As part of a day tour from JapaniCan, which was thrown in as part of the free-and-easy package that I had booked (i.e. airfare + 4 nights’ accomodation), we went for an all-you-can-eat strawberry picking experience at the Izu Fruit Park「伊豆フルーツパーク」 in Shizuoka Prefecture.
The main building has a counter where you can purchase tickets for fruit picking and it also houses a gift shop and cafe.
It was strawberry season during the time of my visit and I was thrilled! (They do have oranges and melons during other months of the year but as these are seasonal, do check the calendar on their website before you go)
Tickets can be purchased at this counter, located inside the main building.
Since we were on a day tour and our tickets had already been sorted out for us, we headed over to the greenhouse to start our eat-all-you-can strawberry picking experience.
Wow…there were rows and rows of strawberry bushes and also many visitors, so we were all competing to pluck the biggest and juiciest strawberries we could find and sink our teeth into!
Note that upon entering, each person will be handed a plastic tray filled with condensed milk, for you to dip the strawberries into. In the picture below, I had already plucked some of the fruit and placed them onto my tray.
Out of curiosity, I had enquired and found out that the strawberries we were picking today are from the “Amaou”「あまおう」variety.
The strawberries weren’t sour but I thought they weren’t that sweet too! My hubby thought they were ok, so perhaps I have a sweeter tooth! I felt that only after you dip the fruit into the condensed milk, then it became sweet! Anyway, just look at how happy he was!
When you are done with your fruit picking session, you can head back to the main building to browse for souvenirs at the gift shop.
I found the soft swirl strawberry ice cream at the cafe to be more to my liking! **sheepish look** LOL!…
Overall, it was good fun and initially I had thought that I would have been able to eat more strawberries than I did, but there’s only so much of one thing that you can consume at one go before your tastebuds start getting tired of it!
Do give it a try if you haven’t experienced it before. ^_^
Address:
Izu Fruit Park「伊豆フルーツパーク」
〒411-0016 静岡県三島市塚原新田181-1
181-1 Tsukahara Shinden, Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture 411-0016, Japan.
[Map]
Tel: 055-971-1151
Opening Hours: 8:30～19:30
Fruit Picking Hours: 9:00～16:00 (bookings/payments accepted up to 15:30)
Getting There by Public Transport: Take the train to Mishima station「三島駅」, then ride the bus (headed in the direction of: 元箱根港行き or 山中行き) for 15min to get to Izu Fruit Park.
Click here for the bus timetable (in Japanese only)
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