I had never been to Soma before. It's kind of like Iwaki's twin brother who hangs out above The Daiichi nuclear reactor. Being an Iwakian, it was nice to visit my kin. Why? Mainly because of the strawberries. I hear Iwaki has a place called Tomato land where one can go to eat cherry tomatoes off the vine, but it seems like brother Soma got the better genes - same thing,but with strawberries. We showed up at a strawberry orchard have way through the tour and didn't have to wait long before we engorged ourselves. With little cups of vanilla cream in hand, we meandered through a green house filled with rows and rows of strawberries. Any readers ever done nomihoudai? For the unfamiliar, there are drinking establishments in Japan that offer all you can drink deals for a fixed price and time. Some people's tendency, not mine obviously, is to over indulge so that you feel like you got your money's worth. Boy did I eat too many strawberries. We had about twenty minutes to pack it in and I went crazy. I turned into a rabid, strawberry crazed animal that spasmed at the sight of red. I walked out clutching my belly. Before I ended up using strawberries to stretch out my belly, the old dude who runs the strawberry farm sat us down for a few minutes (while we foamed at the mouth in anticipation) and told us his story. When the Great East Japan Earthquake happened in 2011, he split town. Many people did. With things in disarray and high levels of radiation nearby, it didn't take a government mandate to send him running to Sendai, and then later to Tokyo after he was without gas and water in Sendai as well. He came back to Soma after a month and a half. His strawberry farm was really beat up. The pictures he showed us were no joke. There wasn't a green house left standing and pieces of boats and buildings had imbedded themselves in the soft farm land surrounding where the strawberries once grew. Scores of volunteers helped him and his co-op pull the rubble from the field by hand, the ground being to soft to send in a crane. Further government assistance from the city, prefectural, and national level helped them get the orchard running again. Out of gratitude for the volunteers who helped them, they are working as hard as they can to get the farm back to its pre - disaster state. If you are in Soma, go get your strawberry -houdaion. |  |
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