It was a mistake from the start to think about doing something in Boso during Golden Week.
On May 4th, a tree planting event was held for supporters of the crowdfunding course "From Planting to Distillation." Five types of fruit were prepared: two types of plums (Kuiyang and Taiyo), a pear (La France), an apricot (Shinshu Daimi), and an elderberry (Sambucus Black Tower).
We asked Ryutaro Inoue, who is the go-to person for plants, to find a sapling that was nearly 2m in size and had good branches. Since the supporters specified the variety in advance, we would like to create a plant plate with their name on it. It would be nice if everyone could eat a meal surrounded by the fruit trees that they planted themselves. After all, they are high-value supporters who donated 200,000 yen. We asked chioben to cook. The girls who came the day before went shopping at the morning market in Katsuura from early in the morning, picked herbs and edible flowers at mitosaya, and prepared a full-fledged course.
However, on the day, no one was able to arrive due to a traffic jam on the Aqua Line. As I waited impatiently, checking the traffic information that was completely red, the first person to arrive was my mother (a crowdfunding supporter), who had taken several trains. My mother quickly chose the plum with the best branch and selected the best location from the several planting holes that had been dug. She placed the sapling in the center of the hole, covered it with soil made from potting soil mixed with compost and red soil, and pressed it firmly with a stick to firm it down. After watering it generously, the wet plum leaves sparkled in the strong summer-like sunlight. My mother seemed pleased that the best plum had been planted in the best location.
Eventually, supporters began to arrive one by one, and we took turns planting trees. One family said they had applied to plant trees to commemorate their 25th wedding anniversary, and Ryutaro and I exchanged looks, determined not to let these trees wither.
After the tree planting, we had lunch together with the team from the magazine "Kazoku" who came to cover the event, and photographer Naganuma-san, who will be the proprietress of a miso shop in Kagoshima from the end of this month. The food at chioben was excellent, and my mother got excited and started playing the ocarina, which melted in the wind. It was a great day.
I wonder how many years it will take for this tree to bear fruit. And how long will it be possible to make brandy from the fruit? I want to continue this relationship for a long time so that people can enjoy watching it grow together, rather than thinking that it will take so long to do so.
Ryutaro had been telling me for a while that he wanted to introduce me to an interesting man named Sogabe-san in Kamogawa. I heard that the man quit his job, bought a forest, and built a house on his own. That's not unusual. He's the kind of guy who needs his wife's understanding. But what's amazing about him is that he cuts down the cedar trees on his property and saws them into lumber himself.
I met him about a year after he started building the house, and all that was completed was the cedar deck, the sawdust toilet, and the Goemon bath. He had set up a tent like those used at sports days on the deck, and was smiling with satisfaction.
Sogabe gave me some guidance and asked me if I wanted to study beekeeping with him as he was about to start.
I thought it might be better to build my own house in front of the bee house, but it seemed interesting so I decided to participate. The instructor was Nakabayashi of Nakabayashi Beekeeping, who runs a beekeeping business in Katsuura City. He said that he became a beekeeper after suddenly remembering an interview he saw on TV with a beekeeper who said, "I don't know why everyone else doesn't do something this fun."
The beekeeping class with these optimistic people was a pleasant one, as we coexisted with the bees but were not dependent on them. It started with a lecture on the habits of bees, then we walked in the mountains to learn about the trees that are sources of nectar, and searched for a suitable location to place the hive (a place with a fair amount of sunlight and good ventilation is best, just like humans). In the afternoon, we actually opened a hive, learned the difference between a queen bee, worker bees, and male bees, and even tried destroying a queen cell (a bulging, raised part of the hive at the bottom), which is a sign that a queen bee is about to be born.
What I found interesting is that there is no queen bee, and they are all the same honeybee, but they become queen bees because of what they eat and how they are raised. Everyone supports a single bee selected by public will (bee will) and makes her into a queen bee. So sometimes new queen bees are born, and when that happens, the group in the hive splits up, and they can no longer coexist. So they look for signs before they are born and try to prevent them from splitting up. It's a society.
I head home imagining the bees coming to mitosaya, flying around the grounds, pollinating the flowers, and making the fruit trees bear fruit. However, it was a mistake to wear shorts.
Starting today, I will leave home at 6am and drive for about an hour to a skills training center in Ichihara to get a forklift driver's license. After all, I will be carrying a lot of heavy things from now on.
There were 20 students in total, and the first day was an 8-hour class. They managed to stay sane by telling themselves that if they fell asleep, it would be the end. The teacher was also very knowledgeable, and he was very polite and told them to draw a line here because it would be on the test, and to put a circle here. Thanks to him, everyone was able to pass the class.
The next day, we split into groups of 10 and moved on to the practical training. I realized as soon as the practical training started that I was the only complete beginner. Most of the other trainees work in factories and drive forklifts every day, and their superiors have told them, "You've gotten pretty good at it, so it's about time you got your license." (I imagine this partway through). So everyone drives with a feeling of complete familiarity. I once read an essay by Nishikawa Miwa about how she went to a forklift driving school with Matsu Takako for a movie role, and I was secretly hoping for a similar encounter, but of course it wasn't to be. I was surrounded by a group of intimidating guys younger than me, and there was one guy who was the worst at it of all.
With the steering wheel operated by the left hand and the steering wheel on the rear wheel, I was literally running around in circles. As the training progressed and I had to operate the lever with my right hand to move the fork, I was extremely confused. I was mercilessly scolded by the darkly tanned instructor, and I was overcome with emotion that it had been a long time since I had been so abused. It was just painful for no reason. The training continued from 8am (from the third day, the instructor ordered morning practice from 7am) until 5pm.
The only saving grace is that all the guys are kind and talk to me (it's okay, it's a piece of cake). Also, there is a huge second-hand clothing store called "Nishi-Kaigan" right behind the driving school, and going there during my lunch break was a good way to unwind. There are racks lined up neatly for each item in an area the size of a gymnasium, and there are about eight 5-meter lines for T-shirts alone, so it's impossible to see everything in just a lunch break. I decide to stop here for today, and look at a little bit every day, which is fun.
I bought an aloha shirt and several T-shirts with messages I didn't understand. I enjoyed the joy of a second-hand clothing store, a once-in-a-lifetime treasure hunt, for the first time in a long time.
But now we have the Internet. When I got home, I happened to search for the words "SISTERS ARE FOREVER" on the front of the T-shirt I had bought, and a website for an organization calling for the elimination of drunk driving, set up by a woman whose sister was killed in a car hit by a drunk driver, appeared.
There is also a group photo of people wearing the same T-shirt with their arms around each other, so it seems like one of them might be the owner of that T-shirt.
I never thought that T-shirts in thrift stores had owners. It was a bit of a chilling experience. 540 yen.
And I passed my final exam for driving a forklift, probably thanks to the bright red jumpsuit I bought on the West Coast. Now I can move anything.
I received an email from a friend in Ireland. He is a popular illustrator who works with various companies. He is currently making glasses with a certain manufacturer.
Thankfully, he said he wanted to do something together.
"I'd like to create an original distilled liquor that is suited to the glass, hold release parties in Ireland and Tokyo, and of course hold some kind of event at mitosaya. Hopefully I'll be able to finish in time for the autumn." After writing about such things, he concluded with the following:
It is always good to dream a little.
That's right. All I have right now are dreams and debts.
It was a mistake in the first place to do something in Boso during GW.
On May 4, we held a tree-planting event for the supporters of the "From Tree Planting to Distillation" crowdfunding course. We prepared five kinds of trees: two kinds of plums (Guiyang and Taiyo), pears (La France), apricots (Shinshu Daimi), and elder (Sambucus Black Tower).
We asked Ryutaro Inoue, who is known for his plants, to help us find saplings that were nearly two wonderful meters in size and had good branching. We asked our supporters to specify the species in advance, so we would like to make a plant plate with their names on it. It would be to eat dinner together surrounded by fruit trees that we planted ourselves. After all, we are the high supporters of 200,000 yen. We asked chioben to cook for us. They came the day before the event, went to the morning market in Katsuura early in the morning, picked up herbs and edible flowers in the mitosaya, and prepared an authentic course.
However, on the day of the event, everyone was unable to arrive due to the traffic jam on the Aqua-line. As we waited patiently, checking the red traffic information, the first person to arrive was my mother (who is a crowdfunding supporter), who had taken the train. She picked out the plum tree with the best branches and chose the best spot from the several holes she had made for planting. She placed the sapling in the center of the hole, covered it with a layer of compost or red soil, and pressed hard with a stick around it to firm it up. I watered it generously, and the wet plum leaves glistened in the strong, summer-like sunlight. My mother was happy that she had planted the best plums in the best place.
Eventually, we started planting trees with the supporters who arrived one by one. Ryutaro and I looked at each other and thought, "We can't let this die.
After the tree planting, we were joined by a team from the magazine "Kazoku" who had come to cover the event, as well as photographer Naganuma-san, who will become the proprietress of a miso shop in Kagoshima at the end of this month.
I wonder how many years it will be before this tree bears fruit. How many years will it be before the tree bears fruit, and when will we be able to make brandy from the fruit? I'd like to continue this exchange for a long time so that people can enjoy watching the tree grow together with us, instead of thinking that it's difficult to do so.
Ryutaro had told me that there was an interesting man named Sogabe in Kamogawa whom he wanted to introduce to me. I heard that he quit his job, bought a forest and built a house by himself. That's as far as it goes. His wife's understanding is very important. But what's amazing about him is that he cut down the cedar on the property and sawed the lumber himself.
I met him about a year after he started building the house, but all he had completed was a deck made of cedar wood, a sawdust toilet, and a Goemon bath. The man smiled contentedly as he pitched a tent on the deck, as if it were for an athletic event.
Mr. Sogabe gave me a tour and asked me if I would like to study with him as he was going to start beekeeping.
I thought it would be better to build my own house before the bee house, but it sounded interesting so I decided to join. The instructor was Mr. Nakabayashi of Nakabayashi Apiculture, a beekeeping company in Katsuura City. I don't know why people don't do this kind of fun stuff," he said, suddenly remembering a TV interview with a beekeeper.
The beekeeping lecture given by these optimists was a pleasant one, where they coexisted with the bees but were not dependent on them. The course started with a classroom lecture on the habits of bees, followed by a walk in the mountains to learn about trees that are sources of nectar, and a search for a suitable place to put the hive (a place with moderate sunlight and good ventilation is good, just like humans). It's the same as humans.) In the afternoon, we actually opened the hive and learned about the differences between the queen, workers, and male bees, and we also tried to destroy the royal pedestal, which is a sign that the queen is about to be born (the hive is swollen and raised at the bottom).
What I found interesting was that there is no such thing as a queen bee, but rather that the same bees become queens based on what they eat and how they are raised. One bee is selected by the will of the people (the will of the bees) and is supported by everyone to become the queen bee. This is why new queens are sometimes born, and when this happens, the group in the hive splits up and cannot coexist. This is where we find the signs before the bees are born and prevent them from splitting. It's a society.
I imagined bees coming to mitosaya, flying around the grounds, pollinating the flowers, and making the fruit trees bear abundant fruit as I headed home. It was a mistake to wear shorts to the event.
For the next four days, I left home at 6:00 am and drove for about an hour to go to a skill training center in Ichihara to get my forklift driver's license. After all, I'm going to be carrying a lot of heavy stuff.
There were 20 students in total, and the first day was an 8-hour class. I managed to stay sane, telling myself that sleeping would be the last thing I would do. The teacher knew what she was talking about and was very polite, telling us to draw a line and mark this part because it would be on the test. Thanks to her, all the students passed the course without incident.
The next day, we were divided into groups of ten and moved on to the practical training. As soon as the practical training started, I realized that I was the only one who was a complete beginner. Most of the other trainees were working in factories, riding forklifts every day, and were told by their bosses, "Now that you've gotten good at it, it's time to get your license. That's why everyone is driving like they're completely used to it. In an essay by Miwa Nishikawa that I read a long time ago, there was a story about how she and Takako Matsu went to a forklift school for a role in a movie, and I was secretly hoping for such an encounter, but of course it didn't happen.
With the steering wheel being operated with my left hand and the steering being on the rear wheel, I was literally going left and right. As the course progressed and the right hand lever operation to move the fork was added, the confusion finally reached its peak. The darkly tanned instructor gave me a relentless morning barrage of abuse, and I was deeply moved by the fact that it had been a long time since I had been abused like this. The course started at 8:00 am (from the third day, the instructor ordered us to start practice at 7:00 am) and continued until 5:00 pm
The only thing that saved me was that all the guys were so kind to me (don't worry, it'll be easy). Also, there was a huge vintage clothing store called "West Coast" right behind the school, and going there during my lunch break was a good way to relax. The racks were neatly lined up by item in an area the size of a gymnasium, and there were about eight five-meter-long lines for T-shirts alone, so I couldn't look through them all in my lunch break. I decided to stop here today, and went through the racks a little bit every day, which was fun.
I bought an aloha shirt and a bunch of T-shirts with obscure messages on them. For the first time in a long time, I was able to enjoy the joy of second-hand clothing stores, which is like a once-in-a-lifetime treasure hunt.
But now I have the Internet. When I returned home, I searched for the words "SISTERS ARE FOREVER" on the chest of the t-shirt I had bought, and found the website of a group calling for the eradication of drunk driving, founded by a woman who lost her sister when she was hit by a drunk driver.
There is a picture of a group of people wearing the same T-shirt, hunched over each other. One of them might be the owner of this T-shirt.
I had never thought that a T-shirt from a thrift store could have an owner. It was an interesting experience that gave me chills. 540 yen.
And I passed my forklift graduation test, thanks to the bright red tie I bought at West Coast. Now I can carry anything.
I receive an e-mail from a friend in Ireland. He's a successful illustrator, and he's working with various companies. He is currently working with a manufacturer to make glasses.
Thankfully, he wants to do something with me.
It would be great if we could make original spirits to go with the glasses and have release parties in Ireland and Tokyo, and of course some kind of event at mitosaya. Hopefully in time for the fall." After writing all that, he concluded with this.
It is always good to dream a little.
