mochi, with a strawberry inside

It's super delicious, it's gonna be amazing!

And today Natalia is helping us out with translation

Hello!

Just so you guys can see that even if you don't speak a word of Japanese

that okay, because there will always be a translator around to help out

Let's get started, I cannot wait!

Today is quite warm, so I think the strawberries

in the shade will be more delicious

Maybe around here?

This area here?

Yeah I think around here is good

These ones look nice!

These ones are small, but I think they'll be tasty

Put your fingers around like this

And don't pull it, but

take them off like this

Take it with your two fingers but not pull

And twist up

Oh wow! You're good!

You're a natural!

Here's our first strawberry of the day

Shall we try it?

Itadakimasu! (said before eating)

Yum!

Tasty, so tasty!

They're so sweet, and juicy

Yeah!

Kuramochi-san found some good strawberries

Wow! Nice find!

The shape is bad but they'll taste good I think

Not so beautiful but it's gonna taste good!

So big

There, yeah

They come off so easily when you pick them like that!

Oh yeah, I wanted to ask him

One time I did ichigo-kari

and they said: take off the green part

and eat it from this way

instead of from this side

which one is better?

Yeah they say that eating it that way is delicious

But I think you can eat them however you like!

Kuramochi-san told me that

You can eat it like this by taking off the green part

and eating it from the top instead of from the bottom first

And he said that's a delicious way to eat them

However you can eat them however you like and that's fine as well

So they have two kinds of strawberries here

The ones on the lower level are called akihime

and these ones are called benihoppe

Apparently the lower level strawberries are slightly sweeter

But they're all really delicious!

Ooo what about this one?

This one looks nice

Yeah!

I think that one's ready! Yeah looks good.

Is it the same taste?

So good

Same taste?

No, it is different

They're both really sweet, the lower ones are sweeter

And something about the upper ones tastes like apples to me

I don't know why

So Kuramochi-san told us that the strawberries with the pink flowers

which seem to be kind of rare, we've only seen a few plants

in this greenhouse that have pink flowers

He told us that those are the most delicious ones

So let's try them

I have located a pink flowered plant

So let's find a strawberry on here

Maybe this little one?

This one is pretty small but I think we'll be able to tell the flavour still

Something about it tastes like tea

Mmm it's really good yeah

Okay those ones are good, he was right

He's definitely right

Just cause it's pretty

These ones are pink right?

Maybe this one?

You gotta try some! It's so different!

Without these honey bees

they wouldn't become nicely shaped strawberries

The strawberries that are poorly shaped

are that way because they weren't properly pollinated

Oh no way! I didn't know that

That's so interesting

Look here

Come on bees! Do your job!

When this yellow part is properly pollinated

it will become brown

and we'll end up with nicely shaped strawberries

Since we're going to be making some strawberry daifuku later

We need to find some good strawberries

Nice shape, nice colour, nice size

So let's look for those ones now

We made a pretty big one, and we want it to be kinda roundish

So that it'll look nice when it's covered in the mochi

Ooo what about this one?

Aw maybe it's not red enough

Close... close...

Ooo yeah

Nice work

It's time to start the mochi pounding

I've got the kine, and the usu

And this is where the mochi rice is gonna go

Which they are cooking right behind us over here

It's so good guys

This is so much better than regular rice

It's chewy and sweet

and it's gonna make the best daifuku ever!

Only 30 more minutes of this

Oh my god

You are a strong woman, remember!

It's looking good, It's getting there!

The hardest part is over, we're done the mochi pounding

and now we're gonna take the mochi and make our daifuku!

Get some water on your hands

It's not as beautiful as the ones in the store

But it'll taste good!

Not bad! It's pretty round.

We have finished our daifuku!

They're not as beautiful as the ones you see in the supermarket

but the ingredients are the same, so they should be really good

This one we put kinako powder on, that is optional - it's totally up to you

That's a powder made out of soybeans

It's really delicious, you see it in lots of Japanese desserts

I'm gonna try that one first

Let's get my fingers a little wet because these are super sticky

Itadakimasu!

It's so chewy

The mochi is still warm

It's really hard to talk with it in my mouth

The fresh, sweet strawberries in the middle

are such a good balance to the simple taste of the mochi

and the kinako powder actually gives it a slight salty taste which is nice!

I had a blast today, I hope you guys enjoyed that!

If you would like to participate in this strawberry picking

and ichigo daifuku making adventure yourselves

I will put the link down below where you can sign up!

We are in Kashiwa city today, which is about a 30 minute train ride from Tokyo Station

Thank you for watching, and I'll see you guys again soon!