Umeboshi,... an acquired taste

Umeboshi, pickled plums, can most often be found in bentos, where a single plum is placed in the center of the rice to look like the Japanese flag.

After picking when ripe in June, the plums are mixed with salt and shiso leaves (to give the color) and packed with a weight on top.

Later the pickled plums are sun dried, like these of my neighbors in the photo above.

Actually Ume are not true plums, being closer to apricots.

Not fond of umeboshi myself, though umeboshi-flavored candy is OK.

Ainu-design bags

These bags were designed and made by my good wife Yoko. She is a dab hand with a needle, and makes a lot of clothes, curtains etc.

A few years ago she took some classes on Ainu embroidery from a couple of Ainu sisters, Machiko Kato & Sanae Ogawa. The Ainu now live mostly on Hokkaido, and are descended from the Emishi, the original inhabitants of eastern Japan before being driven out by the invading Yamato. A couple of years ago the Japanese government finally admitted that the Ainu exist, and there has been a resurgence of interest among younger Ainu in their traditional culture and language.

Ainu design bears a striking similarity to celtic design sometimes.

Yoko has sold a lot of these bags, each one unique as she doesnt like to repeat a design.

If you are interested in knowing more, or in purchasing any of them, please contact me. They go for approx 50 USD.

Season of the Frog Part 2: Egrets

With the flooding of the paddies in late spring, there is an explosion of frogs. This has effects on other species in the vicinity, not the least of which is us gardeners. There are dozens of frogs in my garden, and as frogs eat insects, I'm quite happy about that.

Snakes come out from the forest and feast on the cornucopia of small frogs, and this afternoon I watched a flock of egrets come in for the feast. They don't mind vehicles driving by, but will up and fly away if a human gets within 100 metres.

The egret, related to and often seen with herons, can be found all over Japan, and in total there are 18 different species, but I'm not ornithologist enough to be able to tell which species these were,

In the streams that run through villages and urban areas, the herons and egrets are less skittish.

Another post on egrets

NTT Docomo, Chugoku Head Office, Yamaguchi City

Yamaguchi City is a prefectural capital, but it is the smallest in Japan, and has a feel more like a large town rather than a city.

There is very little in the way of modern architecture other than a cluster of NTT buildings.

Yamaguchi City does have lots of interesting places to visit though.

I've been a bit lax with posting recently as I have been really busy. The onset of the rains means I should have more time now ....

Nichihara Town

This is the second manhole cover design from the small town of Nichihara (now merged with Tsuwano) in western Shimane. The first design is here. Nichihara is home to an observatory, built in 1985, it had one of the largest lenses in japan, but is no longer very popular.

There are lots of old. decaying buildings,....

...and the streams running into the Takatsu River are well controlled, but not home to much wildlife...

Nearby is the largest tree in Shimane

More Japanese draincovers

Typical Japanese Landscape 23

This is a view looking up the valley of Ato Town in northern Yamaguchi, not far from Tsuwano.

Sumo Shrine. The legendary origin of Sumo

This small shrine, located a little off the yamanobenomichi in Sakurai, Nara, is the legendary site of the first Sumo match between humans. The mythical origin of Sumo is in a contest between kami in Izumo. Izumo features in the legendary origin too, as the Sumo Shrine enshrines a man from Izumo, Nomi no Sukune, who was the victor in this first bout.

The story is set during the reign of the Great King Suinin who ruled over Yamato during the early 4th Century. There was a braggard named Kuehaya who lived over in Taima, across the Nara Plain at the northern end of the Katsuragi Mountains, who claimed that he was the strongest man in the world. Suinin heard that in Izumo was a man who was stronger, so Suinin invited Sukune to come and fight Kuehaya.

Sukune easily defeated Kuehaya, who died by having his ribs broken and his testicles smashed. I would guess that if contemporary Sumo went back to the traditional rules it would probably reverse its decline in popularity. In return for victory Sukune was given Kuehaya's land and invited to stay in Yamato and serve Suinin. Kuehaya and his fellows became the first makers of Haniwa.

Postscript: It seems there is some kind of unwritten law in Japanese media that forbids the use of the word "sumo" without prefacing it with the phrase "Japan's ancient sport of...". I guess that is to distinguish Sumo from the really, really, really, ancient sports of Roman wresting or Greek wrestling.

Zenkakuji

I've passed this building hundreds of times, and with its walls of blue corrugated tin I've always presumed it to be some sort of workshop, though I often wondered why it was built in a narrow cleft in the mountainside. This time as I cycled by there were banners out and I realized it was in fact a temple.

On closer examination I was delighted to discover that the temple was built to take advantage of a waterfall cascading down the mountainside.

Underneath the fall was a space for practising misogi, a type of Shugyo (ascetic practise) using water for purification.

There were statues of Fudo Myoo, so in all likliehood this was a Shugendo site before Shugendo was outlawed in early Meiji. Now the temple belongs to one of the newer 20th Century Buddhist sects that have sprung up, many with roots in Nichiren.

Up the mountainside on either side of the falls were large carvings of Fudo Myoo, and the spray from the falls worked like an air conditioner. It was wonderful to discover a delightful place so close to home, and was a reminder to keep exploring!

Down the river to the sea

A few weeks ago, before the onset of the rainy season and its attendant humidity, I took a little bike ride 20kms down the river to Gotsu.

The Gonokawa (Go River) is the longest river in West Japan, and is only 194 kms long. Now tamed by a single dam upstream at Hamahara, it is still a very pleasant river.

For most of its length there is a narrow ride running alongside the railway line, and a larger 2 lane road running along the opposite bank. The 10k from my village downstream to Kawahira is the only stretch that doesn't have the small road, so I cycled down the main road to the bridge at Kawahira.

There is not a lot of traffic, maybe one or two cars an hour, and just a few small settlements. Its not unusual to see troops of monkeys exploring the edge of the rail tracks.

Every few K there are Jizo altars, often looking the worst for wear, but still maintained by some of the locals.

Geologically speaking, the Go River is very young, and has yet to form an estuary or delta, but it does get a little wider and deeper as it turns the last horsheshoe bend before reaching Gotsu and the sea.

It was at this point that I discovered something quite remarkable, something I've driven past hundreds of times and not noticed. That's tomorrows blog.

Season of the frog

Starting in April, you can find frogs everywhere,...in the house, in the garden, on the roads.

I first come across the frogs in early spring when I start tilling the gardens. Unfortunately the tiller digs up some of the frogs that are hibernating about six inches underground, and more unfortunately it often injures them.

In late April, when the paddies are flooded in preparation for rice planting, the chorus really begins as thousands and thousands of frogs start their calling for mates. We live in a narrow, dead-ending, valley, and the noise at night is tremendous. My neighbor says that when his kids come back from the city for a visit they can't sleep at night because of the noise.

Saw this monster on our Katsuragi walk, in English a Bullfrog, in Japanese Ushikaeru, Cow frog. In earlier times they were eaten, but rarely nowadays.