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Mothy · Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 99

I used to work at a grocery store in the US and the produce was cyclical in price and availablity but nothing near as much as here in Japan. The prices are what drive me crazy. Not because I can't afford fruit, I do like what others have mentioned and buy whatever is cheapest at that time plus bananas, but because the prices are that way unnecessarily because of various Japanese policies. But oh well. I can still get some fruit anyway, even if I have to wait to have oranges in season.

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: persimmons, I had never eaten or even seen one before I came to Japan so don't know what they are like elsewhere, but out of the persimmons I bought last week, one went soft, like just about falling apart when I cut it, really quickly, the others stayed firm longer. Don't know, but I think the longer you keep them the softer they get. They do tend to go brown in the middle as they get older but still seem edible like that too.

Quibby84 · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 643 Location: Japan

Yeah, I noticed that the ones here are brown...the ones at home are bright orange in the inside when they are ripe. I have NEVER seen them for sale in a store though...it is the kind of thing your grandmother gives you when you come to visit, she got it from a friend of a friend or something...so kind of like an old folks thing...maybe I liked them because my grandmother gave them to me...they dont seem as good anymore...

Mothy · Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 99

I just had a persimmon today, it was bright orange on the inside... So I think maybe you're just getting icky persimmons.

pastis · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 82

I understood that the reason those apples in the department stores are so expensive is because they are so labor intensive to produce. Apparently they are grown in limited amounts on small acreages under meticulous conditions, individually covered with paper bags to keep the bugs out etc. and only the best get selected (the "defective" ones ending up in the QQ-mart and Don Quixote bins). Same thing goes for grapes, and notably melons, which are 'hand grown' and occasionally even covered in blankets as if they were babies...

I'm not sure about it (never been a farmer), but that's what I've heard... I really don't think they use as much pesticide as back in the U.S. though, as the stuff the Japanese import from abroad typically has much higher standards and a higher market price because the demand for quality is higher.

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Yep, the persimmons are orange inside unless they're a bit old. Not only apples but peaches, nashi etc are all covered in little individual paper bags to stop them getting any blemishes- it all just creates a lot of waste- the fruit discarded, the millions of little paper bags- I hate thinking about it.

wabisabi365 · Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 111 Location: japan

Yeah, the amount of fruit that must be discarded in this country on the basis of its lack of esthetique appeal gets to me too. The mutant fruit I get at the 99 yen shop is just as good, just as juicy. It just looks... funny. Buy the funny fruit!

ws365

groothewanderer · Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 33

chollimaspeed · Joined: 11 Sep 2007 Posts: 120

wabisabi365 · Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 111 Location: japan

Yes, this will be my first venture into "emoticon" usage. Here goes... bear with me if I get it wrong...

quote/ You are obviously new to Japan /endquote

Here it comes...

Rolling Eyes

ws365

pastis · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 82

wabisabi365 · Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 111 Location: japan

I can offer only one short anecdote; don't know if any others have had anything similar happen...

Going through the bananas at my supermarket, I noticed one of the staff picking through the lot, selecting bunches here and there and throwing them in a basket. They had a few bruises. I asked if they would be getting a discount ticket.

Staff member: No.

Me: Uh... Where are those bananas going?

Staff member: Damaged. They're no good. Garbage.

He then shows me the bruises.

Me: Can I have them?

Staff member: Ha ha ha ha!

Me: Seriously. I'll pay.

Staff member: Ha ha ha ha!

Walks away with (perfectly good) bananas.

This also happened in a bakery. I know this is a fruit/vegetable thread, but I'll also include a similar instance with bread. I walked in just as the place was closing. Loaves of bread, walnut buns and regular buns were all being tossed into a large plastic bag.

Me: Can I purchase one of those?

Clerk: No, they're not for sale.

Me: What will happen with them?

Clerk: They are no longer sellable. Spoiled. They're not for customer use.

Me: Will the staff get them?

Clerk: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Me: Seriously. Are they for the gomi?

Clerk: Yes.

So, I guess from these experiences I have come to the conclusion that perhaps damaged or less than perfect food is just not available to the customer. There's no denying that this is a culture that places a lot of importance on how things appear. That being said, I will ask more questions when I'm in the supermarket. Better to find out than to assume. But, from what I know about the attitude in Japan towards items that are less than perfect, I think it may not be too, too presumptious to come to the conclusion that there is quite a bit of perfectly good food being binned because it has a bump or a bruise. (It's not just Japan, I'm certain of that).

That's all

ws365

pastis · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 82

Oh, well if you're talking about the supermarkets wasting food, then you're probably right (and in that case I agree it's kind of silly they wouldn't just pass or sell it on to someone who wants it, rather than just trash it). But pretty well all supermarkets in North America, Europe and around the world throw out a ton of "edible" produce too. Actually, I'm curious to know if the unused stuff in Japan does all end up in a landfill or incinerator somewhere. Either way, it is worth noting that the overall waste is still probably a lot less than elsewhere since the quality is higher to begin with and produced in smaller quantities (back home I can remember whole bins piled high with substandard, wilted fruits + veggies just waiting to get chucked - basically you'd pick through it for the odd good one, but most seemed doomed to be scrapped from the outset).

Anyway, I was talking about the actual production of the fruit by farmers and its wholesale.

wabisabi365 · Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 111 Location: japan

quote/Surprising you may think for a nation that once prided itself on thrift, a Zen-like self-denial and the ability to turn scraps into gastronomy of the highest order. Some say it is, ironically, because of these historic practices that Japan has the food waste mountain that it does./end quote

This is just a snippet from a larger article entitled "What a waste � Japan faces up to food waste mountain". https://www.just-food.com/article.aspx?id=94259&lk=s

Reading this just doesn't startle me anymore when I witness the crazy amounts of packaging and perfectly good food being thrown out everyday. The article states it's not just a Japanese problem; however, the country is at the top of the list of guilty offenders.

I don't think I'm offering anything new here. How many times have you or a foreign friend commented on the waste? I think, however, that it goes way beyond the packaging. It's ingrained in the Japanese mentality that "not perfect" = "garbage" and that means a large amount of the fruit and vegetables you get to see at the market were carefully chosen at the cost of a lot of perfectly good stuff being binned. I do hope that what the other poster wrote about it being put to other uses is actually happening. Why do I have this niggling feeling that it really isn't though...?

Poor OP. Your thread has had a thorough thrashing. My advice to you? Lay off prunes and wash those veggies!

ws365

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan