Grape picking and Strawberry snow cones at Tochigi

Tochigi is famous for their strawberries but this place called Ichigo no Sato (meaning Strawberry's homeland) had other fruits for people to enjoy during other seasons. I would have picked Nagano prefecture, famous for their grapes, but the Sunflower day tour that I had signed up for on 6th Sep brought us here instead.

There were grape samples, very sweet!

We were not allowed to open the paper bags so we could only peep through the tiny clear plastic and cut from the stem. They recommended us to choose those exposed to sunlight so they would be darker and sweeter.

These are my kyoho grapes! But the aunties sitting next to us were triumphantly holding their  HUGE and nearly black kyoho grapes! Oh well!

Next we were treated with snow cones made from natural ice (I don't know if it means ice formed naturally or ice made from natural mineral water).

They made a big deal about this ice and was featured in a few magazines. They said that eating this will not give you a headache like normal ice would. My Japanese friend was very enthusiastic because she heard about it :-/

Looks like ice kachang back home!

It was really nice and soft but unfortunately I was underdressed and did not prepare for the sudden cold weather (around 19 degrees?). I felt immediately unwell after eating 1/4 of the ice that made me feel even colder!!!

They also sell baumkuchen, a kind of cake.

Japanese named them as "baumu" and they are a very popular in Japan although the cake was invented in Europe.

Here's the chef layering the cakes!

Next was lunch at a restaurant nearby. The room was so cold that made my cold worse. Thankfully this old lady gave me a blanket and was very concerned about my condition.

They said that the salt used for their hamburger meat was specially imported from France and could bring out the taste of the meat very well, so they highly recommended us to try it.

They finish the cooking at your table and you're suppose to hold up that paper napkin to prevent the juices from spilling at you…fancy...

So here they were cutting into half to make sure that the meat was thoroughly cooked.

…then cover it for the cooking process to continue...

… then viola!

It was really tasty but my taste buds and nose were not well to enjoy the full flavour. In the end I only finished half because I lost my appetite *SIGH* I am pretty sure my health is too weak and seeing a Chinese physician now in Singapore to improve my immune system.