Sound of Silence: In search of Japanese Night Heron in Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林

COVID-19 has changed the way people move around. It is said that many people living in downtown are now seriously considering emigrating to rural area. We’ll see if such thing materializes. One thing I’ve personally heard is, experts who had nomadic life in deep mountains as mountaineering guide or similar occupation have adjusted their way of life to “New Normal.” I know a famous guide for Mt. Fuji has now a dual life on the foot of Fujiyama and in a residential area near Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森. Another guy who helped mountaineers to Mt. Everest has returned to Japan and established a dual life as a community organizer in mountainous community of western Kanagawa Prefecture, and as a mountain cottage manager for one of the peaks of Tanzawa 丹沢.

One such people who decided to settle in Kanagawa, or to be exact Yadoriki community 寄 is Mr. Tomonobu Akiyama, a professional wildlife photographer who’s flying around the world to get rare moments of nature’s wonder, especially of big cats. After he bought an old traditional house in Yadoriki in 2020, he investigated the area and started field research for Japanese dwarf flying squirrel. There are not many experts for this cute creature on this planet. No systematic study has done for them. Kanagawa Forest Instructors Association has started a serious discussion about possible collaboration with Mr. Akiyama to investigate the species especially in Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林. And, there is another wildlife Mr. Akiyama has spotted in Yadoriki. It’s Japanese night heron, an endangered species categorized by IUCN.

Japanese night heron is a migratory bird. They spend their autumn and winter in Philippines, coastal area of southeast China, and Taiwan. In early spring they take their annual long-distance travel to Japan in order to have a family and nurture their offspring. When their kids grow adult-enough, the entire family fly back to warmer part of the planet. Once, they were ubiquitous in Japanese rural area where lots of rice paddies provided enough catch, like insects and frogs, for their hungry babies. Asian economic development reduced the environment for their idyllic life in Japan, Philippines and China. At this moment, it is said that there are about 2000-3000 individuals counted in Japan. The number of places people can find the birds are getting smaller and smaller. In order to derail their way to extinction, we must first make it sure the place they are planning to have families. It then can be started to plan restoration of environment for the night heron. That’s the idea of Mr. Akiyama. He collected information about Japanese night heron in western Kanagawa Prefecture. There are several hearsays, like “I think I’ve seen them in such-a-such place,” “I guess that’s their last year’s nest on that bough,” or “I’ve heard their tweet.”

The herons move to Japan normally in the first half of April. When they arrive in Japan, the male night herons start to tweet at the beginning of evenings, normally from 30 minutes to one hour after the night fall. They have a soft and low hoo-hoo voice. They are appealing to females to mate. The dating will be completed roughly within 1 week of their arrival. The first voice we can spot after the sunset should be from the point nearest to a possible nest for hatching eggs. When a male has found his partner, he stops tweeting and a couple construct their nest normally on a bough of broad-leaved tree. They sit on their eggs until they hatch. The babies become teenagers by the end of June. They then begin trainings for long-distance international flight. Sometimes, lonely soul may tweet even in August, but the possibility of such male Japanese night heron having their offspring is quite low. So, when we can spot their voice in April, the probability for this endangered species procreating at that point is higher. Since last year, Mr. Akiyama organizes April event with an army of volunteers to wait quietly for the voice of Japanese night heron. If many people collaborate to record such incidence at one particular date and time, the accuracy of the search for Japanese night heron will be improved. This year is his second trial, and we Kanagawa Forest Instructors joined his endeavor. Why not helping endangered birds? We’re forest instructors!

er, it’s not bird, but boar who dug this place in Yadoriki forest.

The reason the birds are on the endangered list is dwindling number of traditional rice cultivating community. In order to record the evidence of their existence it would be wiser for volunteers sit near remaining rice paddies. But the information Mr. Akiyama has collected suggesting more mountainous life of Japanese night herons in Yadoriki Water Source Forest. Maybe, just maybe, they could not find a suitable environment for their kids near more urbanized rice paddies in Kanagawa Prefecture. (Oh-so-modern parenting …) They might have changed their traditional life near Japanese farmers to more remote areas in deep mountains. Thus, a request came for Forest Instructors who are familiar with Yadoriki Water Source Forest. Herons tweet when the forest gets pitch dark. When the research is done in deep mountains, it would be safer to ask people who know the place well, you see? In one weekend of this April, we joined Mr. Akiyama’s event to wait for the tweet of Japanese night heron in Yadoriki forest.

Mr. Akiyama instructed us. “Yadoriki Water Source Forest is not the traditional environment Japanese night herons have their summer. But if you can listen their tweeting, please record the direction the voice comes from. If possible, it would be wonderful recording the voice or taking video of the forest. Please do not go near to the voice itself, though. They are very cagey, especially when they have their eggs and babies. Once they notice some creatures come near to their nest, they abandon warming and nurturing their hatchlings. OK?” We Forest Instructors went in the Yadoriki Water Source Forest in very late afternoon. We dispersed ourselves in a forest, sit and wait at each designated spot where Mr. Akiyama thought the voice of night herons might happen. Each place has registered latitude and longitude. When a volunteer listens the tweet from a direction at one spot s/he stations, we record the time and direction the voice comes, like north or southeast. Somewhere to the direction noted at that point there are places for the heron.

Unfortunately, the weather was not good on that day. It was raining on and off. One moment the rain was like mist, then few minutes later it showered briefly. The afternoon of Yadoriki forest in early April was very cold. I brought in a comfy camping chair, rug, a thermo of hot tea, and chocolate to the place I was assigned. I situated my self in a relaxed position with umbrella and waited for the sunset ... Mr. Akiyama said we must wait until the other birds end tweeting. Japanese night herons love solo recital, not chorus with the others. We sat and waited in a darkening, and occasionally raining, forest.

In the darkening forest, no noise from human settlement came. Instead, from somewhere above, so many kinds of birds were competing each other to attract a proper mate. Is that Blue-and-white flycatcher, or Narcissus flycatcher? Familiar voices of Japanese tit were harmonizing with the call of Eurasian nuthatch. Modest tweet of Grey wagtail were intertwined with singing voice of Varied tit. Coal tit sounded talkative in their own way while Siberian blue robin would be very impatient. I realized an hour or so before sunset was very animated time in Yadoriki’s April. Wild birds are making very comfortable ambient sound … I sat in the forest wrapped in a blanket, and found my mood changed from busy nervousness of downtown to meditative relaxation. That’s … very therapeutic experience. It’s the sound of silence in a forest.

The rain got harder after sunset. That was the time if night heron was/were near us, they started to tweet. Alas, no forest instructors could record Japanese night heron to tweet in Yadoriki in that misty evening. We reported our result to Mr. Akiyama. On that day, in some other two places of Western Kanagawa, the voice of Japanese night heron was recorded. It might be a bit disappointing, but at least I found the experience precious. When another opportunity arises for a similar project, I think I raise my hand to join.

(p.s.) … er, well, I don’t recommend you to be in a dark forest to have a meditation, unless you know the place damned well, or you sit next to a person who’s very familiar to the point. Kanagawa Forest Instructors are thinking to have such event in Yadoriki Water Source Forest for pure visitors … but the Prefectural government, aka the landlord of Yadoriki Forest, does not allow us inviting non-instructors to the forest after dark. Our discussion is continuing. Please cross your fingers for a nice idea to persuade city hall.

If you find 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/

Post-report: Chigasaki Satoyama Park of Kanagawa Prefecture, April 2022, 神奈川県立茅ケ崎里山公園

 

Recently, I happened to have a chance to revisit Chigasaki Satoyama Park. The forest was beautiful with various hues of spring greens. I compared the scenery with my memory of winter grey. It was January when I visited there last time ... I felt a bit strange to be in such a peaceful place under warm spring sun.

Chigasaki Satoyama Park 茅ケ崎里山公園
1030 Serizawa, Chigasaki, Kanagawa, 253-0008
〒253-0008　茅ケ崎市芹沢1030
Phone: 0467-50-6058
FAX: 0467-50-6358

http://www.kanagawa-park.or.jp/satoyama/index.html

Secret Cuisine: Bamboo Charcoal Salt

 

Although charcoal made from bamboo has lower calorie than wood charcoal (and so it’s inferior as energy), it has several usages. Bamboos dead or alive have lots of holes in their body. After we bake them into charcoal, it keeps its porous property with numerous micro-holes. When a material is porous, its surface area is far larger than its appearance. For 1g of wood charcoal, the average superficial area is 200-400 m2. For 1g of bamboo charcoal, it’s 700 m2. Smelly molecules wafting in the air would be plugged in the nano pits from which is difficult to escape. The more porous, the more space to capture molecules. Purifying power of bamboo charcoal > Power of wood charcoal. Got it? People are studying to utilize such characteristics to make sustainable activated carbon for industrial use. Or, it can be used for cooking. There are several charcoal products that can be used for cooking rice. How-to is simple. Wash charcoal with tap of water sans soap, dry them well, throw it in a rice cooker above rice and water, and cook it as usual. Chemically treated tap of water will be purified by bamboo charcoal, and the taste of cooked rice is softer and N-I-C-E. We can do the same with the highest-grade wood charcoal, but the cost performance we get from cheaper bamboo charcoal can beat the luxurious Binchotan 備長炭. Not bad, huh?

Charcoal Baking Hut, Spring 2022,
Niiharu CitizenForest 新治市民の森

Niiharu Lovers bake bamboo charcoal since its inauguration some 22 years ago (; my posts on March 3 and 10, 2017). We sell them as a fund-raiser to support our forest maintenance activity. Having said that, we cannot peddle our product good for rice cooker. Reason? In Japan in order to sell any food the supplier must hold business license based on Food Sanitation Act. Yap, we do not eat charcoal itself when we use bamboo charcoal for rice cooker. But the minerals of charcoal will inevitably dissolve in water and absorbed by cooked material. On the other hand, Niiharu Lovers do not have money, or more precisely, enough sales to cover license application fee to sell our bamboo charcoal for cooking. i.e. We cannot market Niiharu’s bamboo charcoal for food. But it does not stop us to use personally our product for cuisine. Japan is a free country! Using our charcoal for rice cooking privately is a start. Then one day, I found there is another gastronomy fun to bake bamboo charcoal. That’s about salt. It’s Bamboo Charcoal Salt.

Preparing for the charcoal baking kiln

I’m sure porous property of bamboo trunk should do wonder when we make bamboo charcoal salt. The way to baking bamboo charcoal salt is easy, as long as you have an access for bamboo charcoal kiln. It goes like this.

Ingredients: Nice sized bamboo trunk, salt. And just in case for the salt bursting out from the bamboo, I used aluminum foil, small pebbles from Yadoriki, and hemp string for a cap.

First, punch inside of bamboo trunk to pierce node(s) of bamboo, except the lowest knot that will be the bottom of a “bamboo vessel.” I made a hole and washed the whole bamboo with running tap of water. You see, it will contain food …

Next, stuff the bamboo with salt. I used crude salt that is used to pickle vegetables in Japan.

I precautionarily made room at the top of bamboo pipe to stuff the pebbles in case the contents boiling over. In retrospect, that was not a problem in the end. But in order to protect the product from charcoal dust, the cap was useful.

Here, the cap, typical tuff of Tanzawa Mountains including lapillistone, on aluminum foil.

We capped the above prepared bamboo vessel with another bamboo piece.

It then stuffed in the kiln with the other bamboos for baking.

We simply fired the kiln as usual (; my post on March 3, 2017). When we opened the lid of the kiln, the salt staffed bamboo trunk looked like this. Here we go! How did it turn out …?

The bamboo vessel simply lost the shape of pipe after baked in 800-900+Co for 24 hours. But the mass of salt was kept in a sort of cup of bamboo pipe like this. Could you see on our left there is a cap part? I mean, baked pebbles and aluminum foil. It was a sort of impressive scenery for me. Tanzawa’s tuff was made from volcanic activity. Especially the greenish lapillistone was cooled lava. It did not kept its color after charcoal baking …

The lower part of the vessel turned into baked salt.

I threw away the pebble and aluminum part of the contents and ground the rest. Here! Bamboo Charcoal Salt!

According to Google search (for example, here, here and here), the recipe for bamboo charcoal salt was first created by Buddhist monks in Korean Peninsula some 1300 years ago. They bake salt in a bamboo trunk capped by loess, with fire from pine logs. The whole process takes 3 months, and the baking is done 9 times. I wonder how they keep the bamboo vessel during the process. Bamboos will crumble just after one trial ... Anyway, their aim was / is to create medicine. When such precious drug came to Japan, the recipe was modified. No loess, and logs are chosen from our backyard forests, not limited to pines. In the 21st century, several makers in Noto Peninsula 能登半島 provide this special salt about 1000 yen for 100g salt (for example, here). It is served in the exclusive restaurants in Japan for Tempura and Sashimi. I tried my product and found certainly the edge of regular salt has gone. The heat reached to the stuffed salt via miniscule holes transferred the essence of bamboo to the salt. It smells like hot spring egg. So, for sure we have to choose for which dish we can use this salt. But, for example, fried veggies go superb with this salt! Niiharu Lovers secretly shared the product after baking the last bamboo charcoal for this season. Our portion is like 3 tablespoons per person … we are treasuring it and waiting for the next charcoal baking season. Ahem! We are law abiding citizens. This salt is for us only, Not For Sale 😉.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420

Strange Days: Spring, Yokohama, 2022

 

Wild neighborhood flower in Yokohama 2022 …
 FYI, it’s Japanese bishop’s hat.

From last weekend to Monday, we had very cold days in our neighborhood. Peaks of Tanzawa 丹沢, Hakone 箱根, and inevitably Mt. Fuji 富士山 have been again snowcapped. Fully bloomed cherry blossoms started falling in cold windy rain. Sad. Then, the weather suddenly become early summer like. Homo sapience are confused. Winter coat, or just a shirt?... How about the other species? Are they coping with the strange weather?

I haven’t done any systematic research for the growth of vegetation here. But one thing for sure this year is, we have not had enough bracken shooting yet for harvesting. Until last year, I could find them by the middle of March in Yokohama. The young shoots were available until the end of April or so. It was fun to cook them as seasonal treat (; my post on April 2, 2021). Not this year. I asked my seniors of Forest Instructors who are active in the other forests of Kanagawa Prefecture. All said “Nope. We don’t have them yet either.” Hmmmmm … Plum blossoming was also very late. There is a plum tree that flowers always first in Niiharu 新治市民の森. In December 2020 it started to have flowers. We enjoyed them until March. Not this year. In 2022, it opened finally in the first week of February. We expected the flowering of spring forest would catch up from here as for the previous years. Nope. Cold weather returned and returned.

These are the earliest plum flowers in Niiharu.

By the way, don’t you think this tiny bird of pray,
 bull-headed shrike, cute?
 I found her when these plums flowered in February.

Spring ephemerals are, it seems to me, also puzzled. They are like “Hello, hello? Is it OK to start our spring now?” I hoped severe winter would bring bursting spring just like in northern places. Maybe, we could have crazy parties of lots of colors with many flowers at once! Nah. Hesitating flowers sporadically open within browned patches of winter. The scenery has continued for more than a month ... Then last week, cherry blossoms have come, rain or shine. They‘ve begun swirling soon after over the ground often in winter color. Is something happening?

It seems to me this is a bounty year for field horsetails
 (; my post on April 13, 2018).

And sasa bamboos are flowering.

But Corydalis decumbens (Thunb.) Pers.
have not flowered as of April 2nd ... where‘s bud!?

Still, in colder Yadoriki やどりき水源林 I‘ve found that frogspawns in March have turned into tadpoles last week. Well, seasons come whatever my anxiety is. It would be better to take it easy …

Frogspawns of Montane brown frog, early March

And they are now tadpoles.
 Could you figure out black dots in alga?

In any case, Viola betonicifolia have flower early April, as usual!

If you find 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/

Good things come to those who wait: Yubeshi part 2

 

So, from the ingredients for Yubeshi, you may think “Hmmmmm … it’s vegetable protein and fat, isn’t it?” Right. The main ingredients of miso paste is soy. Nuts are for unsaturated fatty acid. For yuzu peel, here is 2015 data from Ministry of Education of Japan:

For 100g of yuzu peel, the main nutrients are

59 kcal
Protein 1.2g
Fat 0.5g
Carbohydrate 14.2g
Vitamin E 3.4mg
Vitamin C 160mg


As reference, 100g of yuzu juice contains

21 kcal
Protein 0.5g
Fat 0.1g
Carbohydrate 7.0g
Vitamin E 0.2mg
Vitamin C 40mg

It’s obvious yuzu peel is more nutritious than its juice. I guess that’s why ancient warriors carried them as ration. Now we’ve completed mise en place. Let’s start cooking.

First, we mix well Miso paste, Sugar, and Flour of your choice. You can skip flour if you prefer. The taste of Yubeshi will be stronger, i.e., saltier.

Next, add nuts and sesame. Mix well.

Finally, add sake and mirin. Fold them thoroughly to make a sticky dough. Or, you could skip adding such liquid in the dough. Again, the taste of Yubeshi will be stronger and saltier without these ingredients.

Put the miso mixture in a cup of yuzu peel. I think this is the most important part of cooking Yubeshi. If you economize the mixture, when you cook the peel, it could collapse and Yubeshi won’t be a shape of power ball. When you add too much of miso and nuts paste, the dough will expand during the cooking and overflow from the cup at best, or tear the cup and no ball will come out. The key is just nice amount of miso mixture in a cup. It would be like 70% of a cup, which could be …

like these. For this amount of dough, when you put the lid on a cup, it sunks in the cup. Don’t worry this dropped-in. It will turn out a nice Yubeshi ball.

Steam Yubeshi balls for 60 minutes, or …

until the fat of the peel and sugar covers the ball thoroughly and turns the balls shiny like these. Could you see the peel cups also have color of miso paste? That’s pretty much OK.

The miso oozed out and turned the color of the peel. No problem.

Next, wrap each cooked yuzu balls with a parchment paper and fasten it with a rubber band. It’s like making heads of dolls. Frankly, it’s fun! Now we reach to the last process for preparing Yubeshi balls. Let’s hung them somewhere to dry. I used old laundry nets for economizing the space (;hey, we’re in Japan!). Add one ball in a net, fasten the net at the top of the ball with a twine, then add another ball. Continue this until all the space of a net is full. I then hung them from a hanger. Very luckily when I steamed Yubeshi balls, it was a damned fine January weekend so that I started my drying outside. But letting balls to be wet by rain is HUGE no-no. The place to dry Yubeshi balls are somewhere with nice air circulation, and dry. If you care, you can check the form of the ball while the cup is still wet. You massage them to make them rounder, just like making a snowball.

It depends on the dryness of the climate of your place. In normally very dry Yokohama’s January, Yubeshi balls will be hardened within 7 days or so. I’m not sure when it is OK for the cooked Yubeshi balls are still soft after 7 days … I guess in such a case there is a danger the cooked yuze cups are getting moldy and started to rotten, i.e. the failure of the cooking. That’s the reason people say cooking Yubeshi balls must be completed by the end of January in Kanto region, Yokohama included ... Metropolis Tokyo in December to January has very dry but not so harsh winter. Having said that, as long as the air is dry enough it won’t be a problem, I surmise. Traditionally, this Yubeshi balls are made not only in Nara Prefecture but also in Ishikawa Prefecture where they have huge amount of snow fall in winter. Heavy snow does not mean wet weather, you see?

The next step of this recipe is, W-A-I-T. Once the Yubeshi balls are hardened in the net, let them keep drying for at least one more month in a place of good air circulation. It means when you’ve completed cooking yuzu cups at the end of January, Yubeshi balls will become power balls in the first or second week of March. After the long waiting, the wrapped Yubeshi cups shrink in the paper to become like these.

Inside the paper wrap is completely dried Yubeshi balls. Once the Yubeshi reaches to this stage, it can be stored in room temperature.

To eat Yubeshi, the standard is to slice them. A ball Yubeshi is very hard, but cutting them is not hard. Come to think of it the inside of the cup was the mixture of miso paste that was once creamy. The taste of Yubeshi is salty (because of miso) and sweet (thanks to sugar). It has flavor of yuzu fruits, nuts, and sesame. As they have been folded by miso which is fermented by yeast, these peels and nuts are also matured in a cup and create complex harmony of savor. I tell you they are D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!! No wonder one Yubeshi ball could cost 10 USD when we search them in stores. They can be very good tapas by themselves. People say combining the slice of Yubeshi with cheese goes superbly with wine. Naomi is enjoying them occasionally as luxurious afternoon snack with tea. Cherry blossoms are in full swing now …😊

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016 

FAX: 045-316-8420