VERY dry: drought?

 

Since this spring we’re watching the price of rice souring. You see? Before, Japanese paid taxes by rice. Commoners did not have enough money and time to enjoy tempuras, stewed veggies, etc, and so made do only with steamed rice for daily meal. Harvesting new rice was fundamentally important for Japanese psyche. Expensive rice has been serious political issues always. Several political powers collapsed because of expensive rice. Upper House election last month had big issues about rice. We’re serious for rice. Simple economics says when a price of good is going up it is a sign of scarcity. Last autumn, the government said we had plenty of rice. This summer, the doubt for statistics for tonnage of rice harvest came everybody’s mind. Was the government incorrect?

Wow. Expensive for every meal use …

This is what the Government released
 from their emergency warehouse.
 They were harvested some 4 years ago,
and have this price tag now.
 Have you noticed people are purchasing it,
according to the stockpile
 compared with the above photo?

One of the senior members of Niiharu Lovers Association was born in a Rice Bowl place and received regular gift of rice from her sister who married a rice farmer in her hometown. She was thankful she did not have to visit supermarket for rice since she moved into Yokohama decades ago. Alas no more. She said, “My sister said everybody visited her field for rice so often. Her business monetized all the stock. They now have enough rice only for her family. She does not have rice for me. I visited the supermarket, and astonished with their price tag!” Even in Yokohama, landlords of (tiny) fallow lands have returned planting rice to harvest any this fall. We had a sort of “hope” when new harvest season comes this month, we will have some breathing space for our meal …

The rice paddies here was a fallow land until recently.

Then, we’re having extremely harsh summer with very short monsoon season. We are hearing the news from Rice Bowl area their rice paddies are drying up. I recalled last winter people for the townhall of Hadano City was worried about small snow caps in Tanzawa Mountains and low water levels for rivers running there. Even the ground for my Mom’s garden is drying. We’re busy sprinkling ... Small rivers in Yokohama have very thin streams now, and its banks are covered by weeds for dry land. The vegetation will soon collapse under the scorching sun if no enough rain falls. Typhoons do not give enough … Global warming?

The small stream is almost swallowed
by weeds …

Do you think this point received
enough rainwater from a typhoon
 some 3 hours ago?

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/

ALART “Wait Is Over”: SFTS finally reaches Kanagawa Prefecture

 

For Kanagawa Prefecture, there has been a continuing menace approaching from the West. Then, early this month, the wait was finally over. On July 11th, Kanagawa Prefecture announced a lady of her 60s in Matsuda Town, where Yadoriki Water Source Forest locates, was bitten by a tick in her neighbourhood and contracted Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, aka SFTS. She was hospitalized, but now is discharged and recovering.

SFTS is a disease caused by SFTS virus carried by ticks. When we are affected, we have fever, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, severe fatigue, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and/or lymphadenopathy. If you have these symptoms after bitten by a tick, please rush to a nearby hospital and ask help. It’s a deadly disease. Before, we had effective antibiotics, but no more. The virus has evolved into superbug, and we do not have a medicine to kill the virus inside the body. We must have invasive symptomatic treatments to maintain life and to wait our strength to quell the virus from the body. Already this year, one vet in Mie Prefecture 三重県 died after contracting the disease when he treated a cat patient.

Researchers stroke such bushes
with velvety cloth to collect ticks.

SFTS is carried by a tick. These bugs bite animals to suck blood. They have sharp scissors-like mouth that first cut our skin. Then, their long “tooth” which is a syringe needle with sawtooth-like surface is inserted into our body. The needle with tooth acts like a stopper to prevent the bug from being removed easily from the prey. When they insert their needle, they inject several kinds of body fluid of concrete-like materials to make the concatenation durable for a week. They bite into the skin firmly and drink blood until they are completely satiated. They can stay at the point for a week to drink 1L of blood. Their body fluids carry many kinds of viruses. SFTS is one of such bugs.

The place looks innocuous …

So, it’s important not to be bitten by ticks. Ticks with SFTS live in bushes. They are not necessarily in shrubs of remote countryside, but also on lawns for city parks. The method is applicable for the greenery everywhere.

1. Wear garments covering your body. Short pans and tank tops for Grand Canyon or Yosemite are HUGE NO-NO.

2. Apply plenty of insect repellent before going to a greenery whether it’s in National Park or garden next to a skyscraper in downtown. The blind spot is feet. Do not forget to spray insect repellent enough over your foot even wearing heavy-duty trekking shoes.

3. Do not put your luggage unguarded on the ground. Reason? Obvious. Do not let ticks crawl near your body! Spray mint-water over the place you intend to leave your bag. Ticks do not like the smell. Then spread plastic sheet over the sprayed ground, spray mint again over the sheet, and finally you leave your bag, and/or sit on the ground for lunch.

4. If you’re bitten, NEVER try to pry out the bug from your body. It shall destroy the body of the tick, and more virus-infected fluids will come out. The virus soup immediately seeps in the prey’s body through already needle inserted would. No good things occur. Please rush to the hospital with your tick, and leave the pro to remove the bug. 

5. NEVER bring ticks home. Do not bring your jacket inside car and home. Before leaving the site, please check if your garments carry ticks. If there are, put it in a plastic bag, and disinfect it in boiling water. Ticks do not die with simple washing. Also, take shower and/ or bath immediately after you come home from tick-loving bushes. Check your entire body if you’re unaffected.

The tick-SFTS problem has been rife in Western Japan from around 2011. We in Kanagawa Prefecture have been smugly relaxed. We could lie down freely on lawns and have lunch on a stump along our hiking roads. Those were the days. When Kanagawa is infected, Tokyo et al will follow. If you plan to stroll the greenery in Megalopolis Tokyo area, please be careful. If you have any questions, please make a contact with Japan Institute for Health Security. Here is their PR pamphlet for treating ticks problem. Sorry it’s in Japanese, but your AI will solve the language problem, I guess. Good luck.

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/

Green Fruits: young fruits of trees in early July, Kanagawa Prefecture

Global Warming. Well, these days we are talking summer is from June to October in Yokohama. Before, it was like from July to September. July was “early” summer. I don’t know if this definition is applicable for this July. But, one sure thing is, season for spring flowers is definitely over, and these former flowers are now young “fruits” in our forests. They are still very green.

When we walk in the cacophony of summer greens, it is often difficult to spot these fruits that are also green. It’s like they wear camouflages in the forest. What are they hiding from? ChatGPT says they prepare for emergencies when animals try to eat them before they are ready. OpenAI also says they are kids and still growing to produce proper seeds. So, they are doing photosynthesis and complement the nutrition they receive from the main body. Well, OK. In any case they are kids in July. They need more time to ripen. And they are cute.

Fruits for Euptelea polyandra,
Japanese endemic in the family Eupteleaceae,
early July 2025.

It was fun meandering through forests to spot baby fruits hiding between the leaves. It’s interesting they have so many forms from species to species, but all in green early July.

Fruits for Silvervine already become galls.
As ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine,
the fruits-galls are said to have stronger medicinal potency.
Though, it seems to me its effect for humans is
not yet definite scientifically.
Meanwhile,
everybody knows its leaves are hallucinogenic to cats!

Sapium japonicum.
It has spectacular autumn leaves in red.
When the fruits mature,
they burst out to spread seeds.
Oh, by the way we can see white flowers
 for Asiatic Jasmine in this photo.

Mallotus japonicas.
It’s one of the pioneer plants so that
we can find easily along the forestry roads in Kanagawa.
They’ve finished there flowers quite recently,
and fruits are not yet apparent.

Juglans ailantifolia (; my post for October 28, 2016).
In early July they already looked substantially big.
But don’t be greedy.
I once took them in August, and
 the nutty part inside was still VERY thin.
We must wait …

Parabenzoin praecox.
The fruits are also in green, but when we crush it,
it wafted noble woody aroma if not that strong
as the scent when they are mature.

Arisaema limbatum.
Within a month or so, they start getting red.
They are precocious.

Deutzia crenata. Their cup-like fruits are really unique.
When mature, they also burst out to spread the seeds.

Very young fruits for Cornus macrophylla.
When they ripen, the fruits are in dark purple,
and the stems are coral pink.
They are called “Mountain coral 山珊瑚” in Japanese.
Yet in July, they have some way to reach such beauty.

Oriental bittersweet.
They are green now but when matured in Autumn,
they have beautiful gradation from orange to red in one fruit.

Anyway, before ripening they have to survive harsh, humid and long summer in climate-changing Kanagawa. Good luck for all of us …

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/

In Memory of Bugs and Those Who Loved These Tiny Creatures: Bugs Memorial Service in Kenchoji Temple, Kamakura 建長寺虫供養

 

How to visit Kenchoji Temple 建長寺 must be in any tourists’ guide for Kamakura. So, I just start from the main gate of the Temple. We arrive there by walking from JR Kitakamakura Station 北鎌倉駅or by bus from Kamakura / Ofuna Station. We enter the gate and pay 500 yen for the fee. Immediately before us is the temple complex where monks pray, meditate and instruct us during Zen meditation sessions. Please check the map inside the Temple here. Could you notice there is a road going north to Hansohboh 半僧坊 on the north-west side of the complex? When we walked Miura Alps from Yokohama side, Hansohboh was one of the goals and we walked through the Temple Complex to the JR station. At that time, Kenchoji Temple did not charge us entrance fee from Hansohboh. Alas, no more. Bank of Japan ended "unprecedented monetary easing," and one of the main issue for the coming Upper House Election (7/20) is inflation. There is no reason for Zen monks being uninterested in the matter … Anyway, the Memorial for Bugs does not ask us to reach Hansohboh.

From Kitakamakura Station to Kenchoji Temple

The main gate for Kenchoji Temple

Please pay the entrance fee there.

Inside the sanctuary

This road is to Hansohboh.

We walk a small commuter road, pass several houses which are residences for monks, then the road becomes wider but in a full forest. The steps over there will lead us to Hansohboh. Turning our eyes to the left, there is a small bank with bamboo forest. Please walk up a bit and find the way to enter this petite hill. You’ll recognize several installations with sculptures of insects over there. That’s the bugs’ memorial authored by Kengo Kuma. Combined metallic cages are surrounded by bushes of azalea. In the middle of the cages is a sculpture for a weevil. Weevil? Oh yeah, they are the beloved insects by Prof. Takeshi Yoroh. Outside the cage there are sculptures for a dragonfly, a stag beetles, several weevils, and a jewel beetle. Those outside the cage are, I would say, beautiful and some have a nice size and curvature for becoming a bench …

The commuter road becomes wider
when the forest becomes “in honest.”
Please take the left way.

To Hansohboh

A petit hill for the Memorial

The entrance to the Bugs’ Memorial

A stag beetle

Here is another.

Weevil #1

Weevil #2

Another weevil.
I think weevils are really loved by the Professor.

A jewel beetle.
Hm, it’s a bit tricky to sit on it.

A dragonfly.
All the sculptures are beautiful, don’t you think?
 It’s LOVE, mate.

… It looks sorry … in the cage …

The Memorial is decorated with white azaleas.

On June 4th, I arrived at the Memorial before noon. No sign of religious ceremony at all. Several people were unsurely meandering around the installation. I joined them for a while, and felt nervous if the ceremony was over already. Eventually, a murmur spread. “The service starts at 14:00.” Relieved! I decided to have lunch. There is no café inside the sanctuary, but just outside the main gate, there is a famous café, Tenshinan 点心庵 where they serve Kenchinjiru Soup by the traditional recipe from Kenchoji Temple. (We can go there if we ask at the gate to return the sanctuary after lunch. They will tell you you keep the half-ticket for the entrance and show it when you return.) Kenchinjiru is a pure vegetarian, nay vegan to be exact, soup created more than 700 years ago by zen monks of Kenchoji Temple. The endorsement and reference recipe from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is here! Now the menu is one of the standards for Japanese home or otherwise cooking. If you do not mind lunch without meat, please try. I love this soup. Oh, they serve meat if you choose such a menu for lunch. + The evening is for only one party with reservation per day. Later I learned monks, Prof. Yoroh and his friends always dine there after the service for bugs. So, every June 4th, evening at Tenshinan is taken and no chance for a newcomer muscle in the schedule. 😉

Kamakura Tenshinan

Inside the café,
they have a special room for zen tea ceremony
where they occasionally hold tea ceremony.
For the schedule, please check their HP.

After lunch, I returned to the memorial place around 13:00. Already lots of people were there. I guess there were more than 100 of us. An alter table and folding chairs were situated in front of the cage. Several monks were busy perfecting the alter. Around 14:00, Prof. Yoroh, Mr. Kuma, and their entourage slowly came into the alter space in the forest. It was said that Prof. Yoroh of the great age has lung cancer. He was scheduled to be hospitalized soon. He walked slowly, and perhaps his daughter (; she takes after the professor) supported his walk. His troop sat on the rows of folding chairs. Then, the Head of Kenchoji Temple entered the space and took the podium. The service began.

Many people near the altar

The altar. This is a serious thing, you know.

Monks are busy.

Prof. Yoroh and the monks for Kenchoji Temple

The professor and friends

Telling you the truth, I could not understand a word from the mantra in Sanskrit the Head of the Temple recited. I was sure the chant is soothing the souls of bungs that were crushed between our fingers so far. The Head had low and calming voice. We quietly stationed in our space, sometimes closed eyes, and listened the monk’s saltation. It was a meditative experience in the forest ... After completing the recitation, the monks performed the praying ritual at the altar, then Prof. Yoroh took the podium. “Thank you for coming to remember these creatures. We did not advertise the occasion, but such many people attended our memorial. It is a great surprise.” He expressed his passion for insects and bugs, told us his several challenges of old age, and concluded “I wish I could hold the same memorial next year after discharged from the hospital.” Oh dear … The Professor’s speech ended and he and his associates approached the altar and performed Buddhist’s praying ritual. The monks for Kenchoji Temple announced it was our turn to pray at the altar. We proceeded to the table one by one and prayed for bugs, and for Prof. Yoroh. The Professor has lots of enthusiasts. Many people from all around Japan visited Kenchoji Temple on June 4th to share the same time and space with him. All the attendees of the Ceremony listened to his news and had a concern. We hoped we can have the same memorial service next year.

The Head of Kenchoji Temple reciting the mantra

The sermon

Professor’s speech

And they performed the ritual.

Our turn

The queue was long …

It was a sunny afternoon before the summer solstice. The air was soft, and the space surrounded by the forest was cozy. The mantra recited by the Head of the Temple gave a further meditative atmosphere. If bugs could listen to that, they could be comforted as well. These days, Kamakura is becoming a theme park for tourists with noisy hustle and bustle. But the space around the Memorial was curiously serene. On that June 4th a bit peculiar kind of people who loved bugs congregated without advertisement. If you have sympathy for bugs which are casually wasted by larger living things, spending a reflective day next to the Memorial would be nice. Me? The internet fortune teller once told me my next reincarnation will be a bug. I was serious about attending the occasion. Amen. Whoops, it’s a Buddhist ceremony!

Kenchoji Temple 建長寺

8 Yamanouchi, Kamakura
247-8525, Japan

〒247-8525 神奈川県鎌倉市山ノ内8

Phone: 0467-22-0981（8:30-16:30） 

https://www.kenchoji.com/