Tsure Zure Gusa

The Numerisugitake, locally known in Iwate as the Yanagi Modashi, grows from late summer into the fall on Japanese willow trees, usually at least a meter off the ground. Their grotesque appearance deters most, but after being boiled they become smooth like nameko, and taste like them as well. In Japan they are regarded as quite delicious and treasured by those in the know. Preserving them with salt for winter consumption is recommended.

Season: July to November

Where: Mostly Japanese Willow (やなぎ) but also on some poplar, oak, and beech trees. Partially rotted and fallen trees are also good places to look.

Characteristics: Best picked when the head is around 5 to 12 cm in diameter.They are slimy looking and have dark colored marks on the top of the head.

Eating: They are not at all poisonous, but boil them separately before preparing them and throw out the water. They are similar to Nameko, and also good in miso soup.

Akebi (Akebia quinata) is a vine that grows on trees throughout northern Japan and produces a subtly sweet fruit. I wasn’t aware of them until this year, but apparently most people from rural areas are familiar with them and many have memories of climbing trees to pick them as children. In the early fall, the Akebi fruits split open naturally, revealing a soft, mushy inner core of sweet fruit and seeds. There are two varieties that grow in Iwate, the three-leafed and the five-leafed.

This morning I went mushroom hunting with Harutaka, a local man that has been teaching me about foraging for food in the mountains of Iwate. He’d been talking a lot about Akebi vines, but it wasn’t until today that we found some ripe Akebi fruit hanging high in the branches of a tree. Harutaka wasted no time scampering up the tree (he’s limber for a man in his 50s) and before I knew it was tossing a mysteriously-shaped fruit to me. He told me that when he was young they called it “keppe” (けっぺ）which was a local slang term for female genitalia. (It must be very localized, as google brought me no results for the word “keppe” in that context, though apparently it’s slang for penis in some parts of Akita.)

I ate it this afternoon after getting home and it was mildly sweet, but the numerous large seeds got in the way of really enjoying it. It really is packed with seeds! Harutaka told me that when he was a kid they just swallowed them, but these are not small seeds. I’d recommend trying it once for the novelty, but I don’t think I’ll be seeking them out in the mountains here.

I was told that in Yamagata they have a more formalized culture of eating them, though they actually eat the skin as opposed to the seedy fruit itself. Either way, it’s an exotic looking fruit that I would have expected to find in Southeast Asia more than Japan.

I’m 35 years old. In Japan this means the start of government-recommended health check-ups. Since my birthday last June I’ve gotten two postcards from the Health Department. One of them was for a free dental checkup, which I could choose from a variety of local dentists. The other was for a $20 (1500 Yen) stomach cancer screening held October 5th (today) in a converted bus at the local elementary school.

The stomach cancer screening meant not drinking alcohol or eating after 8pm the night before. They’re held all over the city so just about every neighborhood hosts a testing point. Most people leave early in the morning to avoid crowds (we went at 5:30am), thus the crowd starts early. The test itself involves drinking a powder with water to create gas in your stomach and then downing two glasses of milky white barium-drink. The barium wasn’t as awful as I expected, though swallowing my burps for the duration of the test was a bit challenging. (I was sternly told by the doctor not to burp at all or I’d have to drink more and start over.) I think it would have been a struggle if I didn’t speak Japanese, as they make you roll around on a moving slab in various directions to get the barium coating right. People are waiting in line behind you so the nurse barks quick orders on how and which way to move. The entire process was over quickly and the results will arrive in a week or two.

Most of these public health tests that they recommend for people 35 and over are free, and even this one is free for those 70 and over. While the tests themselves are not enjoyable I appreciate the proactive role Japan takes in public health and intend to follow most (if not all) of the government recommendations for health checkups that come. I wonder if the United States has a similar system.

I bought the Happy Hacking Professional 2 Keyboard back in December of 2006 and wrote a glowing review of it here. A few years ago I switched to the Topre Realforce103UB, but that’s essentially the same keyboard with a larger footprint. (I wanted Function keys, arrows, and a 10-key pad.) I still use my HHKB Pro2 whenever I travel or use my laptop and it still works great, after five years. I almost wish that it didn’t, as I’d love an excuse to buy PFU’s new Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional2 Type-S – the silent version. If there were every any complaints about the Happy Hacking series, it was that the smooth rapid typing it makes possible is not at all quiet. It clickety-clacks like an old fashioned typewriter.

The downside of this new top-of-the-line keyboard is that you are going to have to pay top-dollar to get your hands on one. Unlike the standard Professional2 model, the new Type-S is only available through PFU Direct at a lofty price of about 30,000 yen. The current record-breaking strength of the Yen against the Dollar just makes it worse. You can still special order it through shops like smartimports.net here, but ouch- you need to really want this keyboard bad to fork over that kind of money for it.

The keyboard is available in white, both with and without key labels.

Went fishing on July 10th with a friend above the Toyosawa Dam. Half the fun was just wading around exploring the curves of the river while shouting out occasionally to announce our presence to the bears. The light coming through the trees illuminated the mist rising from the river spectacularly. Didn’t catch a thing, but my friend did his best to teach me the basics of “Tenkara” fishing- a variant of fly fishing. Can’t wait to get out again.

We drove out to Kamaishi again yesterday to drop off some more goods for an acquaintance and donate a few more boxes of our clothes, and then spent the day volunteering at the disaster relief headquarters.

There were plenty of volunteers that day. It was nice to see a large group of local high school students from a nearby evacuation center helping out. There were also a few uniformed Yamato Transport employees. We unloaded boxes from trucks into an enormous tent that served as a warehouse. The mountains of boxes were organized by contents and included Nissin Cup Noodle, bottled water, snacks, bread, disposable masks, toilet paper, adult diapers, moist towelettes, and various types of fuel. When smaller trucks arrived we were told how many of each box to load.

The Japanese Self Defense Forces were also there, engaged in their own work, though they sometimes joined the volunteers in unloading boxes off of trucks. I was impressed with how tough, or rather “cool” the Self Defense Forces looked. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, the SDF has been deployed in logistics and infrastructure-building operations in places like Iraq. They were clad in camouflage fatigues with combat boots and infantry helmets, but carried no weapons.

No one was clearly in charge, and no instructions were given to anyone, so we followed what the other people were doing until we got the hang of where everything belonged. There was a lot of standing around as well. We heard a couple complaints about the general lack of efficiency, but probably this was due to a shortage of outgoing trucks. Toward the late afternoon things seemed to be moving at a good speed.

The overall atmosphere was very upbeat, which might be surprising given that most of the volunteers were local and had gone through a lot during the last week. It was great to see that enormous quantities of aid are now reaching the area and that they’re not short of labor to get it sorted out. I don’t have any illusions about having “helped out” – there were already enough hands. But we were there anyways, and it was a good experience for us. I’m glad we were able to spend the day there with them. It felt good to be part of the effort and was affirming to see the high spirits even among those who had lost their school, workplace, or home to the tsunami. I hope that we have the opportunity to make another trip. We’re out of gasoline so driving is not an option, but if more buses start running we may go again.

Here in Hanamaki the City Hall has just started accepting individual donations and there may be work to be done there as well sorting them out and loading them on trucks. Also happy to hear that Habitat for Humanity will soon be taking volunteers for clearing away debris and eventually rebuilding. In the meantime we’ll keep donating monetarily and encouraging family and friends abroad to do the same.

In Hanamaki, things are looking up. Grocery stores are opening for longer hours and actually getting regular influxes of vegetables, meat, fish, and rice. Still greatly reduced stocks from normal, but is amazing and heartening to see shelves fully stocked with vegetables again.

Gasoline is also starting to come in, though it is still strictly rationed and requires waiting in lines for several hours. The same for kerosene- strict rationing but not necessarily long lines. (We need kerosene to heat the house and provide hot water.)

A friend of ours wanted to check on the safety of their friend in Kamaishi, a city on the coast a couple municipalities over. So we got a bag of food from them to give to this friend. We also packed up about four big boxes of our clothes, winter jackets (ski wear, etc.) and bought a few things like diapers, toilet paper, and water at the store.

We went to the gas station just before noon as a line was finishing and spoke with the owner, who offered to fill up our tank since we were driving to the coast with supplies. It was a two hour drive to Kamaishi.

We found the friend of a friend at their house and delivered the food we had been given for them. They were basically ok, though had just gotten electricity back and still lacked water. Local was getting water out of a mountain river and giving it around that neighborhood where houses remain.

Area hit by tsunami is clearly defined. One side of town looks almost normal and the tsunami-hit area is completely devastated. It’s just like you see on TV, cars and buildings piled up and rubble in piles pushed to the side of the road. I was driving so no time to gape. Was somewhat worried about getting a flat tire with all the glass and debris. Somehow didn’t feel right to take any pictures. There are enough images of this available.

After wandering around a bit in Kamaishi we found the disaster relief headquarters and a volunteer center in the evacuation center there. This is where we brought the clothes and supplies we had brought with us. They said they have recently gotten tons of food and other supplies through the port. We had been planning to come back the next day with as many onigiri (rice balls) as we could make, but they told us that volunteer labor was more needed than food at that point. So tomorrow we are planning to go back to help with loading and delivering boxes, or whatever else they put us to work doing.

At the rescue center, when we asked them what was needed most that we might bring, they replied that they weren’t sure and that there were still ongoing rescue efforts taking place as many are still missing from the area. This remained the first priority. The volunteers themselves that we spoke with were locals who had lost their homes. Everyone there was in remarkably good spirits and quite upbeat. They still didn’t have electricity, and asked if Kamaishi and the surrounding area had been on TV. Felt a little embarassed when asked about Hanamaki. Had to honestly reply that were were almost completely unscathed and just faced minor inconveniences.

Both in Kamaishi and in Tono on the way there we saw dozens of Japanese Self Defense Force vehicles and camps. Also saw fire trucks and ambulances from as far away as Osaka and Oita, Kyushu. Not sure how they got up here, but great to see them!

We also talked briefly with the Red Cross workers there. (Asked them for directions, actually.) The Red Cross had set up a camp near an evaucation center and were up and fully running with a treatment tent. Your donations to them are very meaningful. Let’s keep the donations flowing to the Red Cross and other organizations. Don’t hold back!