Money Tree: forest regeneration and oriental paperbush in Yadoriki Water Source Forest

In Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林, we have a hidden and beautiful “artefact” explaining why we need 50 Year Plan for Forest Regeneration, and Forest Environment Tax 森林環境税. It’s several colonies of oriental paperbush (Edgeworthia Chrysantha), or Mitsumata in Japanese. You would say, “Hey, they are plants, not ‘artefacts’.” Oh, yeah. They are artefacts, objects by humans of cultural and historical interest. Let me tell you their story this week.

Oriental paperbush is not endemic species of Japan. Their origin is somewhere in Himalayas and southern China. When they first came to Japan is not known. But at least several ancient poems in Manyoshu 万葉集, compiled in 759CE, mention them so that they could have been well-known already by the 8^th century. The plant is deciduous shrub of Thymelaeaceae family, and grows in a peculiar way: its brunch always becomes a trident. So when we count how many nodes for forks a tree has, we can deduce the age of the tree. In any case, it’s not a long-living bush. Average lifespan of an oriental paperbush in Japan is max 5-6 years. Then, a succession of tridents dies and a new shoot comes out. Because of spreading tridents, an old and wild oriental paperbush looks like a half-ball. The tallests are about 2m high in Yadoriki. At the tip of tridents they have yellow flowers from mid-March to mid-April, before green leaf buds are coming out. Moreover, they have subtle but noble scent. In deep forest of still cold Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢, yellow half-balls covering slopes with wafting sweet aroma is categorically stunning. That’s the reason why they appear in ancient love songs, like

Don’t cry, my love.It can’t be long before we’ll be together again,like flowers of oriental paperbushescoming out first in early spring.Let us hope nothing worse would happentill then …

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

春されば まず三枝（さきくさ）の 幸（さき）くあれば 後にも逢む な恋ひそ吾妹

柿本人麻呂

Yellow half balls

I guess if they were just moderately sized good-looking imported tree with noble aroma, they won’t colonize slopes of Tanzawa. In Tanzawa, one of the most spectacular colonies of the plant is in the area ASL 800m along a route to Mt. Hinokiboramaru (檜洞丸 ASL 1601m) from West Tanzawa Visitor Center 西丹沢ビジターセンター. I tell you that’s really in a deep mountain ... Yadoriki’s largest colony of oriental paperbush is in ASL 600-700m where 2008 and 2009 Forests of Growing reside. (Map here.) To visit there, you have to cross rapid Yadoriki Stream 寄沢 by turning to the left departing from a standard trekking route to the peak of Mt. Nabewari (鍋割山 ASL 1272m) via Ameyama Pass 雨山峠 (approx. ASL1100m). Even the regular route from Yadoriki Forest to Mt. Nabewari can become a stage of accidents. A guy went missing about 6 months ago around the Pass, and police and rescuers have not found a trace of him yet … Last November a hiker had a near miss with a bear cub in the vicinity of paperbushes. An angry mother bear could come out any time. Please don’t think crossing Yadoriki Stream lightly. Having said that, if you come on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 and 13:00 from March to November at the entrance of Yadoriki Water Source Forest, we Kanagawa Forest Instructors are ready to guide you to the forest of oriental paperbush with a mobile bridge over the torrent. (Welcome!) In any case, it’s rather wild places for poetry loving aristocrats to plant exotic trees with dreamy eyes for their flowery lovers. (er, well, background info: Japanese aristocrats of the ancient times seldom ventured out from the capital city Kyoto 京都. They were ultimate city dwellers. You just flip through a novel or poetry of the time and understand their urban life style.) Why are foreign paperbushes thriving in such places of Tanzawa?

Mitsumata.
 They don’t have petals. Look-a-like is their calyces

Shrubs of Thymelaeaceae family have very strong fibers. Among them, Diplomorpha sikokiana and Edgeworthia Chrysantha (= oriental paperbush) are used for paper making in Japan for possibly more than 1000 years. It is said that oriental paperbush came to the archipelago with paper making technology. Paper made of Diplomorpha sikokiana was very popular among noble ladies around the turn of the 1^st millennium. It is fine and lustrous, i.e.suitable for love letters sent to noblemen. There is a catch. Cultivating Diplomorpha sikokiana is very difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, Diplomorpha sikokiana needs moderate climate to grow. They cannot come further northeast from Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県. In contrast, foreign-born oriental paperbush is tougher. Unlike Diplomorpha sikokiana, Edgeworthia Chrysantha can be easily propagated by cutting in chilly mountainous areas. Though it’s not shiny as papers of Diplomorpha sikokiana, paper made of oriental paperbush can record writings clearly. Bonus: manuscripts made of Mitsumata last for centuries. It’s very suitable for governmental records and studies to be written. By the 16^th century when cultural supremacy of Kyoto was gone and Japan became more diverse regionally, papers made of oriental paperbush were common among warlords to document official business in their territory. There remain artifacts, public records of territorial management written on papers of Mitsumata, in cold mountainous Yamanashi Prefecture 山梨. By the 17^th century, with abundant supply of water from Fujikawa River 富士川 and of oriental paperbush cultivated or otherwise, the basin of Fujigawa River running from Nagano 長野 to Shizuoka via Yamanashi became the main region for paper industry in Japan. We just open a map for Kanagwa Prefecture, and find our west neighbors are Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures. The historical region for paper industry is right there beyond Mt. Fuji 富士山. Climatically speaking, the condition in Tanzawa and Hakone is not much different from mountains in Yamanashi or Shizuoka …

In 1871, Japanese government decided to print paper money to be circulated nation-wide. Whenever and wherever, one of the problems of government about paper money is to stop counterfeit. First, they asked companies in Germany and then in the US to manufacture Japanese money by the latest western technology and to ship them to the Far East. European technology for massive printing was studied with intesnsity. In addition, Japanese mandarins in the late 19^th century noticed traditional Japanese paper made of oriental paperbush could stand many tricks they wanted to equip. In 1879, papers made of Mitsumata were started to be employed for Japanese bills. In 1887 Japan began printing money by ourselves domestically. The first factory for manufacturing paper money was in Ohji town 王子, now in North Ward of Tokyo. It was destroyed by Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The replacement was built in 1931 at the place where the current Tokyo Factory of the National Printing Bureau stands. It was already a time of Japanese militaristic adventure … pressures on national budget and inflationary policy … In 1942, a far larger factory for bill-making started to operate in a place right next to Sakawa River 酒匂川 with the enough water supply. It was the beginning of Odawara Factory 小田原工場 of the Bureau which had the largest paper mill to manufacture paper for Japanese bills. Next year, the Shizuoka Factory 静岡工場 followed. Both of the new factories were right next to the traditional producing center for oriental paperbush. Odawara Factory in Kanagawa Prefecture now is the only place where papers for Bank of Japan Notes are manufactured.

Odawara Factory has a museum
 for the process of money bill manufacturing.
 RSVP from here.
 Needless to say,
 all the process of making money is “top national secret.”
 Those who guide you in the site won’t reply your question
 if they think the topic tricky to be frank.
 Diplomacy, please.

I’m not certain yet if Tanzawa had an established production area for oriental paperbush before Japanese government began printing money. One thing for sure was, by the time Odawara Factory was open with for the National Printing Bureau, western Tanzawa, around the present-day Lake Tanzawa 丹沢湖 and Yadoriki, did a very good business of supplying Mitsumata to the Bureau. Though, it had a hidden problem … Yap. Cultivating paperbush is easy. They multiply by simple cutting and planting. Making product deliverable to the National Bureau was, and IS, a different story. It is a very labor intensive procedure. Left to its own devices, oriental paperbush spreads their brunches like a dome which is not a good shape for processing. So, farmers cram the cuttings in a bunch for one hole, and cut lanky tree of 3-4 years old before they extend their another tridents to all directions. Planting and harvesting is done by human hands in steep slopes of mountains. Next, their leggy logs are manually steamed and peeled their outer skin. Finally, the remaining inner whitish fibers are washed by clean rapid water, like of Yadoriki Stream, and dried for the National Bureau where their paper mill treats them chemically. With large population relatively near the capital city, the villages in western Tanzawa were good place to do all that. However, when World War II vacuumed all the labor force from the villages, their ability to comply such production requirement dramatically reduced. Furthermore, after 1945 rapid economic development pulled out the people from villages for jobs in cities. Mitsumata industry in western Tanzawa disappeared. The same thing happened all over Japan. Domestic supply for oriental paperbush for bank notes could not respond to the demand. Around 1950, Japanese government started to import materials for Japanese bills. Although it is a top national secret the composition of the paper for money, it is said that the current Japanese bills are made of more than 90% with manila pulp from the Philippines and fibers of Edgeworthia Chrysantha imported from Nepal and China. Yeah, that’s where the plant originated some 2 millennium ago. It’s fair, I guess.

The left is fibers of oriental paperbush.
 The right is manila pulp.

As of 2005, the suppliers of domestic Mitsumata for the National Bureau were agricultural cooperatives from Shimane 島根, Okayama 岡山, Kochi 高知, Tokushima 徳島, Ehime 愛媛, and Yamaguchi 山口 Prefectures. With rapid aging and depopulation of rural Japan, in 2016 only Okayama, Tokushima and Shimane remain contracting with the Bureau for Mitsumata delivery. What happened for the abandoned oriental paperbushes in the slopes of Tanzawa? They are in the end resilient immigrants. They escaped the yoke of staffed planting, and spread over the deep mountains, probably recalling the Himalayas where their ancestors lived. And so, beautiful yellow domes dotting western Tanzawa every early spring are an artifact with noble scent. They were once money tree, but now one of the results of neglected forests in Japan. Some argue it is a serious problem for national security relying so much on foreign supply of the material with respect to money bill. In this age of bit coins for fiat money, let me see if their assertion has a merit to consider. One anecdote. After April 2015 Nepal earthquake, the delivery of fibers of Edgeworthia Chrysantha stopped completely from Nepal. The National Bureau scrambled to secure the ingredients. One of the former production areas in mountains of Kyoto called the Bureau to invite a visitor from the Bureau asking to resurrect the cultivation of oriental paperbushes. Who knows? The money raised from the new Forest Environment Tax may be used to promote Mitsumata cultivation. In 50 years’ time, yellow half balls of Tanzawa may change the meaning of being an artifact of “money tree” to “neglected forest.” And farms of lanky paperbushes could be found in the communities on the foot of Tanzawa mountains. What would the regeneration of forests bring in 50 years’ time?

By the way, on March 14, 2020, Kanagawa Forest Instructors will host an annual event to visit the fully bloomed colonies of Edgeworthia Chrysantha in Yadoriki Water Source Forest. RSVP by email to

k-inst0981@friend.ocn.ne.jp.

Please come. 😄

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Pay back time: Kanagawa’s 50 Year Plan for Regeneration of Forests かながわ森林再生50年構想

Replying to the changes in national policy for forest management, Kanagawa Prefecture devised a plan to manage forests of the 21^st century. In 1997, the office started a program called “Nurturing Water Source Forests in Kanagawa Prefecture 水源の森林づくり事業.” Kanagawa has 95000 ha of forests which is 39% of our prefecture. Out of these, 11% is owned by the national government, 27% is by the prefectural office, and 3% is for municipalities. The rest, 59%, is private property. Because of market condition of logs and wood products, and aging population, this 59% has been neglected for some time. By the end of the 20^th century, they reached to be hazardous enough for land failure. So, the prefecture started to subsidize forestry activity especially for private forests surrounding 3 dams, Shiroyama 城山, Miyagase 宮ケ瀬, and Miho 三保, which are water source for tap water in Kanagawa. i.e. “Nurturing.” The help the Office devised is roughly consisted of 3 kids of policies. First, landlords or cooperatives contracted with landlords receive monetary support for their management activity. Second, the Prefecture makes a contract with landlords and engages in forestry directly. In this case, when available, the profit earned from the job is of the landlords. The third policy is land purchasing which often occurs as a methodology of inheritance taxes. When we walk in a forest near a dam for Kanagawa, we often encounter with sign boards explaining “This forest is defined as a water source forest, and under a prefectural contract of such-a-such for management.” They are in a part of this program.

The board stating the forest here is in Nurturing
 Water Source Forests in Kanagawa Prefecture program.
 The place is near Shiroyama Dam.

This forest is like this.

At the same time, the office and the academia decided to have a baseline for implementing the policy of Kyoto Protocol (COP3) in Tanzawa-Oyama area. Why Tanzawa-Oyama? Hakone 箱根 is a National Park so that office in charge of managing the place is the national government, i.e. out of the reach of prefectural office. Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-national Park 丹沢大山国定公園 is under the management of prefectural government. Moreover, the area has been a play-ground for university professors in Megalopolis Tokyo for more than a century. It was a familiar place for researchers. From 1994, they comprehensively studied Tanzawa-Oyama area once more and in 1999 published “Conservation Plan forTanzawa-Oyama 丹沢大山保全計画.“ The plan was based on scientific findings and stated current condition of the area, overall objective of the prefectural conservation plan, and the target to be achieved after the completion of proposed projects. It defined the objective of the policy for the area to enhance biodiversity, and advocated mobilization of civil society and scientific monitoring.

In 2006, these two approaches of prefectural policy converged into a general plan, called “50 Year Plan for Regeneration of Forests in Kanagawa Prefecture かながわ森林再生50年構想.” Well, the validity of this plan is supposed to be until 2056. OK. The plan took zoning approach, and defined 3 kinds of forests in Tanzaw-Oyama area, Hakone, and water source forests around the dams. One is the forests of ASL 800m and up majority of which are in national and quasi-national parks. This is the area where overpopulation of deer ravaged natural vegetation + damages of acid rains observed some 30 years ago. Consequently, as of 2006, there, wild Japanese beeches (Fagus crenata) and Japanese firs (Abies firma) were dying and their seedlings were devoured by deer. In order to stop further deterioration and then to make the area more biodiverse, the plan started to build deer fences and intentionally introduce seedlings nurtured from the seeds harvested from the area. From 2012, the Prefecture hired wild-life rangers who specialize in hunting around the peaks of Tanzawa mountains. Do you remember trekking route around the peak of Mt. Oyama 大山 (ASL 1252m)? There are lots of deer fences and grating floors in order to stop deer enter the area to eat firs and beeches. They are examples of the policy based on the 50 Year Plan.

Deer fence protecting baby trees inside,
 along a trekking route
 from Kohtakji Temple 広沢寺 to Mt. Oyama

Grating floors cover trekking route for Mt. Oyama.

The second area is between 300m to 800m ASL where water source forests dominate. This is the area in which massive afforestation was done by the early 1970s. They are now emitting pollens every spring for hay fever among city folks in metropolis. Prefecture decided to categorize the area in two parts. One is 200m inside from the both sides of forestry roads, and another is the rest. The forests along forestry roads are kept for forestry. Since around 2010 the afforested cedars and cypresses planted 70 years ago are reaching to the age of harvesting so that the prefecture supports commercial logging, or engaging in it directly, as a continuation of nurturing water source forests policy. After deforesting the area to harvest, they plant seedlings of pollen-less or lower pollen cedars and cypresses as a cycle of sustainable forestry. The afforested forests beyond 200m from forestry roads are thinned and introduced seedlings of broad-leaved trees encircled by deer fences. The aim is to create biodiverse forests with both coniferous and broad-leaved trees of rich forest floors receiving sufficient sunshine thanks to the thinning. The actual works to achieve the target are Forests of Growing 成長の森 project and activities of volunteer groups, including Kanagawa Association of Forest Instructors, for forest managements in the area.

A job site for forestry along Hadano Forestry Road 秦野峠林道

Forests of Growing in Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林.
 10 years ago, the prefecture deforested cypresses
 and planted broad-leaved deciduous trees within the deer fence,
 with funding from families of new-born babies.
 The trees inside are teenagers now, and growing.

The third area is below ASL 300m where human communities engage in agriculture, and housing development occur, i.e. Satoyama area 里山. Er … Yokohama’s Citizen Forests are program managed by the City of Yokohama, a national ordinance-designated city whose independence from prefectural government is guaranteed. So, management of, say, Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 which is, I would say, the finest example of Satoyama Forest of Yokohama is not directly covered by this 50 Years Plan … but scientifically established targets and methodology for biodiversity in Satoyama forest is the same both for Niiharu and for rural areas in Kanagawa prefecture. Volunteers from neighbors engage in thinning, mowing, pruning, planting, and monitoring forests located next to agricultural fields and rice paddies to restore and develop biodiversity, and to provide nice relaxing place for communities. The nature parks near city centers of Kanagawa are often in this category (; I’ll report them later this year 😄).

A scenery of Satoyama forest in Atsugi City 厚木

The prefectural office coordinates marketing of logs harvested from any of these 3 areas as a part of industrial policy for sustainable forestry. One day one of prefectural officers told us “You see, Kanagawa Prefecture is the second largest market of wood products in Japan, next to Tokyo. Considering the transportation costs for logs from mountains, Kanagawa’s forest in our backyard has definite advantage. If done well, we can create sustainable forest management in the long run.” He has a point. The forests covered in the 50 Year Plan are also scientifically and systematically monitored by groups of academics and civil society organizations to measure the effect of policy execution. They form Committee for Rejuvenation of Tanzawa-Oyama 丹沢大山再生委員会 (whose office is in Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center) to engage in civil society involvement of forest management, monitoring of the program, and spreading information in the progress of the 50 Year Plan. Funding-wise, especially for the management of water source forests, Kanagawa prefecture established in 2007 an ear-marked taxation, named “Tax for Conserving the Environment of Water Source 水源環境保全税.” For dwellers of Yokohama, it means we pay (1) Green tax みどり税 for the City, and (2) Water Source Tax for the Prefecture. From 2024, national government will charge Forest Environment Tax 森林環境税 for every tax payer = roughly 3000 yen (=$30; 1000 yen each) per year in order to manage forests in Japan.

One scenery during a 2018 forum
 presenting civil society monitoring results
 of the 50 Year Plan.

Whether this is too much taxation could be a matter of opinion. Recalling for almost 70 years we’ve deforested forests world-wide to build home-sweet-homes in suburbs of Tokyo while neglecting the backyard forests in our prefecture, current taxes might simply say “There’s no free lunch in our life, mate.” Nonetheless, during the process of legislation, those politicians sent from cities to the Diet (Japanese national legislation) pushed back the rural demand, and established legally bound condition in the usage of budget endorsed by Forest Environment Tax. Thanks to their pressure, the national government shall distribute money according to the size of population. i.e. Large cities with far less forest acreage receive the biggest budget allocation from Forest Environment Tax. We Lovers of Niiharu Citizen Forest in Yokohama could simply glee for the arrangement, but those volunteer organizations do thinning and pruning around ASL 600m ASL Tanzawa mountains have complicated opinion about this. Sure, it’s better than nothing to have a new funding for activities, but … So far, downtowns are planning to use the new budget, which is started to be distributed from 2020, earlier than the actual taxation, for purchasing woods harvested domestically. This is one of the allowed usages of the fund, and expected to stimulate forestry activity of the private sector that is now under heavy subsidies, like by the 50 Year Plan of Kanagawa Prefecture. New national tax is in the end an industrial policy to resurrect market for domestic woods, I suppose. Will it be enough to guarantee the original motivation of the 50 Year Plan, the spirit of COP5 of Kyoto Protocol?

I think those woods here are
 imported from somewhere …

In this regard, Kanagawa Prefecture has Kanagawa Plan for Biodiversity かながわ生物多様性計画. Since 2016, the policy covers the entire river basins of the prefecture, city forests of population centers, and Miura Peninsula 三浦半島, in addition to the original target area of the 50 Year Plan. These days, the activities of Committee for Rejuvenation of Tanzawa-Oyama are sometimes mentioned in this context. The 50 Year Plan itself may be evolving into something different from the initial idea of 2006 … Hmmm … 50 years are long, but it’s minimum for a cedar in Kanagawa to be sizable enough as a good building material. Keynes is damned right to say in the long run we’re all dead, but human’s long run is a short run for a forest. Who knows in the “long” run the result of possible changes in Japanese consumption behavior for woods thanks to new national tax for forest management. At least we try to think about forests in 50 years’ span, beyond our Keynes’ standard. Probably that’s something for humans who’ll be dead sooner or later before a forest takes a new shape we hope to see. Don’t you think?

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Camellias and Toilet: Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

Before telling you policies of Kanagawa Prefecture for forests, let’s have an intermission with a relaxed walk in the forest of Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター. The Center is for the office dealing with environment issues of Kanagawa Prefecture. But it’s not only for desks of mandarins, but also a park on the foot of Mt. Oyama 大山 (ASL 1252m). Roughly speaking, half the place is experimental garden for utility vegetation, like barrier trees to be planted along the coast, or no-pollen cedars and cypresses. Another half is to observe natural/traditional environment of the area with ponds of former rice paddies and forests once widely covered the border between Satoyama 里山 (human village) and Okuyama 奥山 (mountainous area beyond human settlement). It’s not that large so that with a leisurely walk, half a day is enough to cover the site. Ground and the second floors of the main building are open to public as a mini-museum, library, and seminar rooms. Access-wise, it’s not so difficult to go there by public transportation. The main entrance from the bus stop is lined with a collection of cherry trees that will be in full-bloom by the end of March, i.e. within a week or so from now. It’s a nice place for your family to have a cherry blossom picnic with educational touch. 😉

First, access. We can go there by car. The place has relatively large parking slots, and visitors are “preferentially” treated by the Office. Please set your car-navigator for the address info at the end of this post. If you use public transportation, please go to Hon’atsugui Station 本厚木 of Odakyu Odawara Line 小田急小田原線. From the North Exit, walk for about 5 minutes to Atsugui Bus Center 厚木バスセンター, and find #9 stop. Please take Atsu 厚 -33, 34, 38, and 39 service (time tables, here and here). It’s about 30 minutes bus ride to get off at Baba Rehabilitation Entrance Bus Stop 馬場リハビリ入口. Natural Environment Conservation Center is on a petit ridge of a hill, and its neighbor is another hill with a huge building complex, called Kanagawa Rehabilitation Center 神奈川県総合リハビリテーションセンター. It is the main hospital of Kanagawa Prefecture for patients of serious cardiovascular diseases and any illness which require long and arduous rehabilitation training. Thus, the name of the bus stop. Except #39 bus, all the services stop in front of Nanasawa Post Office. Please go down a bit to the traffic light and turn left. In front of you is another bus stop, of the same name Baba Rehabilitation Entrance, for #39, and beyond and above, there is a wooden sign board saying “Natural Environment Conservation Center, this way.” Thank you. Let’s follow the direction by turning left. It’s about 200m up from there to the gate of the Center, open 9:00-16:00, Tu-Sun, except New Year’s Holidays.

Baba Rehabilitation Entrance Bus Stop
 in front of the post office

Turn left by crossing the zebra crossing
 of the traffic light over there …

And we meet another bus stop
 of the same name for #39

A sign board for Natural Environment Conservation Center.
 Let’s take the road on the left.

Eventually, we reach to the gate.

Kanagawa Rehabilitation Center is over there.

The map of the Center for visitors can be downloaded from here. Immediately after the gate, the left is experimental gardens for (1) sasa bamboos, (2) typical shrubs of Kanagawa Prefecture, and (3) afforested coniferous trees. The right is for various camellias, which is endemic species of Japan. The gardens on the left and right is divided by a well-paved road that is going up and lined by diverse kinds of cherry trees. When they are in full-bloom, it’s a gorgeous road. Not many people know the place is open to the public so that we can quietly enjoy the splendor here. The camellia garden has flowers from simple to complex during winter until early spring. The garden would be a nice place to see the variety of horticultural camellias with our own eyes. Strolling in the place during winter, I a kind of understood why “La Traviata” was about a young, beautiful, but tragic girl ... On the left, the garden for shrubs has a corner of medicinal plants that can be found in the wild of steep mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture. It’s a nice place to observe and study their buds, leaves, etc. up-close with a loupe. And, the Main Attraction! Beneath tall coniferous trees, there is a toilet spot for wild Japanese raccoon dogs. According to a zoologist of the Center, they share the spot as info-hub of their community. So, a possible scenario is (sniff, sniff) “Oh, so he has this nice poop from a good meal. Let me try the vicinity of his territory.” It seemed to me their droppings were really “nice and healthy.” Some even had a size of human dropping (of constipation).😑 It is a proof the place has a good supply of foods for animals.

The main approach to the Center building.
 Cherry blossoms are still sleeping …

Entrance to camellia garden.
 Here, they have planted several coniferous trees
 mainly non-endemic for Kanagawa Prefecture.

Violetta

The shrub garden

They keep even Pieris japonica here.
 Do you remember we met plenty of them
 near the peak of Mt. Oyama?
 They are poisonous and deer never eat them.

Toilets for Japanese raccoon dogs

At the top of the slope is the Center. The building is constructed with woods harvested in the prefecture as a model for new usage of our timber. In the Center, we can have, free of charge, maps of the center and the other information about the nature of the Center and Kanagawa Prefecture,. Mini-museum within the building has well-presented report of the characteristics of Kanagawa’s nature. The place has worth a visit. Oh, yeah, here is a nice and clean toilet as well. You’d better do your necessary things here. Next to the main building of the Center, there is an old building which has an office to rescue ill and injured wild animals. In case you encounter a bleeding raccoon dog during your walk, this is the place to call.

The main building of the Center

This is an emergency shelter for injured wild animals.

A hospital for birds.
 It’s strange to see sea gulls (Larus canus)
 on the foot of Mt. Oyama …

The entrance to the petit museum.
 This is the year of boar, isn’t it?

Back of the office buildings runs another well-paved road for utility of the center. Crossing it and going down the next valley, we enter another area. First we meet is a garden for bamboos and sasa-bamboos which are studied for utility use. They are thriving. From the bamboo garden, we come to the park preserving natural ecology of the area. The vegetation is of familiar kinds in Yokohama’s Satoyama, such as Quercus serrata and Japanese laurel (Aucuba japonica), which is certainly under a constant pressure for development. The forest surrounds a marsh land that keeps the structure of rice paddies. Early spring, we can find frog eggs and pond snails in the pond, which means the place is for fireflies early summer. The rice paddies are randomly excavated here and there. This is a sign wild boars wallowed in mud, and sought for crabs (Geothelphusa dehaari) and pond snails for meal. Somewhere, meadow buntings are calling …

Please enter here for the natural park …

Going down …

Walking a bit along a road like this …

And we encounter bamboo nursery.

This is for sasa-bamboos.

From the garden, pass a deer fence,

to go down …

to marsh land.

Its pond hides pond snails …

A stream runs next to the marsh.

This one is not horticultural.

Boars took bath here.

Wooden deck is also provided.

From the end of the marsh, we slightly climb up to return to the ridge of the hill. Whichever trekking road in Japanese zelkovas (Zelkova serrata) we take, we end up at an open space designated as a picnic point. For one thing, the park does not have picnic tables or the like except here and in front of the office building. The scientists of the Center deliberately limit the picnic space in order to minimize the damage casual visitors could bring to the nature. Let’s take their advice, and have lunch here. The place is quiet with nice views of the forests of Tanzawa 丹沢 …

Going up from the valley.

The place is a mixture of planted coniferous trees
 and wild zelkovas.

Chrysosplenium grayanum maxim,
 aka “Nekonome-soh” in Japanese.
 Direct translation is “Cat’s eye grass.”
 Don’t you think they are cute?

The picnic field on the top.

From the picnic field, it is another garden this time for many broad-leaved trees some of which are familiar in our front garden. The garden is another nice place to respond to our curiosity. The explanation boards say several ubiquitous trees in suburbs are not found in the wild in Kanagawa, but brought from the west of Japan, like Kansai Area 関西地方, for utility. I did not know Cape jasmine (Gardenia jasminoides), which is a good food coloring for yellow, was “imported” from the west of Hakone Mountains 箱根. We soon return to the paved road we’ve crossed before. From the arboretum to the Office, both sides of the road are experimental field for botanists. The left is a farm to nurture pollen-less, or lower-pollen cedars and cypresses. The right is afforested cedar forest whose floor has installations of white nets and instrument screen. This is the main observation field for Kanagawa Prefecture to count number of pollens daily, and to alert weather reports for hay fever risks. Could you please avoid disturbing the place? We are dependent on their info for our health during spring … Achoo!

We are now in an arboretum.

They have a gazebo.
 It seems to me it’s OK to have a meal in the gazebo as well.

This is a large Fragrant orange-colored olive
 (Osmanthus fragrans Lour).

An experimental field for pollen-less cedars.

They control fertilization
 in order to harvest seeds for pollen-less trees.

Counting pollens …

All in all, the park of the Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center is an interesting place where we can stimulate our intellectual curiosity and relish a relaxed nature walk in one-go. 5 minutes or so drive from there is Nanasawa Spa 七沢温泉. There are several day-spa facilities. After enjoying a lazy ramble, we can visit the spa before returning to rat race in downtown. Enjoy your weekend. Next week would be a party time under cherry blossoms!

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/