WASABIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!

This post is very out of sync. These pics are from back in the first week of May when Ulala, Goto and myself took that trip to Shizuoka and Kanagawa. While there we were blessed enough to be able to visit a REAL Wasabi farm! Now, why the bold capitals in the word `real`, you ask? Because that crap you`re eating at Sushi Town Buffet is just plain old American Horse-Radish with green dye #6. Yup. Even most Japanese people are eating regular horse raddish in a tube. But who am I to judge? I have a tube in my fridge and i love the stuff. It`s especially good for when you have allergies or a cold! Some of you may know this already. Some of you may not. REAL wasabi is less green, less "spicy" (though even that is somewhat of a mis-applied adjective), and much much less affordable. It is also much much harder to grow! For every 30 plants they grow, only a couple are perfect for harvesting whole. The rest are ground up for delicious wasabi-mayo (excellent on sandwiches - adds a little gourmet touch and a little extra bite). Wasabi also needs to be constantly watered and have very very clean mountain water in order to grow to a decent size. The mountain area surrounding Mount Fuji is ideal for this and thus the area is famous for high quality wasabi. So we went to this farm and took a little walkabout around the grounds and helped ourselves in the gift shop to some delicious samples of various types and degrees of aging (Wasabi is most subtle and best when freshest - the bite develops as it decomposes after harvesting. ew.) We also tried Wasabi Soft Ice Cream, which i was shocked and amazed to find was actually very good! A nice smooth vanilla-like taste on the tongue fading to a very slight bite and wasabi after-taste. I reccomend it to any wasabi fan who has the opportunity. So anyway, i should wrap up and post the pictures before i run out of time and have to run off to work! Enjoy! ...And notice the H.R. Giger-esque quality to the Wasabi root (the edible part), truly alien.