Wasabi Farming on the Izu Peninsula

Today's Hidden Beauty is the spicy and delicious wasabi cultivated here in Shizuoka Prefecture! Wasabi is a plant related to horse radish and mustard, and is most commonly ground into a paste and used as flavoring.

Although it is used often in Japanese cooking, you may not have ever actually tasted real wasabi at all... The growing process is a difficult one, making it expensive, so many restaurants substitute horseradish turned green with food coloring instead. However, I got the chance to try real wasabi, and I can definitely say I'm hooked. It was delicious!

I started out the morning with a little time on my hands, so I went first to Hosono Kogen to see some beautiful fields of pampas grass with the ocean in the background.

From there, I drove to meet my guide, Ms. Yamashiro, of the Yamashiro Wasabi Farm.

Ms. Yamashiro gave me a tour of the area, and I was able to learn how wasabi is grown. First, seeds are cultivated in green houses until they are old enough to be transplanted into the area's sandy soil.

After three months, the young plants are strong enough to be planted into the wasabi fields.

Wasabi is planted into small plots that are not connected to each other. You may think the reason is the terracing of the landscape, as it is often grown in mountainous areas. However the real reason is actually the water.

Pure flowing water is necessary for growing the best wasabi. Wasabi plots don't share water, so if one plot's water isn't great, it doesn't affect any others. The water is constantly flowing in and out, too.

Another factor important to growing wasabi is water temperature. Generally, water from the mountains is the same temperature year-round. However exposure to the sun can warm up the water, which isn't good for the plants. Therefore, having shade is also important!

Wasabi takes about 8 months to grow to a good size for harvest. The plants are pulled, then washed in the same water they grew in.

Wasabi generally flowers in May, but we spotted a few here and there while wandering around the fields!

After learning how the wasabi is grown, I also had the chance to see some of the famous waterfalls in the area. There are actually seven falls quite close together, although I didn't see all of them as it was close to lunch time.

Lunch was at Nakasetai Shokudo near the waterfalls. This place specializes in wasabi dishes that highlight the wasabi taste by keeping the ingredients simple. Simple the food may have been, but it was all delicious!

You can even grind your own little wasabi yourself!

It really tastes different from the pastes you buy at the supermarket. Although it was spicy, I couldn't stop trying it!

Stuffed with lunch, it was time to try a different wasabi-based food, wasabi-zuke. Mr. Inaba was my teacher here. This dish uses the stems of the wasabi plant cut into small pieces, and mixed with a little bit of alcohol plus the leavings (or lee) of Japanese sake, which is bought from the breweries. It's a bit hard to explain, but if you've ever tried amazake, it tastes like that plus wasabi. It's good!

After cutting the wasabi into pieces, it is mixed with salt, pressed, and given a few minutes to soak in the salt before being squeezed to get the extra moisture out. Meanwhile, the lees and a little alcohol, plus a bit more salt, is mixed well together.

Finally the two are mixed together, and voila! After about 3 days, you can eat wasabi-zuke!

And with that, I had finished my wasabi tour. I said thank you to Mr. Inaba and Ms. Yamashiro, then went back to my hotel, the Izu-Imaihama Tokyu Hotel, for a meal, a bath, and some beach time!

Tonight I'll fall asleep to the sound of crashing waves outside my window, and tomorrow I head to Gunma Prefecture. I learned so much about wasabi today... I'm not sure I can go back to eating the fake horseradish paste ever again!