Ichigo

I miss a few things I used to do during winter in UK now that I am experiencing my first winter in Tokyo. I especially missed having a mug of hot chocolate while covering myself with a duvet sitting in front of the heater. The air-conditioner in my room is dual-functioning as a heater during winter, and there is not much can be said about the quality of either chocolate powder or dairy product here (yes, I miss good old Cadbury hot chocolate made with fresh dairy milk), and of course, having a hot cup of ocha (green tea) on a cold winter night just doesn’t feel right…

Apparently I had also been conditioned to other things when I was in Leeds - like accepting strawberries and all kind of berries as fun summer fruits. In Japan though, the high season for strawberry is from late January to late February. So yes, since it’s freezing right now, I don’t fancy a tall glass of home-made strawberry milkshake (a small container of fresh strawberries, a cup of fresh dairy milk, two spoonful of fresh cream, a little sugar, a few ice cubes – all mixed and blended using electronic blender).


Still, be it winter or summer, my love for strawberry - or ichigo as they are known in Nihongo - doesn’t diminish at all. There are all kind of strawberries in Japan with different qualities. As a rule of thumb, I’ve always preferred the big fat juicy ones when I was in UK – but here, people are spoiled for choices. Size is no longer a major role in determining the sweetness of these ichigo – sometimes, the small dark red ones taste a lot better than larger ones.

There’s the fusanoke ichigo, high in sugar and similar to taste of peaches. There’s the akihime, longish and watery soft yet seldom taste sour. There’s the sachinoka, harder body with sweet and sour taste. Then, there’s tochiotome, softer body yet the taste does not differ that much from sachinoka ichigo. The price ranges from about 300 yen a punnel to 2000 yen – depending on the quality and taste of the ichigo. It goes without saying that I normally would wait for discounted boxes of 300 yen (normally these were originally priced at about 500 yen) to be on display before buying any.

Still, I must admit that eating strawberries bring a lot of sweet summer memories of long ago. Strawberries remind me of the time when I was traveling around Europe as I enjoyed big juicy ones in Germany; when I was working as a factory operator during summer break in Leeds as I would stop to buy a few punnel at the market on my way back home; when I was working in a confectionary in Manchester as my friends and I enjoyed a box or two when we returned home after a long day at work.

And yes – I craved for strawberries when I was pregnant with Huzaifah. I remembered asking my yet unborn child, just before I purchased that RM24.00 box of strawberries, why was he asking me to have some expensive strawberries, and not sweet-and-sour star fruits, which would have costed me just RM2.50 per kg.

Looking back now, it almost seemed like my son knew better all along. Last year I wondered why on earth I had a craving for strawberries in February, thinking I knew full well that the high season for strawberries would be in summer. Now I learn instead that in Japan, February is the high season for strawberries...