Grape Farming

In early September we drove to Hasami to visit the wonderful Monne-porte collection of unique pottery galleries. A beautiful place where you can see a wide selection of locally made ceramics. Stopping for lunch at Gallery Arita (ギャラリー有田) we had the opportunity to view Imari ware and chose any cup from their extensive gallery to drink coffee from. A little further on, tucked in the hills was the farm of Inou san, a kind and generous farmer, managing a family run grape farm cultivating over twenty varieties of grapes. They were giant, absolutely delicious, sweet, moorish and plentiful. Up in the vineyards the bunches were shrouded in paper bags to help the ripening or to protect from the rain. Multiple radios played loudly and simultaneously to scare away the birds, by far the best cared for fruit I'd ever encountered.