In Autumn, Don’t Forget WEB SEARCH as You Near Your Front Door!
By Avi Landau
After a hard day at work or play (or both!) you are exhausted. Anticipating a warm greeting by family and pets, imagining turning on the stereo, picking up a book or cracking open a cold beverage, your guard might be down. You get nearer to home and your pace picks up, like a trail horse getting close to its stable, and just as you are about to reach for the door... YUUUUCK... you are enwrapped in fine, sticky filaments! You flail and spin around, desperately picking the silky strands from your face and PRAYING TO GOD (even if you are an agnostic) that one of the big fat spiders that lives in your garden in not somewhere about your head or face. A bad end to your day (and the spider's!).
You have just ruined a good four or five hours' work that the eight-legged engineer has put into making its elaborate web. This is too, too bad for you too, as plenty of harmful and annoying insects are caught in them. At night when you are walking down your front walk, be alert. If there is no light, you had better take it slow and keep your hand stretched out as a web detector.
The ironic thing is that some Japanese spiders, especially the big, yellow and round-bodied KOGANE-GUMO, in order to protect their creations from being trampled on or walked through, weave clearly visible patterns into their webs. These are called KAKURE-OBI in Japanese, and stabilimenta in English. There is an interesting variety of these patterns and it seems that specialists are still at loss as to their exact function. I had never seen this before coming to Japan, but have heard that they can also be found in England and Australia. Please look for these mysterious designs in webs you may pass by.
Another thing you might notice in this season are the tiny, sand colored sacks, suspended in cobwebs. These are the spiders eggs.
Tsukuba's spiders are beautiful and abundant. They and their webs are fascinating to look at and photograph. They certainly make you think. They display the most sublime designs found in nature, almost (but not quite) defying the possibility of being the product of random selection, and also nature's most cruel and terrifying face (what can be more horrifying than watching a spider coldly and efficiently dealing with its unfortunate prey?).
An interesting cultural note is that in Japan there is a story related to a spider's web which is very similar to the biblical story of the young David hiding from King Saul. In that story, Saul does not enter the cave in which the future king of Israel is hiding because a large spider's web is covering the entrance.
In the same way, a legend about Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199), the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, tells how the future warlord, in his youth was hiding from his enemies in the hollow of a tree. Since the opening was covered with a spider's web, his pursuers did not search inside and find him allowing to go on and change the course of Japanese history.
Enjoy Tsukuba's beautiful spiders, but you don't want to get TOO CAUGHT UP. Always proceed with caution at night.
More about spiders at
and
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AT Server Down on Saturday
The Alien Times and TsukuBlog websites will be down for scheduled maintenance on Saturday, September 27 from 10am to 2pm.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
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Fruit Picking and Mysterious Rock Carvings Near Tsukuba (Chiyoda Town)
By Avi landau
Ibaraki is famous for its fruit, and Chiyoda Town, now part of Kasumigaura City, with its myriad orchards of Japanese pear (nashi), persimmon, grape, and chestnut, is surely the fruitiest place in the prefecture. There are dozens of farms which offer (for a price) various fruit picking options, in addition to plain old fruit shopping (bo-ring!). The town itself and the surrounding countryside also offer several places worth checking out.
Today was a perfect, if slightly hot, autumn day. With a few morning hours to spare, I suggested some pear and grape picking, and a very short hike to commune with some mysterious Kamakura period Buddhist carvings known as the Kankyo-Zan MAGAI BUTSU (磨崖仏). This idea was received with enthusiasm.
From Tsukuba we got onto route 53 (by staying on Nishi-Odori and continuing straight on), going past Oda and heading towards the small mountain, half-eaten away by the ravages of a quarry. We drove past that monstrosity (with windows up, of course) and after a few km on this narrow, truck-filled road, we entered a world of large traditional houses and plenty of greenery. High above, I noticed a soaring hawk. A little further on, the road was lined on both sides with fruit stands and farms offering fruit picking.
There are MANY orchards to choose from, and making up your mind as to where to stop can put you in a flurry... But if you are making the trip all the way out to Chiyoda, there is ONE place that stands out high above the others, in that it offers a very special physical setting, a spectacular 200 year old house filled with interesting knick-knacks, and nearby historical sites. I'm talking about SHO-BEH KAJU-EN (庄兵衛果樹園).
It's a little tricky to get there. From Route 53, you turn left at route 64 (県道６４). This road, too, is lined on both sides with fruit picking orchards. You will soon see large signs for Shobeh Kajuen and will eventually turn left. Just to make sure you'd better check the map on their website.
Just having the chance to walk around this neighborhood makes the trip worth it (for me). The gate and main house offer some interesting features and, if you are lucky, the proprietress will show you around. Also, near the house, next to a small shrine, are two rare stone pagodas (important cultural property) and a memorial to the family's war dead.
Shobeh's offers chestnut, persimmon, pear, and grape picking. Today, we opted for grapes -- KYOHO, my favorite. After paying a 900 yen per person entrance fee you can enter and eat as much as you like. There is no time limit. I would recommend bringing a picnic lunch and drinks with you.
After having our fill, we headed further towards Yasato, where we turned off towards the foot of Mt. Kankyo (閑居山）. Kankyo means TO DWELL IN SECLUSION in Japanese, and according to legend, the great Buddhist Kukai (KOBO DAISHI 774-835), did just that on this mountain, more than 1000 years ago.
It is now the WILD-BOAR CULLING SEASON, and a sign warned us of hunters with guns and the presence of traps (we saw one at Shobeh's). We were not going to be climbing very far though, so I suggested we forge on. A ten-minute hike brought us to scores of mysterious Buddha figures carved into rock. Exposed to the elements for centuries, most of them have been badly worn away. Still I find it a good place for a little peaceful contemplation. If you like, you can continue on for further hiking. (The SHOTS you hear are probably not hunters. Farmers use time released fireworks to scare off birds in this area).
Time was short, so unfortunately we had to rush back to the Science City. I'd like to go back soon, though, and if YOU haven't been to Chiyoda in autumn, you might want to check it out for yourself.
You can pick pears, grapes, and chestnuts until November and in winter (from the end of December) there is strawberry picking.
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MORE Food for Autumn Foragers in Tsukuba
By Avi Landau
It's early autumn, so when Noriko Iwamoto told me that she had brought some fruit from her garden, visions of nashi (Japanese pears), grapes, and chestnuts danced in my head. What she pulled out of her bag, however, came as a complete surprise -- a handful of what looked like small lychees or large raspberries, the fruit of the Japanese dogwood tree, called yamabo-shi in Japan. Interestingly, this can be written either as 山法師 (literally: mountain monk) or 山帽子 (mountain hat), with the same pronunciation. I've also heard some Japanese call this fruit yamakuwa (mountain mulberry).
Most people don't seem to know that this fruit, which grows on a very common tree, is edible and sometimes delicious. My friends and I cracked open the crusty shell and sucked out the guava-like pulp -- mmm, a treat indeed!
As do all trees of this type, Noriko's Japanese dogwood (also called a kousa dogwood), blooms with a distinctive white ninja-star shaped flower in June and July, and bears fruit in September. In Tsukuba you can find these trees on the side of roads and in parks, as well as in private gardens. They can be enjoyed for their flowers and autumn foliage (a spectacular red), as well as their fruit.
While you are out collecting the ginkgo nuts which will be falling to the ground in greater and greater numbers over the next few weeks, keep an eye out for the Japanese dogwood and you can probably score a handful of the beautiful yamaboshi for yourself. According to traditional Asian beliefs they have beneficial effects on the liver and kidney. You can also find some recipes for jam, liqueur, etc. on-line.
Kousa dogwood(yamaboshi) in Tsukuba
I could tell you where to look, but then that would take most of the fun out of it for you!
Happy hunting (fellow foragers)!
Here are some more pictures.
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Ancestors Remembered Around the Autumnal Equinox
The Japanese never go very long without taking care of their ancestors or departed loved ones. In fact, there are many who pray and make offerings at their family altar (butsudan) every single day. In addition, as part of the annual cycle of events, there are four times a year (besides individual memorial days) for special ceremonies in which extra efforts are made for family members who have passed on: New Years, O-Bon (in August) and then the week around (three days before and three days after) the equinox days. In fact, there are national holidays in March and September making it possible for anyone who wishes to do so to visit their family graves for O-Higan (for more detail see my article).
Walking around Tsukuba today, I saw many signs of yesterday's higan-iri (彼岸入）, the first day of O-Higan. First, the graves in all the old neighborhood cemeteries have been swept and decorated with offerings of seasonal flowers.
Rare mound type graves for full burial(before cremation was mandatory)
In and around these graveyards, and in many other places as well (the gardens of old houses, parks, or even along the road), are the amazing higanbana. These flowers are so named for the very fact that they appear, each year, during the higan season.
Higanbana along Tsuchiura-Gakuen Road
At convenience stores, department stores and traditional sweet shops, O-Hagi are on sale. These are oval shaped mochi-rice cakes, covered with a layer of sweet beans, soy bean powder, or black sesame. You can buy them individually, or in sets. The name of these traditional cakes during the autumn o-higan is o-hagi because hagi are a typical flower of this season, while the same sweet cake in spring is called botan-mochi, after the peony, a typical spring flower.
O-Hagi at Seibu
You will notice that many Japanese, when talking about the weather will use the expression- atsusa samusa mo higan made (hot and cold until O-higan), which I guess means that the equinox days (spring and autumn) are seasonal and climatic turning-points. With the crazy weather we've been having who knows when it will get cooler. One thing is for sure, though, the nights will start getting longer and longer, until next spring's equinox.
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