A note on mikan (tangerines). Now is peak mikan season. Go to any yaoyasan (greengrocer) and you’ll see multi-kilogram bags for crazily low prices. You’ll also notice that price is proportionate to size. A burning question I know you all have is how they keep the prices so darn low.
Answer: mechanization! Picking is done by hand, after which the mikan are whisked down the mountain by a mikan monorail (ミカンを運ぶモノレール) to a size sorting machine (自動選果機、jidōsenkaki), deposited directly into boxes, and sent to market. Both devices are shown below.
The monorail looks like an ill-advised amusement park attraction designed by sadistic dwarves, serpentining up and down impossible slopes and hairpin curves. The sorting machine works by sending the fruit by conveyor over a series of holes of increasing size, allowing the 70-old farmers to sit around all day chatting and occasionally shifting a box (“Taro, your turn!”) but still able to complain to their wives when they get home about how hard they’d worked (note: the wives know but let it slide).
The best place to see this is the terraces on the far side of Mt. Kimpo. Choose a sunny day, pack some food, beverages, and a camera (zero stores), and get yourself lost in the mikan labrynth. And feel free to sample from the trees - the farmers don’t mind. - William