A Tale of A Tokyo-salamanders’ Sanctuary

In old days when people lived around nature, mountains and forests adjoining farm and villages were used as resources for materials such as wood and bamboo, water for rice paddies, and wild vegetables and fruits. These areas were regularly maintained by the locals, taking care of trails, waterways and pruning trees. As a result, semi-nature areas which were different from complete wildness appeared. Many local elders say there were tons of tadpoles in spring, countless fireflies in summer, gorgeous coloring foliage with wild fruits and nuts in autumn, so the semi-nature areas were their favorite playgrounds in their childhood―

Recently people started to call these areas “Satoyama”, and it is receiving attention in terms of nature preservation. However, now people’s life styles have changed a lot. Therefore, many of former Satoyama-areas have been neglected for years.

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Over the many hills in Hachioji, which is located in the western edge of Tokyo, there is a hidden Satoyama field that looks just like a traditional semi-nature area in old yore. A man, who is mainly supervising the field, retired more than a decade ago, and got an idea to work on an abandoned rice field near his house to get back a beautiful view of Satoyama just like old days. He got a permission from local land owners, then started to maintain 2000 m² (22 thousand ft²) of land.

　He irrigated the dried “Yato” (a local word for small valleys often used as water sources for rice paddies in old times) and made a tiny rice paddy. After water came back to the field, it kept overflowing the rice paddy and was absorbed into the field gradually over the years. The natural water flow re-created tiny creeks, ponds, wet land, and dry land in the field, then slowly aquatic life and aquatic plants came back to the diverse surroundings. He watched it over for years as he maintained the water flow and plants’ growth.

Today, there are tons of snails in the water and they are good food for firefly larvae and therefore the field is now known as the best local spot to see glows of fireflies in summer. Many kinds of flogs lay eggs in spring and tadpoles fill the small ponds for a while. Various creatures come to eat them then it brings more biodiversity to the field. What’s more, habitats for Tokyo Salamanders (photo on the next page), which is designated as an endangered species by the Ministry of the Environment, have been recovered here, and hundreds of them come to the ponds to lay eggs.

　The man says “I just maintain the area a little. Well, it actually took many years initially to understand what kind of condition they prefer. Now I occasionally adjust the water flow and mostly I enjoy watching them.”

　Tokyo salamander is an amphibian, so they came out of the ponds and leave to hills after they grew up. However, they remember the water they were born and come back to the home-water when they lay eggs just like salmons. They are very sensitive with the condition of water when laying eggs so that ponds in well-preserved nature is essential to make them increase their number. Since many of them come back to this Satoyama field every year it proves that this place is providing very safe spawning ponds to them. On the other hand, the numbers of salamanders are in decline in many of other Tokyo salamanders’ habitats in Hachioji.

　Although there are more endangered creatures and plants can be seen here, the man said with a smile “I don’t think this location is special. If you have an eye you may be able to find same rare creatures and plants, which people thought they were gone, in some other local spots. Because they are native to this area and spontaneously recovered the numbers here.”

However, managing of the area by checking each plant or maintaining optimal conditions for many creatures are clearly not easy. Hard and steady work and observations, great affections and curiosity for wild life and plants keep this Satoyama beautiful…

What Is The Japanese Semi-natural Area Called 'SATOYAMA'?

Recently, the use of Japanese word, “Satoyama”, which means “Traditional Smi-natural Area Formed Around Human Habitation”, is becoming more frequent in magazines, newspapers, TV programs, and in event advertisements. The word itself is not a new word, but it is receiving a lot of attention.

Since Japan is a small country where mountains account for two third of the land, most habitable areas are very close to the mountains or on the  mountains since ancient times. Therefore, traditionally, people have made good use of everything that mountains provide, built houses near the mountains using wood and bamboo for their houses, fences, and many kinds of daily necessaries, collected edible fruits, nuts, and wild plants from the mountains, started rice paddies and vegetable fields utilizing natural springs or creeks. For this reason, people have been maintaining the boundary between the wildness and their habitation zone, by thinning the forest and bamboos, cleaning around the water source, and controlling weeds and the bush.

As a result, this way of traditional living style created semi-natural areas surrounding local communities with seasonal wild flowers and small creatures. This type of surrounding area is called “Satoyama”. “Sato” means villages and “Yama” means mountains, so it is like “villagers’ mountain area”. Satoyama often includes rice paddies and narrow irrigation canals, and frogs, insects, small freshwater fish and shells are typical creatures in Satoyama in addition to birds and small mammals.

However, during the course of the high-rate economic growth after 1960’s, people developed many large-scale residential areas for houses, shops and facilities for daily life, and “Satoyama” areas are disappearing quickly especially around Tokyo. Recently, though, some people living in the city wanted to have nature close to their lives and found a few remaining of Satoyama areas, then they started to appreciate “Satoyama” concept. As more people are becoming aware of the importance of nature conservation, they realized that Satoyama is a good example to show how people and nature can exist together. Now Satoyama is becoming a symbol of coexistence with nature. 

Hope you will enjoy seeing typical views of Satoyama in the photos!

Aigamo-ducks Are Working Hard In Rice Paddies In Hachioji

On my previous post on May 25th, I introduced a farmer cultivating rice with “Aigamo-duck Method” in Hachioji. 

In Japan it is well-known as an organic rice-farming method with "no waste". Aigamo-ducks are a hybrid between wild and domestic ducks. They help keep the rice paddy free of insects and weeds. As you can see in the photos the rice paddy has beautiful rice plants because the ducks are really working hard and have eaten all the insects and weeds. Furthermore, when the ears of rice are formed, the ducks are sold for their meat. So, they are agricultural products at the same time they are workers of the farm.

The reason that Aigamo-ducks are specifically used for this style farming is that they grow faster than wild-types and easily adapt to the environment. In fact the ducks work only for several months after farmers planted rice seedlings into rice paddies. They will be harvested right before the rice years start to come out, because they are too diligent to eat up all the ears of rice.

After Aigamo-ducks were released into rice paddies with enclosures they are left free, but it is not difficult to catch them at harvesting. The farmer said that the ducks remember the farmer because of imprinting and also he sometimes gave them additional food as treats, so they come out of the rice paddies when they hear the farmer's voice as you can see in the lower row of photos. It is important because the farmer can’t leave any ducks left behind not only for protecting his rice but also for a regulation of environmental preserving that tells these types of hybrid created by human must not be released into nature.

Apparently, their meat is very good for making soup broth although it is a little too hard to eat as meat dishes. Probably their hard work makes their body muscularity, but anyway rice and a soup with duck broth would be a wonderful set for a meal. Hope you have a chance to taste them!

Introduction of Local Agriculture in Tokyo 1

It might be against the typical image of Metropolitan Tokyo, but you can still find farms inside Tokyo as I introduced before. There are even full-time farmer families who have kept their land for generations. Since rice has been the most important staple food for Japanese from ancient times, rice farming had given a lot of influence to Japanese culture and many farmers used to grow rice in addition to other vegetables. It can be said that farmers are handing down a certain part of Japanese culture. However, the situation is becoming more and more harder for them due to increasing costs and lack of successors and imported cheap rival products. I’d like to introduce two farmers in Tokyo this time as examples of Japanese agriculture.

Sawai Farm is run by a 12^th generation full time farmer family in Hachioji. Surprisingly, Mr. Sawai said, his family history goes back to the early 17^th century. He is growing rice and raise pigs on the land which has been handed down for generations. He took over his family business after graduating from university about 20 years ago. The business circumstances were already not good at that time because people preferred to buy rice from prefectures like Niigata which are famous for good rice brands. Then he started to grow organic rice using "Aigamo-Ducks Method". At that time the issue of conservation of nature and organic farming were getting people’s attention. Word got around that his rice was safe because it was pesticide-free, so it became popular and sold out every year.

Unfortunately, the good condition got an end suddenly in 2011. Many of his customers started to buy rice from western Japan because the area is farther from Fukushima. 

However, Mr. Sawai is not giving up. He is even taking over his neighbor’s rice paddies which were about to be abandoned due to lack of a successor. Also he is trying to build new connections with consumers by holding farm tours to see the debut of Aigamo-Ducks in rice paddies and selling his rice through the internet. Since Hachioji is a major residential area in Tokyo, his farm is easily accessed to hold the tour, and also the cute ducks are helping to attract people!

Takaharaya Farm is also run by a family who has kept the family business for generations in Hachioji. They are cultivating various products including rice, and trying to make a new local specialty from Hachioji to liven up the local market. 

They said that the size of farming area and the amount of agricultural products in Hachiohij City are both No.1 among the cities and wards in Tokyo but somehow there has been no famous agricultural specialty of Hachioji since old times. Although Takharaya Farm was growing more than twenty different vegetables and fruits, none of them was a Hachioji special. Therefore, 7 years ago they decided to grow passion fruits. The reason they chose tropical fruits was because of the climate conditions of Hachioji. Hachioji is known as the place of “hotter in summer and colder in winter” compared with other places in Tokyo. So they thought the hot summer in Hachioji would fit the image of passion fruits and started to grow the fruits with several neighbor farmers. 

Now the new product has gotten some local attention, as some local cake shops started to sell new sweets containing Hachioji passion fruits, such as Swiss roll cakes and Japanese traditional sweets, Dorayaki. Hope Hachioji passion fruits will be spread widely as a new specialty in Hachioji!

How Japanese People Are Enjoying Valentine's Day?

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Yes, February 14th is Valentine's Day in Japan, as well, yet events of this day are a little different from that of Western countries. Then, how Japanese people enjoy the day?

Apparently Valentine's Day culture was originally imported to Japan in late 1950s as a romantic event for couples although it wasn't really anchored down. However, in late 1970s, Valentine's Day started to be common among young girls because Japanese candy companies made advertisements such as "Girls! Valentine's Day is a day for romantic love! Why don't you muster up your courage to give a chocolate gift to the boy you love on this day? The chocolate will tell the boy how you feel!".  It attracted many young girls who were very shy to verbally confess their feelings. 

Surely it would be much easier for them to just hand a chocolate gift and say "This is my Valentine's gift, please receive it" than confessing own feeling. Also girls and women who had a boyfriend or husband welcomed the culture because most Japanese people were very shy back then and it was easy and fun to give a chocolate gift instead of telling "I love you".

Since then, Valentine's Day has been a day for girls and women in Japan. They give chocolates to the boy they love, or their boyfriend/husband. So, most shopping malls have Valentine's chocolate gift corners in this season, and the customers at the corners are mostly girls/women.

Yet apparently some parts of Japanese Valentine's Day culture is now changing. According to a newspaper survey, nowadays not so many girls/women are giving chocolates to boys/men who they want to confess their feelings. Instead of that many girls/women answered that they give chocolates to their friends or father. It seems like giving chocolate gifts on Valentine’s Day is becoming more like a social activity in these days.

Perhaps Japanese girls and women are not very shy anymore to need this day to confess their feelings? Anyway, they are still buying chocolates for this day!

Setsubun Event At Major Shrines/Temples And Local Small Shrine/Temples Would be Very Different

I introduced about a traditional Japanese seasonal custom on February 3rd, "Setsubun", in my previous post on February 2nd. Actually the event is not only for at home, many shrines and temples has "Setsubun" event all over Japan.

However, the event would be very different between big famous Shinto shrines/Buddhism temples and local small shrines/temples as you can see in the photos. 

Many major Shinto Shrines and Buddhism temples hold "Setsubun" event as one of their biggest seasonal events. They invite celebrities such as popular singers, actors, sports athletes and ask them to scatter soy beans for the ritual. Also some people, who were born in the same "year-of-the-animal-symbol" in the cycle of Chinese zodiac,  are asked to scatter soy beans since it has been said that they can bring good luck more than other people. 

This year is a "Year-of-Rooster", so many people who were born in a "Year-of-Rooster" wore traditional clothes called "Kamishimo" and scattered soy beans at Mt.Takao Yakuo-in Temple in Hachioji City, Tokyo as you can see in the upper photos. Then the spectator tried to catch the beans as many as they can to bring good luck back to their home.

On the contrary, in local small shrines and temples, people enjoy Setsubun event with a homey atmosphere as you can see in the lower photos. They were taken at Asakawa Konpira Shrine near Takao Station in Hachioji City Tokyo ( I introduced the shrine previously on my website.Please click here to see the post!). Since local small temples and shrines have been working as community centers, people just get together and enjoy eating soy beans or scattering soy beans as priests/monks say a prayer for people's good luck and healthy life. 

Both of types of Setsubun Activities are fun! Hope you can have a chance to experience these!

To Northwest By North! A Japanese Traditional Custom on Setsubun Day

The title is not a typo of Hitchcock movie. I'm continuing the same topic about "Setsubun Day(Feb. 3rd)". As I introduced in my previous post, Japanese people eat roasted soy beans the same number as their own age on Setsubun Day to wish a healthy year. Actually there are more traditional customs relating food on this day.

Many people also eat an un-sliced whole rolled sushi on Setsubun Day as shown in the upper photos. Although it was originally a local Setsubun custom in Western Japan, it became common all over the country these days since supermarkets and convenience store industries thought it would be a good business chance to sell lots of rolled sushi and started to advertise the custom. 

According to the custom, eating whole rolled sushi facing the lucky direction of the year based on the Chinese zodiac animal symbol of the year would bring a good luck. Therefore, nowadays many shops sell un-sliced whole rolled sushi on Setsubun day with information on the lucky direction of the year. Then, the lucky direction of 2017 is north northwest.

So, how about trying to eat whole rolled Sushi looking toward north northwest on Setsubun Day? However, whole rolled Sushi can be too much amount to finish. In fact people often eat just cut rolled Sushi instead as shown in the lower photos. 

*If you would like to cook rolled Sushi at home, here is the recipe of basic rolled Sushi! (Click here!)