Work Exchange: A Strawberry Farm near Himeji, and No Strawberries in October

A real work exchange, my second one!

This month I did a work exchange at a strawberry-picking farm in Himeji (the kind where you pick your own!). It's only 25 minutes by car from Himeji Station, the most urban place I've done a work exchange, and yet I ran into a deer by the road next to the farm...!

Apartment-style dorm

The housing was a 2LDK apartment, fully Western style, two people per room, so up to 4 people in total. The soundproofing, on the other hand, was fully Japanese style haha. I remember once bothering a roommate who was sleeping in the room while I was using my computer in the living room. For about half a month of my stay, 3 to 4 people lived there.

I came here with my social energy drained, and I honestly didn't even have the energy for awkward small talk, so I didn't make particular friends with the other work-exchange people. Only in the first week did I chat a bit more with my Chinese roommate.

About the work

I worked 5 days a week, 5 hours a day (07:00 to 12:00), which meant getting up at 6. That wasn't easy to get used to for a long-time night owl like me, but the work was fairly static and quiet, and I slowly woke up while working, so it didn't feel especially hard or painful. It's a tiny self-observation, but I liked the feeling of getting to know myself a little bit more.

The work was in a greenhouse. October temperatures were a bit hot but never unbearable, and later, when autumn came and the temperature swings grew, the lowest when I left in the morning was only 7 degrees, and I found the greenhouse warmer, which was great.

From my childhood memories of strawberry picking, strawberries were mostly grown on the ground, and this was the first time I saw raised-bed strawberries. The cost is higher and there's more work, but workers can stand while working, which I have to say is pretty friendly. The main jobs were removing old leaves, pulling weeds and removing runners, and besides that I fixed plastic sheeting, transplanted, swept, washed and stored seedling containers, reinforced the cloth tents, and so on.

Besides us work-exchange people, the farm had about 7 regular employees (not all full-time, some were contract workers with different working days), with some older (50 to 60?) and some young (from 20). People didn't chat much on breaks, and rarely while working (it's not that chatting is forbidden, you'd still occasionally hear the older employees chatting), and overall the atmosphere was quiet with no social pressure. I didn't talk much with the regular staff (limited Japanese was a big reason), but in the small interactions during work, I could still feel their friendliness.

I also really liked how breaks were institutionalized and happened on time: a 30-minute break at exactly 9, and if the weather was too hot, another water break of about 15 minutes at 11. There was none of "someone deliberately shows off by doing more, which puts pressure on everyone else", and the boss never squeezed extra hours out of us. (Taiwanese office-worker trauma, and here I got the respect of "being treated like a person".)

I loved this time, probably because I really needed to stop for a while. With my hands doing repetitive labor, I could talk to myself, think about what I'd experienced and what I'd taken from it, and even stop to take notes on my phone. When there was nothing to think about, I'd just let my mind go blank or listen to podcasts. That's good for someone like me whose brain never stops and who isn't used to zoning out, and the labor still produced results.

The yuzu orchard, snakes, and host Leon

Besides the strawberry farm, I also helped once or twice at host Leon's yuzu orchard. The yuzu trees grow on a slope, which isn't easy to move around on, and the main jobs were weeding and removing spiderwebs, which fits my image of hard farm labor better (hey). I also learned for the first time that yuzu branches have hard thorns like roses, which is a bit at odds with my image of sweet yuzu wine (?). When we went out for lunch, I saw a snake sunbathing by the orchard road, and when we came back after eating it was still in the same spot! So relaxed!

Japanese yuzu (ゆず) is different from what Taiwanese people call "pomelo" (柚子). It's absolutely not something you peel and eat raw. If you're looking for the Taiwanese kind of pomelo in Japan, look for "buntan" (ぶんたん). Also, I ate lots of mandarin oranges in autumn and winter, and some varieties are actually more like what we think of as pomelo, and the white pith is bitter and can't be eaten~~

Outside of work, Leon usually lives in the same apartment building as the work-exchange people, and his role is a bit like our babysitter haha! He's the school-bus driver who takes us to work and back, and he also prepares ingredients for us. You can chat with him about whatever you want to know, from farming knowledge to personal experiences (Leon isn't Japanese), and he invites us to meals and events and shares all kinds of information. I was lucky to ride in his cool Land Rover Defender in the last few days, the coolest car I've ever ridden in! Visibly cool!

The Fukuda family

The farm owner, the Fukuda family, was also very friendly! Fukuda-san's wife came to the farm to let us try matcha, took us for a walk by the sea, to a festival, and out for taiyaki. Later, for a while I was the only work-exchange person left, and I went to their home for dinner, to a market, to other festivals and so on, leaving great memories.

I went to the following two festivals with the Fukuda family:

10/19 Tomishima Shrine, autumn festival: a local festival in Tatsuno City, with five districts taking part and different age groups working together. It started with a children's mikoshi (portable shrine), which was very cute. The info says there's a lion dance, but I left before seeing it~

11/2 Aioi Tenman Shrine, autumn festival: a local festival in Aioi City, where each town has pairs taking turns dancing different steps in the "shishimai" (lion dance), and children take turns playing the music. Children who aren't performing stay on the stage, and some kids waited until they dozed off, so adults would come up from below and nudge them on the back, super cute! The Japanese people talked to me about Taiwan's lion dance, and they think Taiwanese lions are very cute XD

Revisiting in late November: DIY okonomiyaki

At the end of November I went back to Himeji for two days. Besides going back to the farm to see and eat strawberries, Fukuda-san took me to a place where you can make your own okonomiyaki!
It started when we had a meal with the Fukudas and they took me to the well-known Himeji teppanyaki chain "喃風", where a big iron griddle took up most of the table. I mentioned DIY okonomiyaki and learned that this type of place isn't actually common. Later they specially took me to a restaurant where you can really make your own okonomiyaki. I'm so grateful~~

I also had dinner with the family, and we went to a popular café that makes desserts with the farm's strawberries. On the night I left, they even walked me to the station to see me off, which really moved me~~~ (For privacy I won't mention anyone else's names, but the whole family's names are all related to good weather, which I love, so cute XD)

Notes

• I found out later that the place we ate at was "Komehachi (米八)", an established okonomiyaki restaurant of nearly 40 years, in Aboshi, Himeji.
• "喃風": a teppanyaki chain that started in Himeji, famous for its original dish "doroyaki", which is soft and mushy, and after cutting a piece you dip it in broth before eating. A very special dish!

October, when so many people looked after me, was full of gratitude!

Further reading: 〈A Working Holiday Year in Japan: Preparation, Costs, and a Life That Isn't Mostly Working〉 (2026-08-31)