GW に房総で何かやろうというのがそもそもの間違いだった。
5月4日、クラウドファンディングの「植樹から蒸留まで」コース支援者のための植樹会を行った。用意したのはプラム2種（貴陽と太陽）、洋梨（ラ・フランス）、アプリコット（信州大実）、エルダー（サンブカス・ブラックタワー）の5種。
植物ならこの人、の井上隆太郎に頼んでサイズも2m近くあり枝ぶりのいい苗木を探してもらった。支援者には品種を事前に指定してもらったので、名前を入れた植物プレートも作りたい。自分たちで植樹をした果樹に囲まれて、みんなでご飯を食べられたら素敵だろう。なにせ20万円の高額支援者だ。料理はchiobenにお願いした。前日から来てくれた彼女達は、早朝から勝浦の朝市に買い出しに行き、mitosaya内のハーブやエディブルフラワーを採り、本格的なコースを準備してくれている。
しかし、当日、アクアラインの渋滞で皆さん軒並み到着出来ないという事態に。真っ赤に染まった渋滞情報をチェックしながらジリジリと待っていると、最初に到着したのはまさかの電車を乗り継いできた僕の母親（クラウドファンディング支援者なのです）。母は目ざとく一番枝ぶりのいいプラムを選ぶと、これまた何箇所か空けておいた植樹用の穴から一番いい場所を選んだ。苗木を穴の中心に置き、培養土に堆肥や赤土を加えた土をかぶせて、棒で周りを強く押して固める。たっぷりと水をやると、夏のような強い日差しにぬれたプラムの葉がキラキラと反射する。一番いい場所に一番いいプラムが植えられて母も満足そうだ。
やがてポツポツとやってきた支援者の皆さんと、順に植樹をしていく。結婚25周年の記念に申し込んだ、というご家族もいて、これは枯らせないぞと隆太郎と顔を見合わせる。
植樹の後は取材に来てくれていた雑誌「家族」のチームにも、今月末から鹿児島の味噌屋の女将になるという写真家の永沼さんにも参加してもらい、皆でランチ。chiobenの料理も素晴らしく、興に乗った母が吹きはじめたオカリナも風にとけて、いい一日になった。
この木が実を付けるのは何年後だろう。さらにその実からブランデーが作れるのはいったいいつになるだろうか。なかなか出来ないなって思われるのではなく、一緒に大きくなっていく様を楽しんでもらえるような交流を長く続けていきたい。
鴨川に曽我部さんという面白い人がいるから紹介したいと隆太郎から前から言われていた。聞けばその男、仕事を辞め山林を購入し自分で家を建てているという。そこまではままある。奥さんの理解が大事なやつだ。しかし彼がすごいのは、敷地の杉を切り倒し、製材するところから自分でやっているところ。
家を建て始めて一年経ったという頃に会ったが、未だできているのは杉材を貼ったデッキとおがくずトイレと五右衛門風呂のみ。運動会で使うようなテントをデッキの上に張って、満足げにその男は笑っていた。
その曽我部さんから案内をもらって、今度養蜂をはじめるので一緒に勉強しないかと言う。
蜂の家の前に自分の家を作ったほうがいいのではとも思うが、面白そうなので参加することにした。講師は勝浦市で養蜂業を営む、中林養蜂の中林さん。彼は彼で「なんでこんな楽しいことをみんながやらないかわからない。」と語る養蜂家のインタビューをテレビで見たことをふいに思い出して、養蜂家になったという。
そんな楽天家たちの養蜂講座は、ミツバチたちと共存しつつも依存しない気持ちのいいものだった。ミツバチの習性を知る座学からはじまり、山を歩き蜜源となる木を教えてもらったり、巣箱を置くのに適した場所探しをしたり（適度に日があたり風通りのいい場所がいい。人間と同じだ）。午後は実際に巣箱を開けてみて、女王蜂、働き蜂、オスバチの違いを教えてもらい、女王蜂が生まれそうな兆候である王台（巣が下に膨らみ盛り上がっている）を潰すこともやってみた。
面白いと思ったのは、女王蜂という種類の蜂がいるわけではなく、同じミツバチながら食べるもの、育てられ方の違いで女王蜂になるということ。民意（蜂意）で選出された一匹の蜂を皆で支え女王蜂にしていくのだ。だから新しく女王蜂が生まれることもあるし、そうすると巣箱の中グループが分裂してしまい、共生できなくなってしまう。そこで生まれる前に兆候を見つけて分裂しないようにする。社会だ。
mitosayaにもミツバチたちがやってきて、敷地内を飛び回り、花を受粉させ果樹達がたわわに実をつける様子を想像しながら帰路につく。しかし短パンで参加したのは失敗だった。
今日から4日間、朝6時に家を出て約1時間のドライブ、市原にある技能講習所にフォークリフトの運転免許を取るために通う。なにせこれから重いものをたくさん運ぶのだから。
生徒は全部で20名で、初日は8時間の学科。寝たら最後と言い聞かせながらなんとか正気を保つ。先生も心得たもので、ここがテストに出るから線を引いて、ここにマルをつけてと懇切丁寧。おかげで無事に全員学科をクリア。
翌日からは10人づつのグループに分かれ、実技講習に移る。実技が始まってすぐに気づいたのだが、全くの初心者は僕しかいない。他の受講者はたいていは工場などに勤めていて、毎日フォークリフトに乗っていて、「だいぶ上手になったしそろそろ免許取ってこい。」なんて上司から言われてきているのだ（途中から想像）。だから皆、すっかり慣れた感じで運転している。昔読んだ西川美和のエッセイに、映画の役のために、松たか子とフォークリフトの教習所に通った話があって、密かにそんな出会いに期待していたのだけど、当然そんなことはなく、歳下の強面のお兄ちゃんたちに囲まれ、誰よりも下手なおじさんが一人。
ハンドルを左手で操作することと、ステアリングが後輪にあることで、文字通り右往左往する。講習が進んでフォークを動かす右手のレバー操作が加わってくると、いよいよ混乱の極み。真っ黒に日焼けした鬼教官から容赦ない激を浴び、こんなに罵倒されたの久しぶりと感慨にふける、わけもなくただただ辛い。そんな講習が朝8時から（3日目からは鬼教官から朝練を命じられ7時から）、17時まで続いた。
唯一の救いはお兄ちゃんたちがみんな優しく声をかけてくれること（大丈夫っすよ、楽勝っすよ）。あとは教習所のすぐ裏に「西海岸」という超巨大な古着屋があって、そこに昼休みに通うのがいい息抜きになった。体育館ほどある場所にアイテムごとにラックが整然と並んでいて、Tシャツだけで5メートルほどのラインが8本ほどあるからとても昼休みだけじゃ見きれない。今日はここまで、と決めて毎日ちょっとづつ見ていくのだがそれが楽しい。
アロハシャツを買い、よくわからないメッセージの書かれたT シャツを何枚も買う。一期一会の宝探しのような古着屋の歓びを久しぶりに満喫した。
しかし今はインターネットがある。帰宅後ふと、購入したTシャツの胸の「SISTERS ARE FOREVER」の文字を検索すると、飲酒運転の車にはねられ妹を亡くした女性が立ち上げた、飲酒運転撲滅を呼びかける団体のサイトが表示された。
同じTシャツを着て肩を組む集合写真も載っている。彼らの中にこのTシャツの持ち主がいるかもしれない。
古着屋のTシャツに持ち主がいるなんて考えたこともなかった。ちょっとゾクっとする面白い体験。540 円。
そして、フォークリフトの卒業試験は、「西海岸」で買った真っ赤なつなぎのおかげか無事合格。これで何でも運べます。
アイルランドの友人からメールが届く。売れっ子イラストレーターの彼は様々な会社とも仕事をしている。今はとあるメーカーとグラスを作っているという。
ありがたいことに何か一緒にやりたいと言ってくれた。
「グラスに合わせたオリジナルの蒸留酒を作って、アイルランドと東京でリリースパーティをやって、もちろんmitosayaでも何かイベントが出来たらいいね。秋に間に合うといいけど。」そんな話をつらつら書いた後、最後にこう締めてあった。
It is always good to dream a little.ちょっとした夢を見るのはいつだっていいこと。
そうそう。今のところ夢と借金しかない。
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 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 wonderful 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. The instructor was Mr. Nakabayashi of Nakabayashi Beekeeping, 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 a.m. 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 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 a.m. (from the third day, the instructor ordered us to start morning practice at 7:00 a.m.) and continued until 5:00 p.m.
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.
