FUJI APPLES

It is apple season now, the end of autumn. Japanese apples are so different to those we have in Australia. They are enormous, way too large for a bento box or western lunch box. One fuji apple can feed a whole family. These apples are so sweet and drip apple juice like a tap. We were kindly taken to this apple orchard, a secret location, somewhere near Iida just into Nagano prefecture. The children were instructed to climb to the top of the oldest trees to pick the sweetest apples. Some trunks were 50cm in diameter. We cannot help but compare these apples to the ones we know in Australia, how we would love to have a tree so plentiful and apples so large. Something tells us that these apples have been growing here for 100s of years, maybe even longer.

With the snowcapped mountains in the distance we are in awe of this country's beauty. The valleys are so packed to the brim with small buildings, people living in small apartments all over Japan. Rural Japan seems just like the cities. Yet to escape these crammed living situation just look up. On a clear day a beautiful rugged mountain is almost always in sight.