Although Smith’s School of English Kawanishi is only about a 30-second walk from a Hankyu Railway station and the shops of downtown Kawanishi, just a short walk from my English conversation school will take you to a more rural Japan. Being on the edge of a mountain range, the air is clean and a little cooler than in downtown Osaka. I enjoy walking around the area and have discovered something very interesting: I discovered that Kawanishi is famous for growing figs!
Coming from Canada, as a young boy I didn’t see that many figs and it wasn’t until I grew up to be an adult that I tasted my first fig. I have to admit the flavour is so powerful that at first I thought I did not like figs. However once one gets used to the flavour one understands that this is indeed a food sent by God for humans to enjoy! The best part is that this tasty food is also a very healthy food, supplying high amounts of calcium and fiber.
Figs are a very historic fruit and possibly one of the first fruits to have been farmed by humans. Archaeologists have found fig fossils as long ago as 9,000 BC! If I close my eyes and think about figs I have to be honest and say Japan is not one of the countries I picture growing figs or whose people are enjoying figs. I would think of drier countries like Afghanistan or maybe even Portugal, both of which have a long history of farming figs, but I would not think of Japan. However that mental image would be wrong. Japanese enjoy figs and Kawanishi is famous across all of Japan for growing figs.
I picked up 5 figs at Hankyu Kawanishi-Noseguchi Station and will enjoy them after my dinner tonight. (^.^)
Derek
