Professional yuzu and citrus tours in Japan
For fruits growers
Seasonal tours of key orchards and citrus production territories in Japan. Focus on varities discivery, horticulture technics and tools, post-harvest processing, conservation, transformation, pre-harvest key activities, pruning, fertilizing, pest controlling. Meet growers, technicians and agro engineers. Develop a deep understanding of Japan’s key agricultural product ecosystem and enjoy the food culture of rural Japan on the way.
For fruits transformers
From orchards to consumers, discover processing methods, processed fruits usages, traditional products and newly developed products, culinary and food industry usages, specialty stores outlet shop designing and services practices.
For chefs
Discover citrus usages and deepen your knowledge of Japanese cuisine in the production regions.
For all citrus stakeholders
Japan is a treasure trove of citrus still largely unknown and a key entry point into the understanding of Japanese agriculture and rural ecosystems, from farm to table.
Tour formats
- All tours are planned according to your needs. There are no ready-made packaged formulas
- Tours are designed so that you take away a maximum of knowledge back home. In order to do so, your active imput at planning stage is essential. Extra care is deployed all along to facilitate communication, maximize the time spent with growers and specialists
- According to the distance to Tokyo, tours start from day-trips to a recommended minimum of two nights in the provinces
- Planning is offered year-round, but fruits are visible on trees - as you know - at specific seasons only according to varieties
- Tours are technical first but also include as a matter of fact opportunities to discover and enjoy the rural side of Japanese cooking traditions at meal times and more
- Growers are busy people and provide their time, especially in busy seasons, with constraints. Their own schedule and priorities come first. Visits must be done within an exact time frame with due care to not overpass growers’ availability. This applies to nurseries, research centers and all fruit stakeholders that can be destinations to visit and learn from. Preparation is key in maximizing time of encounters, starting with you providing ahead of time a list of questions, topics of interests, etc.
- In the case of growers also selling transformed products usually easy to carry back home, it is a courtesy to buy some to compensate for their time and knowledge sharing. Shipping to your next urban hotel in Japan can easily be managed so that you don’t have to carry a growing volume of luggage
- All destinations are pre-visited for maximum efficiency. All people are met before and briefed on your purposes and expectations.
- In case of multiple days in the countryside, lodging in remote territories can be limited in terms of comfort and amenities. It is also part of the discovery, and enjoyement of discovering a different culture you may miss when staying in large cities only.
Tours for chefs and food stakeholders
- Citrus are part of an ecosystem of culinary traditions and cannot be viewed as single independent items. The purpose of a citrus tour from a culinary point of view is to embrace the whole ecosystem, from orchard to table and everything that comes between, that includes food markets, food transforming factories, orchards of course, food outlets and the kitchens inside, all with tasting opportunties.
- Meals at unlisted restaurants, but also stops at pastry makers, traditional and modern, are among the must-go list of destinations.
- Shops and kitchens design is also part of the discovery trail, what with tools of the cooking trade.
- Your guide, myself, is a daily home cook, who buys food, knows the names, the prices and the combinations of ingredients sourced from the fresh. No ready-made, no ready-to-eat allowed. His narratives on food, mine, are based on both sides, of a food lover, and the daily exercise of family cooking with heart inside. Your usual ramen lover - not a credential - is no game to me.
Destinations
Whereas the core producing regions for yuzu are concentrated on Shikoku island, yuzu is found over a large part of the country. There are close to a hundred small scale destinations allowing to discover a yuzu district for a day from the main cities starting from Tokyo and Osaka. Except for the northest destinations, other citrus varieties are to be found in yuzu districts.
Yuzu producing districts distribution map
Inquiries
Lionel Dersot
Tokyo
contact@nextaroma.com
+81 80 2083 1812
Tokyo
contact@nextaroma.com
+81 80 2083 1812
Visual resources
Japan Citrus Belt
Source: Biology and Control of the Citrus Leafminer, Phyllocnistis citrella Stainton (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in Japan
Takeshi UJIYE• Department of Plant Protection, National Institute of Fruit Tree Science (Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8605 Japan)
Takeshi UJIYE• Department of Plant Protection, National Institute of Fruit Tree Science (Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8605 Japan)
Destinations
- The first destination is the center of Tokyo. In citrus season, from November to May, it is very valuable to spend a day touring the locations where fruits are on sale and on display, for you to understand the special positioning of fruits in Japanese daily life and traditions.
- Destinations near Tokyo down to Shizuoka in the west can be managed on day-tours base while staying in the capital. All other destinations in the citrus belt require a minimum of two nights, and a recommended minimum of three nights.
- Most multiple days destinations are located in territories away from main cities, and many times in secluded mountainous or semi-mountainous topography. Getting to the entry point provincial cities is usually best managed by domestic flights of a maximum of 1:30 from Tokyo, excluding Okinawa where a minimum of 2:30 flight is required. From the landing points to the orchards and facilities, a standard road time is more or less two hours.
- In Winter, most but not all destinations can turn pretty cold with unexpected snow around January and February that negatively impacts mobility. Spring visits earlier than Tokyo most territories along the citrus belt. Weather conditions are usually nice until June. Summers are usually scorchingly hot with top temperature around 38 degrees Celsius, high humidity and the visiting typhoons until and including September. Late typhoons may land in October too. From November to end of May is the dry season, humidity starting in May, but still comfortable until mid-June.
