Ojima noen

Ojima noen is located in Moka City, Tochigi Prefecture. No matter when you visit during the season they do their absolute best to have the most delicious strawberries available, through a continual process of trial and error during cultivation every year. Here you will find three varieties of strawberry available: ‘TOCHIOTOME’, which has a strong sweet taste and is representative of Tochigi; ‘TOCHIHIME’, which is not sold in the market and is produced only in a few farms in Tochigi, and ‘TOCHIAIKA’, which is a new variety from Tochigi Prefecture and has a strong sweet taste. ‘TOCHIOTOME’ and ‘TOCHIAIKA’ are available for all-you-can-eat strawberry picking for 30 minutes.

“I’m doing my best to grow wonderful strawberries, because I’m happy to hear the customers say ‘Wow, they’re so sweet!’ when they try our berries,” says Mr. Ojima, from the farm.

Just as he says, the cultivation methods used at Ojimanoen revolves around trial and error; at present, techniques involving microbes and enzymes are being used to bring about strawberries with the best flavor possible. As a result, strawberry plants with stronger roots have been made here, which means that the plants can give a lot of nutrients to the berries, which in turn results in berries with a richer, sweeter taste. Normally, strawberries that are grown after their peak season of January to February in Japan tend to have a weaker flavor overall, but here you can enjoy delicious berries even after the month of March.

Currently, most overseas visitors to strawberry picking are accompanied by a Japanese person as an interpreter, but this farm has no problem with English.

About a 15-minute drive from here will bring you to two of Moka city’s top sightseeing spots: Omae Ebisu Shrine, home of the tallest statue of the god Ebisu (20m tall) in Japan, and to SL Kyu-Roku, a steam train museum where you can ride in an authentic locomotive on weekends.