Today I was invited to go bird watching with Kawano-sensei, a retired professor from Miyazaki University, and a group of bird watchers from around the Miyazaki area. There were about ten people including me. We were bird watching a long a river near Kawano-sensei's cabin in the forest by Aoshima. Kawano-sensei and his wife picked me up at the dorms around 10am, before we headed to the cabin, we stopped by a sort of farmer's market to pick up some mandarin oranges for the meeting.
The walk it's self was very educational. We identified more plants than birds I do believe, but the Japanese names escape my memory. I was shown many plants that were edible and ones that weren't. It is a good thing I know the meaning and difference of たべられない、(cannot eat) and たべられる (can eat). We picked wild strawberries, other fruits, and these little things that grow on vines that you cook with rice. There was also lemon balm and I believe some sort of plant from the mint family. Plants here confuse me a bit. Some of them look as though they are from Washington's evergreen forests, and some look as though they come from the tropical rain forest. I have decided to invest in a Japan plant field guide to help me in identifying these mysterious planties. Other than the plants we did identify quite a few bird species as well. Mostly by call and sound. We heard and saw a total of seventeen species, including one goshawk, several species of tits, two common kingfishers, a few brown dippers, and some other various birds.
After we finished birdwatching, we cooked and ate lunch together. I got to see several more traditional ways of cooking food, and several more dangerous ways as well... I wanted to help but I feel as though it might have burned down the forest if I did. So, I figured I would just help with the clean up and take a lot of pictures in the meantime. We had more food then I knew the names of, and all cooked in a variety of ways. The fish was cooked "Hokkaido style" I believe, from the few words I could understand. A grill is put over hot charcoal and you let it cook and just flip it over every once and a while. Sometimes the juices from the fish will fall down into the fire and start a flame, which can burn the fish, so it needs to be watched. The way the rice was cooked was interesting as well. There is a mettle sort of casing with a grill at the bottom where a fire is lit. The rice pot sits on top and is cooked from the heat of the fire. I got to help light the fire with a flint and striker set, or what ever those fire making thing-a-ma-gigs are called.
Well it's sideways but you can get an idea of how it works. It only looks slightly dangerous... Once the cooking was finished we all sat down to a rather healthy meal. It was fun to watch the interaction of the people there. Most were husband and wife couples in their 50s to 70s. I was able to understand an occasional word or so but most of it was a little to fast or complex for me to fully understand. While we were finishing up a Goshawk, オオタカ, flew over head so we all got up to look at it. It is a winter visitor to Miyazaki, but is rather uncommon. For dessert we had fresh baked yams. They were about as fresh as one could get. Pulled from the ground washed and put in the pot in all under five minutes. They were delicious!
After lunch, we got to learn about a tea ceremony. Two women in the group knew it, so they helped teach everyone else. It was funny because everyone was trying to figure it out with written instructions while the women were preparing the tea. It is rather complicated, but we tried with the written directions at first. I believe we made a few mistakes because she explained the proper way to do things, and we tried it again. The second time went much more smoothly than the first. We also got to snack on sweet candies while they prepared the tea. To conclude the day we all sang songs about nature, I think. Mrs Kawano-san helped me by telling me how to pronounce the Kanji as it came up hehe.
I enjoyed spending time and learning from this group of people. The day was full of new and exciting experiences. I hope that I will be able to join them on another excursion of theirs some time soon.
Also, I finally figured out how to post pictures!
Everyone is so pretty! There was a competition for people to tie their own obis. We didn't get to compete because none of us knew how to tie an obi hehe. There were also different examples on how to tie the obi in different ways and how to put on different kinds of kimono. It was all very fun and I had a great time! The women who were looking after us were very nice and helped out a lot by showing us around and helping us into the kimonos. Putting on a kimono is no simple ordeal. It probably took each of us about 15-20 minutes to have someone help us put it on. But it was worth waiting because they are so beautiful. Also, all those anime where you see women running around with long strides in a full kimono are a lie! It's rather restrictive in leg movement and even people who are used to wearing them have to take small steps because of how the kimono is wrapped. They are very elegant though, and I got to learn a few customs of how to wear a kimono, such as bowing and how to walk properly. The whole festival was great fun and a wonderful learning experience. I really want to buy a kimono for nostalgic reasons, but I know they are far too expensive for me~
