Growing Tasty Shiny Jewels

Where We Call Home.

Shine Muscat is a high-end variety of grape born in Japan.

Sold in stores for as much as fifty dollars a bunch, they're like jewels growing on trees.

Drawn by these tasty green pearls, this man is now cultivating them.

French-born Jerome Rupp.

Tender love and care
make them grow tasty.

With no prior experience, he learned to grow the grapes from a master in the field.

They require more care than kids.

Each grape is grown with a lot of attention.

But strong winds can ruin everything.

A typhoon can blow away
the year's income.

How will the fruit of this year's labor turn out?

We follow Jerôme as he prepares for harvest.

Toyonaka is a town that's part of Mitoyo City in Kagawa.

Thanks to the region's mild climate, the cultivation of fruit like mandarin oranges and lemons has been prosperous here.

However, in recent years, local agriculture has been struggling to find successors.

Many farmers have set their hopes on Shine Muscat grapes, as they're much sought after and can be sold at a high price.

Here's one such vineyard on the outskirts of town.

Forty-one-year-old Jerôme Rupp set up his plantation five years ago.

Last year, he harvested grapes for the very first time.

With this year's harvest only a month away, Jerome is busy making sure his grapes will be ready for the occasion.

Shine Muscat is a variety of table grape developed in Japan.

They're thin-skinned, seedless, sweet and plump.

Producing such luxury grapes is painstaking and meticulous work.

The more effort I put in them
the better they'll be.

He treats every individual fruit with the utmost care.

They need room to grow big
and absorb nutrients.

In order for them to do that, I clear
some space and adjust their position.

Making room for each grape to grow is key.

When he finds there are too many bunches, he sacrifices some.

This allows the others to take in more nutrients from the vines.

It feels like a waste,
but it helps the others grow.

It hurts, though.

In a month, they'll be bright green...

and plump, pushing the top grapes up,
and filling the gaps at the top.

During his breaktime, Jerome heads to a nearby kindergarten.

"- What's your name?"
"- Emilie."

He picks up his daughter Emilie at school every day.

Jerome's family runs a local sweets shop.

His wife Chihiro is the patissier.

Their eighteen-month-old son Hugo is the youngest grape in the bunch.

Preparing the coffee is Chihiro's father, Saito Yozo.

Her mother, Hiroko, attends customers.

During this time of the season, Jerome is so preoccupied with his grapes, he can barely find time to spend with his family.

Once the busy harvest is done,
I'll have more time to do stuff.

Like what?

I feel so sleepy during harvest season.
It can't be helped, but I'll do my best.

- What'll you do for us?
- I do a lot.

- You gotta do ‘family service.'
- What does that mean?

Actually, no one understands Jerome's devotion to his work more than Chihiro.

He studies so hard.
It's truly admirable.

He likes to do things his own way,
so I think this work suits him.

Jerome was born in a small village in the French region of Alsace.

His father was a mechanic at an auto factory, while his mother worked for a newspaper company.

The world of agriculture was unknown to him.

It was anime that sparked his interest in Japan.

He studied the language in university and in 2005, he realized his dream of coming to Japan.

He taught French and English at a language school in Osaka.

That's when he met Chihiro.

In 2015, they moved to her parents' hometown of Mitoyo.

Jerôme helped with work on a vineyard run by relatives of Chihiro's.

That was his introduction to grape agriculture.

It was so rewarding.

When it was time to ship them, the grapes
looked so beautiful and tasted great.

It was a sense of accomplishment
I'd never felt.

Good morning!

Dropping by is Jerome's mentor, Yano Yasue, a grape farming veteran with thirty years of experience under her belt.

He beat me in his first year.
His grapes were better than mine.

He was my apprentice, and now my rival.

Very nice.

When Jerome first saw Yasue's grapes six years ago, he asked to become her apprentice.

Impressed by his eagerness to learn, she happily agreed to teach him, with the hope that he'll help invigorate agriculture in the region.

No matter how motivated they can be,
some aren't cut out for growing grapes.

Jerôme is very meticulous
and takes great care of the grapes.

I knew he had the character
to do this kind of work.

Growing grapes requires more care
than raising kids.

Today, Jerome asked Yasue for advice on how to protect his grapes from strong winds.

Last year, a typhoon damaged his precious yield.

Many bunches hit one another,
causing the grapes to burst and leak.

And mold started to form.

Many rotten grapes fell to the ground.
It was traumatizing.

How can he ensure his grapes withstand the wind?

He knows he can count on Yasue's wisdom.

She tells him to secure the bunches to the branches with strings to prevent them from swinging in the wind.

This should help his grapes
survive strong winds.

We fight the weather.

- It'll be tough this year.
- This year, too.

Thank you so much.

She's like family.
I can tell her everything.

Finally, he covers the bunches with bags that shelter them from sunlight.

He now has to wait for about a month for the grapes to swell up with nutrients.

Around 70% of the region's farmers are of age 65 or older.

The population is declining.

Today, Jerome cuts the grass in some local rice paddies.

Hi!

Yano Hitoshi is another farmer who's been a great help to Jerome.

Six years ago, when Jerome couldn't find a place to grow grapes, Yano rented him a portion of his land.

"Did you think he'd grow grapes?"

He seemed eager to work hard.

Yano too relies on Jerome for help.

Farmers like me, we can't find
people to take over.

So, I count on Jerome
to boost agriculture in Toyonaka.

- Can you do that side, too?
- Yes.

Next, he cleans up the canal running along the paddies.

They need water for the paddies.

If the canal is clogged up,
they can't grow rice.

As the town lacks young workers, Jerome provides support with physical labor.

So hot!

Jerome has also started to expand the grape farming community.

He wants to draw in more young farmers.

Let's go in.

Long time no see!

- How are you?
- Tired.

Aya Taketsugu is a company office worker.

Last year, thanks to Jerome's fervent encouragements, he began growing Shine Muscat grapes.

I'd never even thought
of doing farming.

Jerome's been teaching me
how to cultivate grapes.

I agreed with his idea that if we grew
quality grapes, it'd be a success.

‘You quit your job?' I kept asking.

I'd never imagined he'd one day
decide to grow grapes.

As a joke, he even wrote
my letter of resignation!

Gotta remove these buds.

Jerome regularly visits Aya to share some of his knowhow.

If you feel hot in this greenhouse,
then so do the vines.

When you're hot, you drink water.
So, do the same for the vines.

I see.

You should be able to harvest
in two years.

I'll work hard.

The time to harvest is approaching.

Even when spending time with his children, Jerome doesn't leave the vineyard.

He prays for success as he waits.

If there's a typhoon, I can't sleep.
It can wipe out all of the year's income.

It's a lot of pressure.

Good morning.

At last, harvesting has begun.

It's five a.m.

To preserve the grapes' freshness, Jerome must work quickly in the cool air before sunrise.

Although there was no typhoon this year, there were some strong winds.

He hastens back home to check the grapes' condition.

"How are they?"

This side looks good but I have
to take out a grape on the other.

It's too sweet, so it ripened too quickly
and started to spoil.

The bunch looks good.
Undamaged.

The grapes are all nice and even.

Jerome is relieved.

It's thanks to his mentor's advice on how to deal with the wind.

They have to taste good,
and also look good.

After delivering his grapes, he heads to the family's sweets shop.

From pies to cakes, Chihiro is thinking of making desserts featuring Jerôme's grapes the shop's star lineup.

Good morning.

Yasue comes to check out the results of her apprentice's work.

- Have a taste.
- Thank you.

- A hint of acidity.
- It balances the sweetness.

A nice balance.
Very tasty.

You feel like eating grape after grape,
without stopping.

If you lost the acidity,
it'd be way too sweet.

Welcome words of praise from his mentor.

But Jerome keeps his cool, and stays on course toward the ideal grapes he envisions.

This year's grapes are OK.
They look good.

But they should be
closer to one another.

They need to be just a bit larger.

Yasue offers some advice for the next season.

Cut some branches.

The branches should be thicker
and the leaves larger.

Yes.

To get larger bunches,
you need strong branches.

That way, they store
more nutrients for next year.

Next year's already started.

Yeah, my work's not done.

Thanks so much.

I'll need more of Yasue's advice
next year.

I have to put it to good use.

She sees me as a rival.
I'll work hard.

Jerome continues to train every day, firmly focused on his dream of growing the tastiest of shiny green jewels.

Hello!

My name is Jonas Berg.

I'm a certified pipe organ builder in Tokyo, Japan.

Organ building has hundreds of years of history behind it, and today I'd like to show you a little bit about what makes it so special.

Reinanzaka Church, Tokyo.

This pipe organ has a total
of 2,497 pipes.

My job is called pipe organ builder, but we do a lot of maintenance on the instruments that we have built.

Today, I have to secure the dehumidifiers that are hanging inside the organ.

One of the main problems of course with instruments like this is earthquakes.

So, everything we do when we do something, we're thinking about earthquakes and what could happen if we have an earthquake.

Jonas secures the dehumidifiers
with pieces of wood.

Ok, again!

Jonas's work also includes
tuning the organ.

An organist plays the keys
while he tunes each pipe.

Adjusting the tuning wire changes
the air flow and the tuning.

Sometimes comes...

And now, it's in tune.

Jonas spent 18 years building pipe organs
in Denmark and the US.

He moved to his wife's native Japan
when he was 42 years old.

Pipe organs aren't common in Japan,
but Jonas wanted to keep his career.

The last two years, I was approached several times with potential jobs for becoming a pipe organ builder again.

And eventually, I was asked to participate in the renovation of the concert hall organ at Minato Mirai in Yokohama.

That was the perfect chance for me to change over to becoming a full-time organ builder.

In some odd way, I'm happy because I actually thought I was not going to really work full time with organ building again.

So, it does feel really, really nice to be back again and say that this is now my full-time job.

This is Naoko Imai.

She is university organist at Tohoku Gakuin and also the main organist here at Reinanzaka Church.

This organ was built 36 years ago
by a German manufacturer.

We had major renovations
done on it four years ago.

We were looking for someone
who could do regular maintenance.

That's when Jonas came.

He made sure to understand
the concept behind this organ...

and our ideas when we renovated it.

Now, he always thinks of how best
to maintain and improve it.

I'm so glad and thankful
he's thinking about the organ's future.

There's a certain professional pride that you work with the best people, for sure, within your trade among the organists so that they will always push you to the absolute max of the best you can do,

so that's at least one part of it for me that I work with someone that's that good an organist.

So, my treasure is this burnisher.

So, this is a quintessential tool for me for doing my reed voicing.

Reed voicing is basically changing or creating the tones in the reed pipes.

Most of the time, I manipulate the brass tongue inside the reed pipe for a different curve.

Basically, we are creating tones so it sounds good by itself and with the other pipes, and also with the room that it's in.

So, all those things are very important.

The reason why it's very special is that this used to belong to a famous American organ builder called Charles Fisk, and it was handed down to me by my teacher.

So, I treasure it a lot, and it feels like I have a connection with him when I'm using this, and it's brought me good luck for most of my work life.

Starting a company now and this being my first time being self-employed yet, that is kind of scary; I'm not gonna lie.

But I kind of have to stay firm in the belief that there will be enough work, and that what I'm doing is the right thing here.

So, I think it will be ok.