|
|
Bamboozled
That was a great day. I met my Japanese teacher at the station and then we met up with her friends who took us by car into the Chiba countryside. Chiba isn't very famous for anything in particular but the scenery is wonderful, I think. Andy and I went last year and had a great time hiking in the woods and this time was no disappointment either. Here's a picture of a graded rice paddy :
First we had fresh sashimi by the sea and then we headed deep into the mountains where we met another friend of theirs who owns a big house on top of the mountain, with bamboo fields and orchards. We had a rest after the long journey there ( about 2 hrs and a half ) and then got to work digging for bamboo. It's quite good fun. After selecting your bamboo shoot, you have to carefully dig around it until the roots begin to appear. Then you chop it just below the roots creating a straight cut - if it's diagonal, the bamboo shoot will only be good for a few days! Anyway, I thought we were digging for the common good, but it turned out we had to take home whatever we dug up! Unfotunatley, I was digging like a mad man trying to feed the world and ended up with 12 fairly big bamboo shoots in 4 plastic bags which I had to carry on the subway like a country bumpkin and then up my hill like a country spaskid! Anyway, all's fair in love and war. But what's that got to do with bamboo picking!!?
The drive back was awesome, passing my favourite site of teared rice paddies and lush forests and little temples.
Conc. It takes a while to get to the Japanese countryside from Tokyo, but once you're there, it's pretty damned nice!
posted by PA on Sunday, April 25, 2004
|
|
