In the Pines

Walking through the village the other day I had a chance to see a couple of re novations that are underway in Otaki. The first are two small homes that were purchased recently (for change) by I-san. The homes were built in the post-war period using local wood. This, for I-san, was crucial. Structures built with local wood, he suggests, will outlast their more contemporary counterparts that consist of foreign timber. Looking at the shape of the two homes, while considering their long neglect, I tend to agree with I-san. In the past these homes where belonged to the forestry agency and were used to house employees. About a dozen more of these homes sit in the Nakagoshi section of the village, where the largest forestry agency office in the Kiso Valley was once located. There's been talk of the village buying those homes, but economically it might not be feasible. I would like to suggest that the national government just give the homes to the village, rather than simply letting ...

The Nakagoshi section of the village sits on a wide butte above the Otaki River. The butte stretches out in a half circle from a large escarpment of rock and brush above which sits the school and the rest of the central village. A significant portion of Nakagoshi is made up of fields and rice paddies, probably the largest agricultural space in the village. On a cloud-filled afternoon, after morning rains had lifted, I descended into the Nakagoshi section walking along a series of roads that zig-zag down t he steep embankment at the north end of the section. Here a row of homes stand against the vertical wall with their faces turned to a hillside on the far side of the Otaki River from Nakagoshi. I stopped at a small wooden shrine to admire the stone buddhas that sit on the wall around it. Most of these hotoke-sama were worn from lives spent out in the open, exposed to all nature's elements; a couple were lacking heads, which had been replaced with regular round stones. Rest...

Rain today. . .thin strings of mist rise up and out of the valleys, clinging to the tree tops before flowing into the gray swirl of clouds overhead. I spent the day yesterday introducing myself and talking with villagers. Most people were out working in their fields, so it was a bit difficult to interrupt. Also, it's hard to describe the look that comes over people's faces when a white guy suddenly walks up and begins speaking Japanese. So, I'm thinking I need to revise my tactics a bit. At the same time, in a town of 1,000 I'm sure that most people now know who I am, and have a semblance of what it is I'm up to. Because Ota ki used to be a forestry town, I haven't seen many rice paddies in production--though these may begin being planted towards the end of next month. Most people grow vegetables in fairly small field plots. Red turnips 赤かぶ are a major crop here, but planting must come later because I haven't seen any yet. Most people seem to be planti...