We made Bambuskuchens! Winter Festival in Niiharu

One reason why forests in Yokohama have been left in neglect was, people no longer needed the resources forests can provide for daily lives. In bygone era of Satoyama, woods and bamboos were the materials to be crafted into fuels, utensils, tools, etc. Once cheap plastics and aluminum pans became readily available from shops around the corner, people stopped to bother entering the forest to collect the bounties. Now IKEA Kohoku sells rice bowls for less than 100 yen, who cares nurturing good beech trees to craft a wooden bowl in KozukueCastle Citizen Forest, located within less than 2k from IKEA Cafe?

Basically, volunteers in Yokohama Citizen Forest are expected to do 3 things. One is to manage the forest vegetation with thinning, weeding, scraping fallen leaves, and collecting trashes in and around trekking roads. Second is to monitor the health of the Forest, by recording the changes and animal lives. The third mission is to enlighten the community about the joy of living with healthy forests. Lovers of Niiharu volunteers have several regular events for the third category. In their schedule, 4 festivals in each season are mainly for kids to enjoy forest. All of them include some forest works of the season, hand-craft session using the collected materials from the Niiharu Citizen Forest, information session about nature in Niiharu, games, and cooking. 2016 WinterFestival in Niiharu was held one recent Sunday. I have been there. It was a fun!

To Ikebuchi Open Place.
Red and white plum flowers
and tangerines welcomed us.

The program of this year’s festival was 1. Bamboo thinning, 2. Bamboo cup and chop sticks making for lunch with miso soup with lots of organic veggies and pork, 3. Fun-booths for information about early spring buds in the Forest and for cocklebur darts, and 4. Bambuskuchen. Bambuskuchen?

It was really a fine day.

The melee started at 10:00 in Ikebuchi Open Space of the Niiharu Forest. About 70 people, kids + moms + dads, gathered to enjoy weekend bringing family bento boxes. (Fee: 300 yen for adults, 100 yen for kids under 15). Forest volunteers prepared huge pots of quasi-traditional miso soup with lots of winter vegetables with pork, which was free refill. Veggies were brought from the field of the farming club of the Lovers of Niiharu. The leader of the Club proudly declared: “AUTHENTICALLY organic!” They were leeks, carrots, Chinese cabbages, and taros, with konjak. The Lovers used stoves made of empty drum cans. The source of the heat was gentle firewood. The smell of miso (+ shoyu + mirin + veggie broth + pork) started to waft already in 10:00. But we must wait … Gentle heat of logs cooked the ingredients thoroughly. Kids loved it. Some 1^st graders ate 3 cups of it. The time of winter in the Forest was slow and tender.

The very first family to register

Forest miso soup is to be cooked there.

Hot soup in the Forest

Picnic with miso soup

Though families brought bento boxes for lunch, the utensil for miso soup was made on site. The Lovers invited kids to work in one of the bamboo forests before lunch.  We all went into the forest to search for suitable bamboo trees for cups. “How do you reckon the height of this bamboo?” A 2^nd grader replied, “100m!” “Er, it’s not that tall, but more than 10m already.” A volunteer leader told us. “Have you noticed the color of sections of this bamboo? It is white, isn’t it? This one is young, sprouted last spring. It’s still too tender to be a good cup. Look for a well-sized bamboo of 2-3 years old. Find one with brownish sections …” “Was it born just last year?” “Oh, yes.” “Wow… so tall …”

Let’s go to a bamboo forest!

We are getting there.

A young bamboo tree

They were more matured, and stood a bit densely.
Good place for thinning.

Our group chose an older bamboo tree, of diameter about 17 cm, stood side by side with the other older ones. Our leader instructed us to look upwards. “First, we have to notice this forest spreads on a very steep slope, and the canopy of all the bamboos are drooping to the valley side. Which side of a bamboo do we start to cut for harvesting?” “Hmmmm, the valley side?” “Well done! Correct. You know, bamboos have sections that get narrower upwards. Maybe we can have good cups from this tree near the bottom. So, we cut the tree at here … First we cut a section of this tree facing the valley. Safety first! I’ll do it for you to look.” He inserted his saw at the bottom of the trunk, and cut a section from there. It looked like a chunk of small pumpkin. 4 years old got excited and decided to have it for his treasure. “Bamboo pumpkins!” “Now, you can saw the tree from the other side.” “Yap!” the 2^nd grader big brother started to saw the ridge-facing side of the trunk with an angle. This was his first attempt to tackle with a real tree.

Let’s cut it here.

I can do it!

He and his kindergarten brother came to the festival with their grandma and grandpa who was a professional carpenter. Grandpa looked his grandsons grinning, and gave very sharp advices. “Hey, hey, why do you think a saw has lots of tooth? You use the tool in its length!” “Ha, ha, ha, you need 10 years to cut this tree.” The 2^nd grader replied. ”No! I can do it instantly!” The volunteer leader supported the trunk and advised, “Use your both hands and clench the handle when you catch the saw … yes, well done. Keep your pace, don’t rush …” 4 years old joined the fight. “I want to do it too!” After kids’ endeavor for a while the bamboo fell over the slope, and its top was caught by the boughs of 2 other bamboos. “Hey, Grandpa, it was only 5 minutes!” From both the stump and the cut end of the tree oozed out water, real bamboo water. “Look, the tree was drinking from the ground this much …”

Coming doooown …

Wow, water, water …

The grandpa and the volunteer leader cut the trunk of the fallen bamboo to release it from the tangle, and laid the entire tree on the slope. The canopy part was bushy with several dead branches. “Hmmmm, the canopy was a bit damaged. It was good to thin this tree for the forest. For the lunch, we need only the bottom 4 sections. Let’s cut the tree in several parts, and bring the bottom with us to the lunch place. The rest are to be gathered over there for clearing later.” So, we all attempted to dissect the bamboo. Grandma helped her grandson. “I’ll hold your body from slipping into the valley. You cut here.” I delimbed the busy branches of the bamboo. Each branch went to a different direction even when they came out of the same section. When I muddled, the volunteer leader showed me an example. “You hold all the branches at once, and saw the bottom of them just above the section ... like this. There, it’s easy.” True. My 3 minutes per branch was shortened into 1 minute per two branches that were cut simultaneously. “Wow, he’s quicker than my grandpa.” “Grandpa does not cut bamboo branches for his job, you know.” “Oh, yeah.”

Grandma as a stopper

These will be utilized later for forest management.

Today’s bounty!

We brought the trunk at Ikebuchi Open Space, and cut it into 4 sections for lunch bowls of the family + chop sticks. The bamboo cups are large enough as soup mugs whose edge was trimmed by Lovers of Niiharu members. During lunch, educational exhibitions about early spring buds in the Forest and handcrafting for bamboo toys were presented, and kids gathered around a cocklebur darts contest.

Cups and chopsticks

We hold the trunk for cutting.

This is my cup!

And this is mine!

Chop stick making

The mouth of a bamboo cup is trimmed for safety.

The finale of the festival was to bake baumkuchen … no, bambuskuchen. 3 bamboo trunks whose sections were pulled out became the “baum.” The ladies of Lovers of Niiharu developed a special recipe for bambuskuchen whose slippery bamboo-baum requires a bit different consistency in dough. For about 50cm kuchen around a 10cm diameter bamboo with 3cm thickness,

1. Separate whites and yolks of 20 eggs. Beat yolks and 600g of sugar in a VERY large bowl until thick and pale yellow. 
2. Fold in 600g of flour and 600g of pancake mix.
3. Fold in 400ml of milk and 600g of melted butter and stir until just smooth.
4. Whisk whites until it forms stiff peak. Gently fold in the flour mix. The dough is now ready.
5. For the first batch as the base of the kuchen, repeat 1-4 with smaller amount of ingredients in a smaller bowl. Fold milk and butter in a smaller portion than the main dough that makes the consistency of this bowl is heavier.

The volunteers caused charcoal in open stoves, and bambuskuchen making began. First, 3-4 ladles of the first dough from the small bowl was poured around the middle of about 2m bamboo trunk. Then, two people held each side of the trunk, rotated the bamboo once (and a bit) to drain little the dough, and moved the bamboo with dough over the heated charcoal to roast it by rotating continuously.

First, cover the bamboo with dough …

Now the bamboo is over the oven.

How to turn was tricky. Especially when the dough was still wet, unless we rotated the “bambus” at a proper speed, the dough fell down over the fire.  At the very first roasting, the diameter of the kuchen was still small, and so the speed of dough-dripping over one rotation was faster. Though, too quick spin made the distribution of the dough over the bamboo uneven, which made valleys and hills covering a bamboo trunk. In addition, the heat from charcoal only was not enough. The good firing up from added logs could brown the dough with nice color and aroma so we had to add logs and to watch the distribution and the height of the fire continuously to maintain the proper oven operation. Once the entire layer was nicely colored and dried, the next ladles were added, and the “bambus” returned over the oven. People took turns to rotate and ladle the kuchen. We roasted the bamboo for more than 30 minutes.

It is still at an early stage …

Growing kuchen

There were several kids who ended up with the charge of rotating. I asked them “Are you OK? If you’re tired, I’ll follow you up …” But they were remarkably diligent and determined. “I DO want to finish it by myself!” Their labor of persistence became very sweet. During the roasting, everybody was wondering if the kuchen could come out smoothly from the bamboo. No problem. Though the shape of kuchen was rough with hills and valleys, it emerged as really a “bambuskuchen.” We cleaned the plate in no time!

First the burnt chunks at the edge were removed.
By the way, they too were tasty to nibble. J

Done!

The City Office who’s in charge of execution of Green-up Plan is

Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-671-2891

FAX: 045-641-3490

http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/kankyo/

Home Sweet Home: Wuethrich Citizen Forest ウィトリッヒの森

  

After Commodore Matthew Perry of the US prized open a Japanese door in 1853, Yokohama became the first port of call for expats coming to Japan. Some of them decided to stay in the area and they gave the color of the City as an international place. One of those people who established a family of him/herself was Arnold Wuethrich. Wuethrich was born in Bern, Switzerland, became an engineer (wow, studied in the place where Einstein presented Theory of Relativity?), came to Japan, and married to a local girl, Hide Tsuda 津田ひ亭. In 1933, he built a house near JR Totsuka Station 戸塚駅, and died in 1983 in Yokohama. During the interwar years of the 1920s and the 30s, the southern area of the present-day Yokohama and the City of Kamakura were a fashionable area where upper-middle to upper class people built “western-style” houses. Their way of life, e.g., the design of houses, daily meals they ate, wives’ fashion, etc. became the foundation of the current Japanese styles. The Wuethrichs would have been one of those families contributed to the establishment of modern Japanese family life. Many of remaining houses including Wuethrich House around the area are now designated as “important cultural heritage” by local or national governments. During his long life in Japan, Arnold bought 3.2 ha land within a 10 minutes car-ride from his home. According to his widow Hide, he thought the place looked similar to the forest of his hometown in Switzerland. (Anything is relative …) Before passing away, Hide donated the forest to the City in 1985. The place joined Yokohama Citizen Forest family, and opened as Wuethrich Citizen Forest in 1987.

To go to Wuethrich Forest, the nearest railway station is Totsuka Station of JR Tokaido/Yokosuka Line. Leave the Station from the West Exit connected to Totsuka Bus Center. From there, take Kanachu Bus Route TO-55 or 56 (戸-55, 戸-56), and get off at Yokohama Medical Center 横浜医療センター. At the corner of the Medical Center, there is Taisho Fire Station 大正消防署 and a traffic light. We start to walk the pedestrian lane opposite to the Center and Fire Station, and turn right at the next corner from the traffic light. This road is straight; first on the right is Taisho Junior-high 大正中学校, and then on the left there is a care-house for elderly run by Franciscan Missionaries of Mary 聖母の園修道会. Keep proceeding, and we see the care-house eventually becomes a convent, and beyond is the forest. This is Wuethrich Forest. (Map here.) Unfortunately, there is no parking for Wuethrich Forest.

The straight road to the Forest

The sign post at the entrance of Wuethrich Forest

Mr. and Mrs. Wuethrich loved to tend this place. The trees and bamboos they cared in the 1940s and the 1950s now become a well-established forest. The undergrowth of the Forest preserves native orchids and ferns. They are vigorous. The couple planted several fruit trees around their arbor. The place once the structure stood is now called Arinko Hiroba (アリンコ広場 Ants Space), where the trees are still producing the bounty. The Forest is home for my insects … ants, cicadas, butterflies, beetles (of several kinds), fireflies, dragonflies, and, of course, mosquitos.

A very large persimmon tree
with lots of fruits.
They’ll be sweet coming fall. J

Arinko Hiroba with picnic tables

I found a cast-off shell of a cicada in Arinko Hiroba.

The 900 m trekking road of the Forest is well-cared by the volunteers and without compaction. Following the standard of Yokohama Citizen Forest, Wuethrich Forest is hilly. When we enter the forest from the direction of the Medical Center, the entrance, Chirorin Open Space チロリン広場, is almost at the top of the Forest. The open space has a toilet, and the trekking roads go down from here with 25 m difference of elevation. I don’t think the place is Alpine. Arnold must have found something in the Forest. Home is where you think it is ... 

Toilet

The western entrance

If you find a problem in the Park, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the South 南部公園緑地事務所

Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-831-8484 (I guess in Japanese only)

FAX: 045-831-9389 (I hope there is somebody who can read English …)

Leaky Cauldron, Yokohama Forest Style: Kamoihara Citizen Forest 鴨居原市民の森

If you’ve been to Lalaport Yokohama, the biggest shopping mall in Yokohama, from JR Kamoi Station 鴨居駅, you may have been surprised that we have to go through a very narrow road within a half-residential / half-industrial area to the entrance of Lalaport. The area around Kamoi Station has been like this for ages, which, it seems to me, causes irritation among locals about the mismatch of roads and development. This Wikipedia entry about Kamoi Town is almost angry for the situation and calls for wider roads.

Well, yeah, it’s understandable. The roads leading to Route 246 or Route 16 from Kamoi Town are almost always clogged. All of them are winding one lane roads for both directions. During rush hours going through this area by bus will give you a very good napping time before you reach to your bus stop. Though … if constructing wider roads means bulldozing the remnants of satoyama, or destroying the greenery of the area, I would feel very sad. At least, the tiny 2 forests of KamoiharaCitizen Forest are legally protected from such imminent dangers.

Although they are just next to the residential area, and from anywhere in the Forest we can hear buzzing of cars, the place has the magic. I don’t know exactly why it’s not like Shishigaya Forest where the residential / industrial area is dividing the Forest as Kamoihara. It could be because Kamoihara Forest is so tiny … it has just 2 ha, and the entire length of the trek in the forest is 200 m. (Map here and here.) And I am sure it is because the volunteers have done a great job to make the Forest lovely. (The group’s home page, here.) Actually, the PR Office of the City reported the volunteers’ activity last winter in Kamoihara Forest at their web site.

The Kamoihara Forest joined the Yokohama Citizen Forest family in 2005, 10 years ago. According to the volunteers’ and City’s web sites, before the place was a dumping ground for old tires and broken fridges. (So, now I understand why one of the roads in the South Forest has the name “Tires’ Way.”) Local volunteers cleaned the Forest, and prepared the routes for strollers. Now the tiny two forests have distinct charm within an ordinary town, just like Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road.

To go to Kamoihara Citizen Forest, leave JR Kamoi Station of JR Yokohama line from the Southern exit (the opposite to Lalaport Yokohama). From there on foot, it is about 30 minutes of climbing up to Takeyama Housing Complex 竹山団地. Or, take City Bus /Kanachu Bus #56 to Takeyama Danchi Orikaeshi-jo 竹山団地折り返し場  to Takeyama Danchi Iriguchi (“Takeyama Housing Complex Entrance” 竹山団地入口 ) for about 5 minutes. On the left, you’ll see a forest of bamboos that is the North Forest of Kamoihara Citizen Forest. Your bus will turn right to Takeyama Danchi, but you keep on going the same road (Kendoh, “Prefecture Road” 県道, #109) to the south, then turn left the first narrow road. Proceeding a little bit, there is a tiny stair way on your left which is the entrance to the North Forest.

The entrance to the North Forest

Alternatively, we can walk from Kamoi Station to Kamoike Ohashi 鴨池大橋 busstop on Kaomike Ohashi  (which is a large bridge we can see from the way to Lalaport Yokohama), or Lalaport Yokohama Westbus stop at Lalaport. From there, take City Bus #124 to Sasayama Danchi Chuoh 笹山団地中央. Get off the bus at Jizohmae Stop 地蔵前. (This bus also runs Kendoh #109.) Go north along the same bus road a bit, then turn right at the first corner. The road soon has 2 ways; take the left one to climb up. Within 10 or 20 m on the right, you’ll see a discreet sign, “Kamoihara Citizen Forest, this way,” directing to a very narrow road. On the right is a tiny apartment house, and beyond is the entrance to the South Forest.

Jizohmae bus stop

I would say,
a TYPICAL sign for a Yokohama Citizen Forest.

The Entrance to the South Forest

From here to go to the North Forest, we climb a little bit of the road coming from Kendoh #109 within residential area to a T crossing. Turn left, and then first right to find the Entrance to the North. When we move between North and South Forests of Kamoihara Citizen Forest, they are the entrances easiest to find.

T crossing to left
Ahead is the North Forest

From the entrance to the North Forest, along a very narrow paved way, we’ll find a signboard of Kamoihara Citizen Forest North. From here on the left there is a trek leading us in to the Forest. The North Forest is mainly consisted of bamboos so that the entire road within the Forest is covered thickly with bamboo leaves which make the way very spongy. Columns of bamboos are occasionally disrupted by large wild cherry trees. Although we can here the noise of Road #109, the rustling of bamboo leaves carry us somewhere else. Bamboo port-keys? The trek within the North Forest goes around Yonyama Hiroba よんやま広場 that is a kind of atmospheric center of the “Force” (yeah, Star Wars’ kind) from bamboos. Bamboos are strange trees. They shoot up straight to the sky even if at the root the ground made them difficult to do that. Standing in the middle of them is strangely empowering …

A very narrow paved way

Kamoihara North Forest signboard

Yonyama Hiroba

In early summer,
shooting up young bamboos are everywhere.

When we enter the South Forest, we first find Fureai Hiroaba (“Fureai Open Space” ふれあい広場 ) with picnic benches. This open space with lush vegetation is strangely inviting (though I suspect mamushi could hide somewhere …).  From here, 2 routes are climbing up to Hankachinoki Hiroba (“Davidia Open Space” ハンカチの木広場 ) where we can find a toilet.

    

Fureai Hiroba

Climb up!

Hankachinoki Hiroba

Davidia

Toilet for Kamoihara Citizen Forest

The South Forest is a broadleaf forest with charming bushes beneath. Logs left by volunteers host a colony of mushrooms. Ants, butterflies, beetles … Insects are busy in the forest. Although it is surrounded by residential area, this tiny forest makes its own enchanted world inviting us inside … I don’t think it is wise to enter South Forest in Midsummer Night … though, it might be possible to encounter an entourage of Titania …

Farfugium japonicum

Mushrooms

A colony of Houttuynia cordata

Indian strawberry

If you find a problem in the Park, 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 (I guess in Japanese only)

FAX: 045-316-8420 (I hope there is somebody who can read English …)