Un roseau pensant: Cooking Chimaki treats with leaves of reeds under the State of Emergency

The Lovers Association for Niiharu Citizen Forest is now suspending our weekly forestry due to the State of Emergency against COVID-19. In forests, this is the time all the plants burst into fresh greens. We should have started mowing now. Especially for those wetlands in Niiharu, it is vital to control the spread of reeds; otherwise, aridification of bogs starts and the ecosystem will be lost. We cannot begin such care this year, at least yet …

A field of reed in a part of Niiharu Forest, May 2020
 … which should not be.
 We have to cut the reed out
 in order to keep the water to flow this area.

“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed,” right? Here is my small resistance against COVID-19. I made sweets using the leaves of reed. In Japan, May 5th (yeah, Cinco de Mayo) is for an annual festival to rejoice healthy growth of kids. The day is called “Kodomo-no-Hi (Kids’ Day) こどもの日,” a National Holiday. Traditionally, we make rice cakes for the occasion. One recipe is sticky rice treat, called Chimaki ちまき, wrapped in fresh new leaves from forests. The common recipe for Chimaki uses new leaves of sasa bamboos, but there is regional variety (; for a research paper about the topic, you can download it from here). I’ve found using reeds is the second popular. Well, I’m a thinking reed in front of COVID-19.

I googled for recipes and combined their suggestions to accommodate the constraints we have now … Thanks to restrictions to visit markets and uber-congestion of on-line shopping, I made a do with ingredients I had in my fridge and the thing I can find in my nearest supermarket. So below is Chimaki recipe purely “Naomi Original.” It’s easy to make. Here is how:

2020 Kids’ Chimaki for the State of Emergency

<Ingredients for 10 Chimaki>

50g Joshinko 上新粉: rice flour made from non-glutinous rice which is available in large supermarkets (even under COVID-19)

50g Shiratamako 白玉粉: rice flour made from glutinous rice which is available in large supermarkets (even under COVID-19, ditto!)

16g Katakuriko 片栗粉: starch taken from the rhizome of Asian fawnlily (Erythronium japonicum). Yeah, we can buy in small supermarket a cheap bag of “Katakuriko” which is potato starch. I do not recommend it. For this recipe, potato starch cannot give us enough stickiness for Chimaki. I happen to have the thing from fawnlily in my pantry.

160g Brown sugar

12g Kudzu powder 葛粉: starch taken from roots of Kudzu. It can give transparent texture to the treat. This too could be difficult to find in an ordinary supermarket. Mine is from my pantry.

150cc of H2O

<Essential Tools>

• Microwave
• Steamer
• Microwavable bowl.
• 15m of kitchen string; cut into 10 pieces, 1.5m each
• 10 boiled leaves of reed: I harvested reed leaves and boiled them. By doing so, we can keep their green in a freezer until we are ready for cooking.

Frozen reed leaves

<Directions>

1. Sift Joshinko, Shiratamako, and Katakuriko, then mix brown sugar well in a bowl. 

Don’t leave lumps of brown sugar.

2. In a cup, dissolve Kudzu powder with water. You should never damp Kudze powder in water at once. If you do that, you’ll have very hard time to make Kudzu water. Add H2O little by little, especially at the beginning, and create 150cc of Kudzu liquid.

When 12g of Kudzu powder is dissolved, it looks like this.
 Now you can add all the remaining water at once.

3. Add Kudzu liquid little by little to the bowl of 1, while mixing all continuously. Avoid leaving any lumpy stuff in the bowl.

The beginning of drizzling Kudzu liquid.

The mixture of dry stuff and Kudzu liquid.

4. Loosely cover the bowl and microwave it at 500w for 3 minutes.

5. Take out the bowl from the machine, and mix well the contents. At this stage, the mixture is still very soupy.

Immediately after the first microwave,
 the content of the bowl looked like this.

Mix well, and the bowl is ready for the second microwave.

6. Cover the bowl and microwave again at 500w for 4 minuets.

7. Now the mixture is stickier, mochi-like stuff. Mix or knead it again until it becomes a smooth ball. Mind you, it’s hot! You’d better prepare cold water near you while you do this.

The result of the second microwave. It’s steaming hot.

Knead or mix it well with a wooden spoon.

8. Divide the dough into 10 pieces, and make 10 elongated cones that can be wrapped each by a leaf of reed. The length of a cone is slightly less than a half of a leaf. The easiest way to make a cone is

8.1. First make a ball.

8.2. Next make a cylinder from the ball.

8.3. Finally, form a cone from the cylinder. You did it in your kindergarten, right?


9. Wrap the cone with a leaf. Below is how to:

Position the treat on a leaf this way.

Wrap it from both sides. Place a 1.5m cooking twine in the middle. You’ll make one side for about 1.2m that is long enough to rolling up the wrapped treat.

Fold the leaf at the half, putting the twine in the leaf. Twist the twine at the bottom of the wrap, and

Wind around the leaf-wrapped cone to the top. Pick the shorter end of the twine. Fasten the twine at the top end of a treat. At this point, if your rolling is not secure enough, the twine could be unfolded. So, make it sure the winding is tight enough.

Or, you can secure the wrap with two twines at once like here. In this method, you place middle of the twine at the folding edge of a leaf, and secure the top,

Like these.

Put them in a steamer and cook it for 4-5 minutes.

Mmmmmm … the contents burst out with the steam …

Dunk steamed Chimaki in a cold water, and pat them dry.

Here they are. 10 Chimaki treats wrapped by reed leaves. Bon Appétit!

I found them easy to eat when we tried it immediately after the water-bath. We could use reed leaves as a sort of burger wrap. In contrast, next day after storing them in fridge, the texture became very gooey. We had to use spoon to scrape the treat from leaf. I may have had to add more kudzu powder … Anyway, they were VERY sweet in complex taste of brown sugar. I guess the flavor of this treat is determined which brown sugar we choose … When can we return to forestry in Niiharu? We’ll have a ton of reed leaves eventually …

If you find a problem in Yokohama’s North Forests, 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

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/

Globalization: Naomi noticed many transplants (literally) in Yokohama

In Yokohama, a meadow bunting is singing, “Spring!”

The State of Emergency against Covid-19 lets me have a weekly walk in my neighborhood. It was a sort of lucky the time began early April, coinciding with spring. Since then, the scenery in our forests changes continuously. At the start, it was for spring ephemerals like violets. Only a week later golden ray florets showed off their happy faces, while bluish flowers of Veronica family started modestly. In early May, many yellow flowers have become a mixture of fluffs and flowers, but Veronicas are now larger and/or taller. Yellow and white flowers of Rosaceae also appeared early April, and in May many of them have maturing fruits. It is difficult to decide a “right” moment to collect their wild strawberries before birds do …One weekend, some pokes their cute flowers, and next week another genius calling our attention at the same place. Where is the protagonist of last week now? I’m walking with my new portable reference book these days. My book is in the latest APG system! There are so many things to learn … Then, I noticed.

Oriental false hawksbeard (Youngia japónica)

Lapsana humilis,
 which is a relative to Oriental false hawksbeard.

Ranunculus cantoniensis

Old friend Oxalis corniculata

Duchesnea Chrysanta.
 Its fruit is edible, but does not taste at all.
 So no one cares.

Pervasive Veronica persica.
 We know it was first identified
 as transplants from Europe in 1887.

Gentiana zollingeri

Hello, cucumber herb (Trigonotis peduncularis) !

Hemisteptia iyrata.
 My senior for Niiharu Lovers told me
 it appeared here this year for the first time
 as long as he remembers …
 But why, then?

When I was a small kid, dandelions, chickweeds, Chinese plantains, jersey cudweeds … were the regulars in our playground here in Yokohama. They were modest flowers, except violets. When I could occasionally meet with cucumber herbs, I was very happy with their tiny baby blue flowers. Now, in our neighborhood, there are more big, “self-asserting” flowers, it seems to me. They are not in established gardens, but wildflowers on roadside. Yes, there could have been alehoofs (Glechoma hederacea) and Ajuga decumbens before. I guess I did not notice them. But I’m not sure if there were this much yellow of prickly sowthistle (Sonchus asper), or red deadnettle (Lamiun purpureum). Yeah, Carolina cransbills (Geranium carolinianum) are pretty in pink. But were they here en masse near my alma mater elementary school? I’ve checked my brand-new reference book, and a sort of shocked to know many of them are “newcomer flowers from abroad.” No one planted them, but they established themselves here, thriving.

Ubiquitous Carolina cransbills, came here in the 1920s.

Water speedwell (Veronica anagallis-aquatica) from Europe.
 They were first recorded in Japan in 1867.

Delphinium anthriscifolium.
 They came to Japan about 150 years ago from China.

Prickly sowthistle.
 They also settled here about 150 years ago from Europe.

Common bugle (Ajuga reptans)
 which was introduced from the USA
 during the late 1960s.

Eastern black hightshade (Solanum ptychanthum),
 first identified in Japan in 1951.
 I simply wonder why it’s here,
 at the foot of traffic light near a forest.

My way of seeing greenery may have changed thanks to the training as a forest instructor. COVID-19 gave me a chance to restudy my neighborhood with more time. I may have noticed these “new” plants this late … Or, suburban forests of megalopolis Tokyo could have changed for the 21^st century. One thing is for sure. The kids now in “wild,” thanks to school closure, will remember Yokohama’s forests of 2020 spring in a different color scheme from our memory of the 20^th century. I tell you, we could not find elegant ivy-leaved toadflaxs (Cymbalaria muralis) in purple, yellow and white, when we were in wild after school …

Ivy-leaved toadflaxs which was first introduced in 1912
 as a garden plant from Europe.

If you find a problem in Yokohama’s North Forests, 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

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 Utero: Charcoal Baking in Shonan Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club for Our Hometown 湘南二宮ふるさと炭焼き会

Shonan Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club for Our Hometown 湘南二宮ふるさと炭焼き会 was established in 2000, just like Lovers of Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森愛護会. The reason why volunteers came for the Ninomiya Club was similar to Niiharu’s. Already at that time, the landlords of the area could not manage their land and forests by themselves. The abandoned forests, together with golf clubs in the area, contributed to the worsening of a water stream, called Kuzugawa River 葛川 powering to Sagami Bay. There was a call for action, and people responded for forest management. The difference between them and Niiharu is, their activity is programmed around charcoal cooking schedule, and they make not only bamboo charcoal but also wood charcoal. Accordingly, their charcoal kiln is traditional and fully built BIG one. They harvest logs during summer, and let the logs to dry. Immediately after chopped down during May to September, logs contain on average roughly 56% of moisture. Volunteers wait until that number goes down to around 35% in winter, which has higher possibility to yield charcoals of better quality.

Charcoal baking hut for Ninomiya Club

Their field is in the north east of Ninomiya Town 二宮町, called Isshiki Community 一色. We took (whichever) Kanachu Bus from Bus stop #2 in the North Exit of JR Ninomiya Station 二宮駅. After about 20 minutes’ bus ride, we got off at Midorigaoka Nishi Stop 緑が丘西. From there a quiet farm road continued for about 15 minutes’ walk. It was a tranquil and idyllic place surrounded by forest and veggie fields. Almost at the end of the veggie fields, there was their charcoal hut. The place is ideal for volunteers to bake wood charcoal. It takes time to cook wood charcoal so that people must come to see how it is going even in dead winter night. This place is far enough for smoke not to reach residential area, but near enough for volunteers in town to drive to check the kiln at 22:00.

#2 Bus Stop in the North Exit of JR Ninomiya Station.
 Please take whichever bus from here
 to Ninomiya Charcoal Club.

Charcoal Baking Hut, this way

Until petrol completed world domination in the late 1950s, Japanese ordinary people used wood charcoals for household activity, such as cooking and heating. Providing business environment for sufficient charcoal supply of satisfactory quality was VERY important for Japanese government. Academics for agricultural science engaged in policy-oriented studies to bake charcoals as much efficiently as possible. Among them was Prof. Ihachiro Miura 三浦伊八郎 for Tokyo University (during 1912-1952). He tried numerous designs of kiln, and proposed Miura-style Charcoal Kiln. Japanese government employed and generalized his idea as the “standard design of charcoal kiln.” Between the 1930s and the 1950s, the Office promoted it all over Japan, together with a “standard manual for baking charcoal in forest.” To this day, this standardization remains. So, there is “Prefectural recommendation for the length of time to fire the kiln to cook wood charcoal,” which I mentioned last week. The kiln of Ninomiya Club is followed the historical and still-official spec, professionally made by a builder from Tanzawa Area. It’s 300cm*270cm*120cm solid structure of concrete and firebricks. In the blueprint, it looks like a uterus. Inside, we really can feel like “In Utero.” (Er, no, Nirvana was not suitable for background music there, I tell you.) The recommended product life of this type of kiln was about 10 years. Granted Ninomiya Club uses it during winter only. Besides, there are not many professionals anymore in Japan who can repair and rebuild such early 20^th century technology. The volunteers use the facility with care. They check the kiln continuously, and if there is a small crack, they mend it immediately. The kiln still goes strong.

In Utero

For preparation, first they cover the dirt floor inside with halved bamboos. Bamboos facilitate the volunteers to work inside the kiln, and become buffer protecting material logs from complete combustion when the entire structure is heated up. Next, volunteers pack the kiln by vertically lining up logs harvested and cut for the height of the kiln during summer forestry. In order to prevent the logs from being burned to ashes, the kiln must be packed as much as possible. The Club cooks many kinds of trees from the forest, but the majority of them are sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) and jolchan oak (Quercus serrata). Especially, sawtooth oak of ∅15cm or so is the most treasured material. It becomes a beautiful charcoal called Kikusumi whose cut end has numerous small cracks concentrically spreading, like a flower of chrysanthemum. Japanese tea ceremony loves it, and so, it can fetch 10 times more price than the ordinary wood charcoal. Working inside the kiln is strangely calming. Yes, we have to move very heavy logs, and let them stand as vertical as possible. It’s a heavy work, but there is something very gentle. In-Utero effect? The gaps between the logs, and the logs and the ceiling/wall of the kiln are filled with “remnants” of woods that come during sizing process of logs for the kiln. For one operation in their kiln of Kanagawa standard, they pack 2t of charcoal material and 900kg of “remnants.” This yields roughly 300kg of wood charcoal, i.e. 16% of return, which is Japanese average, more or less.

Empty kiln

Harvested and dried logs are cut
 to the proper size for kiln with this machine.

Bamboos are lined for the floor.

Many kinds of trees are prepared to be cooked.

The materials are standing in this way.

Remnants are packed above the materials.

They stop stuffing the ingredients 1m behind the mouth of the kiln. From there, the volunteers pack “remnants” logs to the opening, and close the kiln with simply stacked refractory bricks and a concrete panel. A space between the bricks and the panel is intentionally made. It is the space for fire logs are placed. At the end of the kiln, there is an opening for removable chimney. Here, they install the chimney and an industrial thermometer that measures the temperature of smokes. From the numbers, the Club infers the temperature inside the kiln. To bake the wood charcoals, they make fire in the space between the bricks and the concrete, and measure the temperature at the chimney. When it reaches to 85°C, it’s the sign the materials for charcoal has started self-combustion, they stop feeding the fire logs and semi-close the mouth of the kiln to feed fresh oxygen that promotes thermal self-decomposition of cellulose, lignin, et al. From the start of firing logs to this stage, it takes about 8 hours, they say. It’s more or less the same as Niiharu’s bamboo charcoal baking. The difference starts here.

A diagram when the kiln is heated. Red lines and arrows show how the heat circulates inside the kiln.

Piling up the bricks …

The front of the kiln is ready for firing up.

The space between the bricks and the concrete panel.
 Tinder is thrown in.

The vent at the end of the kiln

Cray soil is harvested nearby to concoct mud
 to shut the structure.

Chimney made of cast metal is attached
 to the vent.

The foot of the chimney is sealed by the mud.

In Niiharu, we wait 4-5 hours more after half-closure, then shut the kiln completely with refractory bricks, concrete panel, and mud. It’s one-day operation of roughly 17 hours. For wood charcoal to be made, this time schedule is too short. So, Ninomiya people kept unsealing the kiln for roughly 68 hours, on average. Unlike bamboos, the wooden logs inside need this much time to complete thermal decomposition. You may say by burning firewood more before semi-closing the opening it will let temperature of inside climb faster, and so, the process can be more efficient. OK, if a charcoal maker takes this approach, (1) more materials can be burnt to ashes inside so that the yield becomes lower, and (2) the texture of final products becomes more fragile so that the amount of calorie one unit of charcoal can create is lower, i.e. bad quality charcoal. The point is, we have to heat the kiln not too fast in order for the logs to turn into a structurally smooth charcoal. To make it possible, the kiln continues spewing the smoke for 4 consecutive days, and the charcoal baker must attend the kiln for 4 days more or less incessantly. We cannot do it in the middle of urban megalopolis, you know.

About 68 hours later, the temperature of the smoke arrives to about 320°C. The volunteers shut off the smoke coming out from inside by stacking at the opening of the kiln more refractory bricks and sealing them with mud. They then remove the chimney and close the exhaust port completely with iron lid and mud. The kiln will be left as such for at least 7 days or more until the interior cools down completely to the outside temperature. My senior forest volunteer cheerfully told us his experience while he checked the temperature at 22:00 in pitch black forest. “You see, I could figure out something big was moving around at the back of the charcoal baking hut. It then oinked and showed an intention to running towards me! I kindled the firewood more, which may have shown the boar it was not an appropriate direction to proceed. That was a close call.” Woooooooow. It seems to me their forest does not have homes for bears or deer. Yet, boars, racoon dogs, and the other animals are moving around especially during nights around the hut. Cold winter night, starry sky, quiet but jolly world of living creatures in forests … It sounds like in utero. I wish I can experience it someday …

The chimney leads the smoke this way outside.
 During charcoal cooking,
 empty bins are located at the end of the chimney
 to collect wood vinegar.
 The Club distills it and sell it to the neighbor.
 They have regular customers
 who makes reservation to get it.

The baked charcoals by Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club is available in Ninomiya Tourism Association in a building next to Ninomiya Town Hall. The product is also used for BBQ at Shonan Beach Seines for tourists. In normal years, the events are held during March to November, RSVP (for more info, this aggregator can be of some help). Now, no one knows when we can return to the normal schedule on beach … but eventually, we can taste charcoal-grilled sardines and crams again. Let’s be patient.

In utero

If you find a problem in Yokohama’s North Forests, 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

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/

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: Charcoal Baking in Kanagawa Prefecture

April 2020 has ended with COVID-19. OK. April is, for normal years, the end of season for charcoal baking in forests of Kanagawa. Yeah, our prefecture does not have “charcoal industry” to speak of. In Japan, 3 prefectures, Kochi 高知, Wakayama 和歌山 and Iwate 岩手, produce more than 90% of Japanese charcoal. Kanagawa’s amount of bamboo charcoal, like we bake in Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森, even does not appear in national statistics. The latest stats (FY2017) reports only wood charcoal made in Kanagawa. It’s mere 0.1% of the national production … The majority of charcoal baking in Kanagawa is small-scale private operation, done by 2-3 people deep in Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 and sell their product in farmers’ market or the like.

Though, there is one place where about 25% of Kanagawa’s charcoal is baked. Just like in Niiharu Forest, this place is run by 38 volunteers, not by professional foresters. The volunteer group is called Shonan Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club for Our Hometown 湘南二宮ふるさと炭焼き会. Several members of this organization happen to be my seniors in Kanagawa Forest Instructor Association. In February before this “Corona-blah-blah” came in full-effect, I had a chance to visit their place when they were preparing the kiln for baking. They normally make charcoals between October and May, or until the end of double cherry blossoms. I think the kiln we prepared in February has become the last baking this year … Pink double-flowers are showering like confetti here and there in Kanagawa now. This week’s post is the first of two reports from my visit to their site. It was another adventure of mine in a forest!

The charcoal products from Ninomiya Club

When we make charcoal, we bake woods and/or bamboos in a kiln with large chimney. Yeah. If charcoal baking is profitable, we might install chimneys with the most advanced technology for “cleansing” the smoke, just as for those garbage incineration facilities in Shibuya 渋谷区 or Minato 港区 Wards in Tokyo. Charcoal industry in Kanagawa is minuscule, and yields tiny revenue accordingly. So, kilns we use have rudimental chimney that is simply connected to the kiln. They spew out components of timbers heated up inside. Roughly speaking, body of a tree or bamboo is made of H2O, cellulose, lignin, and the other materials. In a kiln, they are fired up to 70-85°C first which is the level when cellulose disintegrates and starts thermal decomposition. Self-burning cellulose becomes purple smoke. When we kindle the kiln further to 320°C or so, cellulose has disappeared, and lignin begins thermal self-decomposition. The smoke from chimney turns into waspy blue. During this process, the smoke stack emits particular odor continuously. I myself do not mind it much … They made me recall my fond memories of visiting huts in countryside somewhere … But not everybody agrees with me. Actually, it is the main reason why we cannot have charcoal industry in Kanagawa.

Smoke from Niiharu’s kiln.
The color of them are still white,
 which means they are emitting water vapor,
 not cellulose or lignin, yet.

Kanagawa Prefecture is, in the end, the bed town of Metropolitan Tokyo. People living in cities, like Yokohama 横浜, Kawasaki 川崎, Fujisawa 藤沢, … you name it, are typical city-folks. They don’t like smell. Well, if that smell is just temporary, say, once in a year for 2-3 hours only, urbanites may ignore a minor inconvenience. Alas, the tip to produce good charcoal is, “You have to heat up the timber containing appropriate amount of moisture, i.e. H2O, preferably 35% of its weight, for never-hurrying amount of time.” Unless we use the high-tech kiln using petrol or something with AI controlled censor, we do it with good ol’ firewood. If the product is wood charcoal, the timbers with such amount of moisture requires LOOOONG hours to turn into charcoals in a firewood kiln. The amount of time Kanagawa Prefecture recommends (more to this next week) is 8-17 hours to make wood charcoal. So, if a kiln is surrounded by houses, residents must endure at least a day with the smell. When charcoal baking is done 3 times per season, the operation becomes a source of serious pollution problem among the urban neighbor.

Houses and forests are very close …

Have you ever been to Shikino-mori Prefectural Park in Yokohama 県立四季の森公園, a neighboring forest of Niiharu? It has a beautiful charcoal making facility, capable of producing good amount of wood charcoal. Unlike Niiharu’s hut that was built by hands of our seniors some 20 years ago with pocket money, Shikino-mori’s charcoal production building was by the prefectural budget as an “educational tool to teach children tradition of the area.” When it first became operational, the Office directly engaged in management of the “teaching facility,” and held many public meetings with neighborhood associations each time before they ignited fire for the kiln. Neighbors were persuaded to endure bad-smell days several times in one season. Few years back, the Prefecture decided to cut budget for the Park and contracted out the Park’s management to a private organization. The new management had limited budget. They did not have capacity to persuade the neighbors about the “meaning of charcoal making in Shikino-mori Park.” The new contractor simply started baking charcoal without any notice to the neighbors. The Park was constructed in a valley, with surrounding 3 ridge ways over a relatively simple slope and one exit of water flow. All the directions are immediately facing crowded residential areas. The smell from the charcoal making easily wafted to the neighbors; this time, without notice. All of the residents were enraged. It ended the “educational” charcoal baking in Shikino-mori Park.

The charcoal hut of Shikino-mori Park.
 It is now securely locked.

Niiharu Forest is next to Miho Citizen Forest 三保市民の森 and Satoyama Garden 里山ガーデン, aka Yokohama Doubutsu-no-mori Park 横浜どうぶつの森公園 as a part of Yokohama’s North Forest. West of Niiharu Forest is two large educational campuses tucked in a substantial vegetation. Niiharu’s charcoal baking hut is in the bottom of small valley called Ikebuchi Open Space いけぶち広場. Yeah, immediately next to Niiharu Forest, there are Tokaichiba Housing Complex 十日市場団地, and Kirigaoka Residential Area 霧が丘住宅街. Though, from the charcoal hut to such suburbia, we have to walk beyond a hill and another valleys. Smoke from our charcoal baking will not reach to these places, especially when it is not much like from our 8-hour cooking for bamboo charcoal. That’s the reason why we Niiharu Lovers 新治市民の森愛護会 can continue our charcoal baking. As of 2020 so long as I know, there are at least 5 charcoal baking facilities in Yokohama. Only two are operational; one is in Niiharu, and another is in Yokohama Nature Sanctuary 横浜自然観察の森 (; my posts on January 22^nd, 2016, and February 24th, 2017). Both of the active huts are located deep in a forest, far from the residential area. Also, both places have limitation. In Niiharu, we can make bamboo charcoal only, not wood charcoal. Production of wood charcoal requires large, fully constructed kiln that can endure 17 hours of continuous ignition. Our kiln is made of used oil drums that cannot stand for such hard condition. Nature Observation Forest has more sophisticated (a sort of) “high-tech” kiln that can finish wood charcoal baking in 8 hours. (Yeah, they have money from Wild Bird Society of Japan.) Even so, if their baking continues all day long, there will be higher possibility the neighbors, like in Noshichiri 野七里 or Kamariya 釜利谷, could notice “air pollution” from the huts. i.e. For Yokohama’s charcoal baking facility to be effective, it must (1) be situated in a deep forest, and (2) finish the job as fast as possible, i.e. never lasting for a day. Ninomiya’s kiln does not have to think such things.

Niiharu’s charcoal hut, snuggled into a valley.

The Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club is in Ninomiya Town 二宮町, east of Odawara City 小田原市. When you check the town in Google Map by satellite mode, you’ll see the place is folded by Oiso Hills 大磯丘陵 and Sagami Bay 相模湾. We can know from the space the entire town has a large green area. The Club was born in 2000, just like Lovers Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest. The major difference between the Club and the Lovers could be, Niiharu Lovers are in the middle of Metropolitan suburbia, while Ninomiya Club is in a more rural setting. This point is important especially for charcoal making. So, Ninomiya Club has traditional charcoal baking kiln for wood charcoal, constructed with concrete. Theirs is a large stuff. It was exciting for me to experience their operation. Next week, I tell you how it was!

Ninomiya Club

Come to think of it, I’ve never told you about Shikino-mori Park … OK, sometime this year, I promise. Though the place has some episodes, it’s a nice place to relax when there is no COVID-19 … If you find a problem in Yokohama’s North Forests, 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

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/