Tag Archives: Marufuku Tea Factory

Portraits de Shizuoka #1: Marufuku Seicha /Shizuoka Portraits #1: Marufuku Seicha

Do not forget to activate the subtitles in French/English !

Greetings, everyone!

Here is the first video of our series called “Shizuoka Portraits” conceived with a will to introduce the faces of all those who work hard to make what our Prefecture is

. We endeavored to concentrate our attention more on the “people” than on their art without forgetting to extoll on the latter.

This work being totally amateur and without any financial gains, we hope you will be kind enough to forgive the eventual beginners’ mistakes we are well aware we made in this first edition (sound, background and transitions in particular) which will be corrected in the next episode. This particular video is divided into two distinct parts. The first part is a general enough introduction with a tour of Marufuku Tea factory, and the second one involves more personal points (the conditions, difficulties and personal life of an enterprise lady boss). Do not hesitate to address each part in your preferred order according to your interests.

It is of utmost importance to respect the private life and work of the people we introduce, many of whom are friends/personal acquaintances. If you wish to contact them we would be most grateful that you proceed through us first. We specialize in Shizuoka where we have lived tens of years. The local gastronomy is one of our main focuses.

We invite you to peruse the following sites to follow our reports: https://shizuokagourmet.com/ (French/English) https://saveursdujapon.me/ (French) https://www.facebook.com/Japanecdote/

We kindly remind you that this video is our sole property. We sincerely hope that it will help and please you and we are ready to welcome your comments and reply to them. We believe that because of the Covid 19 it is important to focus on our particular region which has welcomed us along the years but we do not pretend to know all its riches yet and hope you will discover and enjoy them together with us… in front of your screen or one day on site! Our most sincere thanks to you and them all!

Bonjour à tous !

Voici la première partie de notre vidéo de notre série “Portraits de Shizuoka” qui a la volonté de montrer le visage de ceux qui travaillent à rendre notre département ce qu’il est. Nous nous efforçons de nous focaliser plus sur les “gens” que sur leur art sans pour autant oublier d’en parler.

Ces vidéos sont le fruit de résidents à Shizuoka uniquement, depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années pour certains. Pour vous donner une image de notre travail… imaginez par exemples des japonais en Bourgogne et présentant les bourguignons ! C’est une démarche qui sort un peu de l’ordinaire mais nous croyons en son intérêt.

Il existe à notre connaissance peu de fournisseurs de vidéos en français sur le Japon se focalisant essentiellement sur un département, à l’heure où le Japon est de mieux en mieux connu, nous voulons parler du local, pour eux, mais aussi pour vous, pour essayer de vous dresser au fil des vidéos une idée de ce qu’est une région japonaise ainsi que ses particularités. Nous n’avons pas la prétention de couvrir le territoire japonais en entier et cela n’est pas notre but. Nous croyons qu’avec le virus, il est important de se focaliser sur la région qui nous héberge et n’avons pas la prétention d’en connaître encore toutes les richesses et espérons que vous pourrez en profiter avec nous…derrière votre écran ou un jour sur place !

Le travail étant totalement amateur, et sans contrepartie financière, j’espère que vous nous pardonnerez les erreurs de débutants dans ce premier montage dont nous avons conscience (son, décor et transitions précisément) qui seront réglées dans le prochain épisode. En ce qui concerne cette vidéo, elle est découpée en deux parties : La première est une introduction assez générale avec la présentation de l’usine à thé de Marufuku, et la deuxième aborde des points plus personnels (condition d’une femme cheffe d’entreprise, difficultés et vie personnelle), n’hésitez pas à vous reporter directement à celle-ci selon le sujet qui vous intéresse. Il est important de respecte la vie privée et le travail des gens à qui nous faisons appel, qui sont pour beaucoup des amis/connaissances. Si vous désirez rentrer en contact avec eux merci de passer par nous. Nous sommes spécialisés sur Shizuoka, et y vivons pour certains depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années.

La gastronomie locale est un de nos axes principaux, merci de vous reporter aux pages suivantes pour suivre nos articles : https://shizuokagourmet.com/ (Français/Anglais) https://saveursdujapon.me/ (Français) https://www.facebook.com/Japanecdote/ Inutile de préciser que la vidéo est la propriété de notre chaîne 🙂 Nous espérons que cela vous plaira et attendons tous vos commentaires et à y répondre. Merci à vous, merci à eux.

Umeshu: Umeshu with Organic Plums Harvested in Shizuoka City!

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The other day I received a phone call a phone call from my good friend, Ms. Asami Itoh who just succeeded in her father’s steps as the new president and owner of Marufuku Tea Factory in Shizuoka City. She is a very busy lady as she is also active in producing tea bags at her other venture, CHA-O Company.

She was inviting me to join her and her sister, Aya, in the harvesting of organic Japanese plums growing on trees inside a property that her family owns up in the mountains in Umegashima!

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Although Umegashima is located inside Shizuoka City, it took us more than an hour of driving up the mountains away from civilization up to a point located at 1000 meters altitude where the road ended in front of a small Shinto Shrine!

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At that very spot you will discover the highest altitude green tea fields in Japan!

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From there we had to walk down a precipitous lane for about 15 minutes while Asami was carrying down the necessary equipment on a rail cart that most farmers use in Shizuoka Prefecture where a lot of agriculture is conducted on the sheer slopes across the Japanese Southern Alps.

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We soon reached a Japanese traditional farm house that Asami’s father had completely refurbished. I just can’t imagine how they brought up all this wood, pillars, rafters, beams and whatever else in that spot completely isolated from car roads!
But the house itself is already worth the expedition. I can imagine many of my artist and writer friends falling in love with this abode away from everything where mobile phones don’t work, although the place is equipped with electricity, gas, toilets and bathroom!

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Safety lamps in case of a blackout!

The place contains a mountain of antiques gathered over the year by Asami’s father and I can guarantee you that the place is safely locked away. What with intruders regularly stealing valuable mountain vegetables growing on the property!

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There is plenty of room for sleeping but this hammock just feels great in the heat of summer! Incidentally it snows up there in winter!

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Japanese antique tansu/箪笥/chest!

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More authentic antique tansu!

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Antique rice straw rain gear!

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A real Japanese antique irori/囲炉裏sunken hearth!

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Even the stairway and hand rail are antiques!

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An array of authentic antique kokeshi dolls/コケシ all signed up by artists!

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The three of us spent a good 4 hours harvesting Japanese plums overhead as the lower branches ahd been eaten out by wild deer!
I made a mistake not to wear boots in the muddy ground and I was beaten by a leech! Yes, a leech at 1000 meters altitude!

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We first dropped the plums into individual wicker baskets secured around the waist.

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There were (unfortunately inedible) mushrooms everywhere!

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Japanese plums are best harvested just before they start changing color!

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Naturally the crop was carried up to the small car park via the rail tractor!

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Apparently this year’s crop was not very good but we must have collected 50 kg of them!

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Although I was asked to take more with me I was allowed to choose enough of the bigger ones to bring back home to make umeshu.
Usually people use cheap white liqueur and koorizato/crystal sugar, last year I made them with local shochu, sake and koorizato, but this time I used only sweet potato shochu and a bottle of the only mirin/sweet sake made in Shizuoka Prefecture by Sugii Brewery in Fujieda City!

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You will not find such an extravagant umeshu in any shop!

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I still had enough left for Dragon (my worse half!) to make (from left to right): plums in fruit vinegar and honey, plum soy sauce and white wine umeshu!

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She even made plum chutney!

Looking forward to tasting this great umeshu in winter. And of course it will be a rare treat to eat or use the plums in recipes!

Marufuku Tea Factory (Director, Ms. Asami Itoh)
420-0006 Shizuoka Shi, Aoi Ku, Wakamatsu, Cho, 25
Tel.: 054-271-2011
Fax: 054-271-2010
Mobile: 090-3250-4188

CHA-O (Director, Ms. Asami Itoh)
420-0006 Shizuoka Shi, Aoi Ku, Wakamatsu Cho, 94
Tel: 054-253-8421
Fax: 054-253-8413
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

BULA KANA in Fiji
Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pierre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento,

Must-see tasting websites:

-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!, Beering In Good Mind: All about Craft Beer in kanzai by Nevitt Reagan!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

Non gastronomy must-see sites by Shizuoka Residents

HIGHOCTANE/HAIOKU by Nick Itoh in Shizuoka City