Friday Field Notes-- Keep Your Eyes Open

Ayame?.... or Hanashobu?

The kids had school, but my husband was off for the last day of Golden Week.  So, since the weather was fine, we took a walk (bike ride) up to Maioka Park, something we rarely get to do by ourselves:-))

Tsubame... Hirunda rustica, Barn Swallows, nesting under the Karate Dojo

We weren't even up to the stoplight before I jumped off my bike and motioned for Shun to follow me.  The swallows have been darting aerodynamically around for a couple of weeks now, and I was sure I'd seen them ducking under the eaves of the building where Koshi and Teddy used to go for karate practice.

Sure enough!  Papa zipped out and Mama zipped in just as I walked up.  I dragged Shun over to have a look-- we could just see tiny beaks gaping for a meal.  Looking around, we saw three other nests left from previous years, which seemed not to be in use (at least, not yet). 

Back to the bicycles, Shun ahead, me following along behind somewhat slowly.  I tend to be slow this time of year.  Between the birds, the flowers, the trees, the bushes, the butterflies, the spiders, the ladybugs... well, there are just a goodly number of things to be getting on with checking.  I need more eyes.

Kintaro with Konobori and wearing a folded Kabuto

In the post office (ostensibly the purpose of our going out), I admired the hand-drawn postcards while he put something in the mail.  Several were Kodomo no Hi-themed (like the detailed drawing of a Kabuto helmet I posted yesterday). 

Whenever I look at these postcards, I wish I had my sister's drawing skills...



There's a pig farm not too far from the post office, and, since it's a warm day, we could smell it... so we stop at the little shop that sells fresh ham products.  Tonkatsu sandwiches for lunch.  We sit outside, and I feed my bread to a pair of sparrows who are flying in and out of a nook in the triangular roof of the building next door.  There's a narrow stream--part of Maioka River, in fact, that goes right in front of the school and by our house--and we follow it toward Maioka Park.

Kobanaonigumo (Araneus marmoreus... the Marbled Orb Weaver)

I can see lots of spider webs strung across the stream, so I check to see if anybody's home while we pedal along.  I trust that Shun will notice whether a car is coming...

Stop!  A big one!  Well, a pretty big one --nowhere near the size of Jorougumo or Argiope, but bigger than the Diadem Spider I found a week or two ago.  In fact, I stopped to look more closely at this one, because I think at first that it *is* the same species of Araneus that I found before, only bigger.  Since her web is strung across the stream, and her abdomen is facing me, I can't get a good look at her markings...  maybe if I sort of... turn half upside down.. but without falling into the water...?  By this time, Shun has noticed that I am not behind him and has turned around and come back to where I am.

"Wow!  You have stuff all over you!"  And so I do, since I'm standing practically inside a large Spirea gone to seed.  "Look!  A big pretty spider!  See?"...but he's more concerned about the stuff all over my jacket, my jeans, my hair.  I try to gently pull the web toward me so I can see her back, but without damaging her work.  At this, she scrambles to the bush I'm standing in--good!  Now I can see her better--well enough to think that yes, this is probably another Araneus, but *not* the little Garden Spider (or Diadem Spider, I like that name better) I'd found before.  This one is a good deal bigger, for one thing, and has much more intricate markings, for another.  After we got home, Google Image search revealed-- the Marbled Orb Weaver!  Araneus (hah!  I was right about that!) marmoreus, Kobanaonigumo (Little Flower Ogre Spider).  I managed to get one photo, half upside down and without falling into the stream, then stepped out and let Shun brush me off.

Back to the bicycles.  I see yellow irises blooming in the stream that I want to take a picture of, but since we're only fifty feet from the last place we stopped, I decide to wait to take a photo when we come back this way to go home.  Shun is generally very patient with my stopping to look at things, but I'm pretty sure he has his limits...

This is why, in fact, I like to go walking with my mother-- she likes to look at every damn thing, too:-))  Much to the consternation of my dear, long-suffering dad;-)

photo taken back in February-- Koi swimming in... the Maioka River?  Or in the trees?

Riding on the sidewalk along the river, I can see the beautiful tri-color Koi swimming below.. and I remind myself that I've already taken several photos of them, and so don't need to take more this time, and besides, the water isn't as clear today.

 I continue pedaling, feeling virtuously good that I haven't made Shun stop for a while... and then we turned down a narrow side street with mountain on one side and  farm houses on the other.

My favorite...

Irises!  Loads of them in front of an old farm house!  I can't not stop... I *know* my mother would stop.  These photos are for you, mom.  Happy Mother's Day:-))

what's this one, mom?

I'm not sure how far Shun went up the street before noticing that I wasn't with him, but by the time I looked up, he had doubled back and was getting off his bike to see what I was looking at.

They had quite a number of varieties planted, several cultivars of Bearded Iris as well as a couple of species of which I remain ignorant (just go have a look at the list of Iris species-- species, not including hybrid cultivars!-- over at Wiki).

Mostly, though, I was determined this time to find out once and for all...

...a Hanashobu or an Ayame?

...whether this dark purple iris was what the Japanese call...







I *always* get them mixed up...

...And I've never been able to get a clear explanation of the difference out of anyone, a source of endless frustration.  My friends just seem to 'know', and assume that the difference must be clear to anyone with eyes in their head.

Ayame... Iris sanguinea, Blood Iris

Wiki to the rescue this time--there's no doubt that this is an Ayame.  The sepals (the three bottom petals that droop down--the "falls") are narrow near the stem and are mottled yellow-brown ending in white, rounding out.

Hanashoubu... Iris ensata, the Japanese Iris
temporarily borrowing a Wiki photo 'til our Hanashobu bloom over at the Crawdad Pond

Hanashobu's sepals are shaped differently--see?  They're not narrow near the stem.  They're almost triangular, with the long side near the stem and the apex pointing out.  I show Shun after we get home, but I don't expect he'll remember.

We continue, and Shun points up.  I squint to see what he's pointing at (now he's getting into the spirit of noticing things!)....

...a pretty kitty in a second-floor window who reminds me of Koshi's kitty.  Awww-- he knows I like to notice kitties:-))

As soon as we get into Maioka Park, I notice two grandmotherly ladies squatting on the ground taking photos of something on the hillside with their phone cameras...

A chrysalis!

Akahoshigomadara...Hestina assimilis

I ask whether they know what it will be, and one of the ladies kindly tells me it will be Akahoshigomadara.  Ooh!  I know that one!  The Red Ring Skirt that I saw last fall while out walking.  I thank them and tell them I'm impressed with their ability to notice that one of those leaves was not a leaf...

Shioya Tombo-- Orthetrum japonica, the post-coital female

Walking by rice paddies and wet, marshy fields, we find dragonflies mating in the warm sun, their copulating bodies forming a flying ring.  The male is a beautiful blue, but he flies off before I can get his photo.  Looking through Koshi's bug encyclopedia at home, I find that this one is  Shioya Tombo-- one of the genus Orthetrum, and so what we might call a Blue Skimmer (or Japanese Blue Skimmer, in this case).

Graphium sarpedon... the Blue Triangle

One of my favorite butterflies lands nearby... a male Aosujiageha, the Common Bluebottle or Blue Triangle, the male of which likes to 'mud-puddle' (feed by the edge of puddles).

Acer palmatum var. dissectum

Near one of the buildings in the Old Village of the park (more about that another time), we both stop to admire a spectacular Japanese Momiji (maple).

This particular cultivar has deeply dissected, feathery leaves that might be red all year in this cultivar.  Really spectacular!

Isn't this pretty, mom!

 It's time to go home before the kids come home from school, but Shun waits while I take a picture or two of a lovely blue flower I've never seen before and that I know my mom will like. 

Buglossoides zollingeri... "Firefly Vine"

Thumbing through my field guide at home... atta!  Found it-- Hotarukazura.  Hunting online for the English common name, I find that there isn't one.  In Japanese, though, it's called "Firefly Vine".  I put a satisfying check in my field guide...

We make it back about half an hour before the kids got home from school.  What a lovely morning we've had, just the two of us-- kimochi yokatta, ne!, we tell each other as we start up the stairs.  And if you think I'm not going to notice anything else because I'm walking up a flight of concrete steps, well, you don't know me very well:-))

I glance over to my right... and see something dark on top of the concrete piece over the first floor windows.  Has somebody dropped something?  I step over to the rail for a closer look...

Pipistrellus abramus... the Japanese House Bat, or Japanese Pipistrelle

A bat!  A tiny, soft, furry little bat sitting there in the middle of the day!  What are you doing, Little Bat?  It's the middle of the night!  Or...well... you know what I mean.

He doesn't move at all and I think he might be dead or badly injured.  I watch, and wait... and finally he lifts his head, opening and shutting his mouth a few times.  Maybe because we recently rescued a kitten, this little member of the Chiroptera order looked distinctly kitten-like to me.  The ears, the soft fur, the helplessness of his pose.  I shoot a minute of video, then go reluctantly upstairs.

 Five minutes later I head right back downstairs, determined to crawl out there and help him if I can...



...but he is gone.  Goodbye, Pippa-- mata asobou, ne!

(p.s.-- I didn't fall off my bike at *all* today)

Weekend Origami-- Kabuto Helmet for Kodomo no Hi

Fold the Kabuto (Samurai Helmet) for Children's Day!

Here's a pretty simple kindergarten level origami--all three of my kids folded this in their third year of kindergarten when they were 5.

It's the Kabuto--the Samurai Helmet that, along with the Koinobori carp streamers, is the traditional symbol of Children's (originally Boy's) Day on May 5.  This is one origami that's not only easy to fold, but will be instantly recognizable to any Japanese person, since *everybody* learns how to fold it (ok, so, my husband has forgotten how, but he *did* learn at one point).  Use any size square paper in any color you like-- and newspaper works just fine!  In fact, that's what kids use at school to fold this since you can make it big enough to actually wear on your head:-))

Kabutomushi:  Allomyrina dichotoma

...And if "Kabuto" sounds like a bug to you, well, you'd be right:-))












The Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle is Kabutomushi in Japanese.  See that big horn on his head?

Kabuto crests

...the Japanese think that beetle's big horn looks like the crest of a samurai helmet, hence his name:  Kabuto-mushi (helmet beetle).

A hand-drawn postcard for Kodomo no Hi featuring a Kabuto

You wanted to know all that, right?  Good.  Go get some paper...







...and let's fold!  Cici will show you how (if her hair doesn't get in the way...).   Have fun and Gambatte!



How'd you do?  Does yours look more or less like the photo at top?  Yattaaa---!  Yoku dekimashita:-)) (well done!)

Mata asobou, ne!

Kodomo no Hi

Happy Children's Day!

5/5, May fifth, is Children's Day--the time of year you see undulating carp streamers hanging off balconies or strung across rivers.  Koinobori (Koi-- carp, nobori-- streamer) are actually windsocks painted with eyes and fins and scales and shaped tails to resemble the giant Koi that fight their way back upstream every spring.

Here they go:

waving from a neighbor's balcony

The largest streamer is said to be the father, the progressively smaller streamers, the male siblings of a family from oldest to youngest (represented by the smallest koi).   If you see them hanging from a balcony or in front of a house, it means that family has boys.

The movement of the streamers in the wind is said to resemble carp swimming in the river, struggling to swim upstream, and as such symbolize strength and perseverance--qualities parents traditionally hope to inculcate in sons.

Sons, you'll have noticed by now, not daughters-- this day was originally called Boy's Day (Girl's Day is Hinamatsuri-- the Doll Festival on March 3), and the trappings still reflect that despite it's having been renamed Kodomo no Hi in 1948 when the Japanese government made it a national holiday.

glinting gold and green in the sun...

Even more originally, this festival day was called Tango no Sekku (the "Edge of Noon Season") and was celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and still is in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Korea.  The date was moved to May fifth (still 5/5) after the switch to the Gregorian calendar in Japan, where it became a festival celebrating the warrior spirit.

Kintaro, who rides a bear instead of a horse (and also Koshi;-)

Kintaro, the warrior boy of folklore who was so strong he rode a bear instead of a horse, is the character associated with Boy's Day.  Families put small, decorative kabuto helmets on display in the genkan to express the hope that their sons will grow up healthy and strong.  This was originally done only in samurai families, but gradually filtered down to all families with boys. 

Hana Shobu-- Japanese Iris with its sword-like leaves

The Hana Shobu, Japanese Iris, with its sword-shaped leaves is the symbolic flower for Boy's Day.  Many people also display a small ceremonial sword behind the Kabuto warrior's helmet.  I've always assumed that the re-naming of Boy's Day to Children's Day in 1948 was the Japanese government putting a peaceful, post-war face on a holiday that traditionally celebrates the Warrior.

yes-- you eat the leaf, too:-))

Kashiwa  Mochi-- a sticky rice dumpling filled with sweet bean paste and wrapped in a pickled oak leaf is the traditional snack for Children's (Boy's) Day.  "Kashiwa" is 'oak'--the strongest of trees.

...and naturally, there's a song to go with those beautiful carp streamers.  Because, trust me, there's a song about practically *everything*.

Last year, all the area elementary kids painted Koinobori...

Yane yori takai Konobori
Ookii magoi wa Otoosan
Chisai magoi wa kodomotachi
Omoshiroso ni oyoideru...

....which were displayed again this year over the river in front of our school

 Higher than the rooftops Koinobori

The biggest streamer is the father

The small streamers are the children

They look like they are having fun swimming in the sky...

Here's the song if you like singing along:-))

Mata asobou, ne!

Tsutsuji Fair!

Rhododendron subgenus tsutsuji-- evergreen Azaleas

 Komuroyama Koen  (Komuro Mountain Park)

Ever since my in-laws built a house down on the Izu Peninsula, we've gone every year for Golden Week to see the Azaleas at Komuroyama Park (near Ito City).

We can actually walk to the Azalea park from the house by walking through the Camellia park...

Tsubaki... Camellias have over 3,000 cultivars...

It's the loveliest walk...                                            









  though I prefer walking there with my mother-in-law since we both like to amble
and stop to admire Every. Single. Camellia along the way...

Camellia japonica... but which cultivar?

 ...but since she didn't come with us this time,  I was unceremoniously hustled along, getting in only two lovely tsubaki photos and no time to note the cultivar name...

Ah, well-- the camellias were nearly done anyway, and we had come to see the azaleas...

 ....glowing rows of azaleas line the street...

...bushes crowded with shocking pink blooms,






...or purple,

 

...or deep red.

Climbing the stone steps to the top of the bottom slope of Komuro Mountain, the view is beautiful...

...then gorgeous,

 

...then positively spectacular.  Most of the plants are the small-flowered variety (and mainly pink, though the hillside--shown in the top photo--mixes in deep red, salmon pink, and white).      

The large-flowering variety (the evergreen azalea Tsutsuji), of which we have a border behind our building, wasn't quite out yet at Komuroyama.  Just a few, not the whole hillside.  From the side (as at right), it's easy to see that Azaleas are actually Rhododendrons.  A subgenus, in fact, though they used to be thought a completely different genus.

Rhododendron subgenus tsutsuji

Azaleas are now two different subgenera of Rhododendron, the deciduous Pentanthera and the evergreen Tsutsuji, whose name has simply been borrowed directly from the Japanese word for Azalea.

These are the kind that smell good-- that's where you'd be, if you were a bee...  I wonder if the spot pattern is like runway lights for bees, guiding them in?

some are pruned to shape, some left to grow naturally

Deep red azaleas beneath graceful willows...

A riot of Azaleas...

...framed by somber pines

A whole hillside of Azaleas

Some of the bushes are tall enough to walk under.  Well, tall enough if you are a small Japanese woman.  Or a child--I thought those tall azalea bushes looked like the most wonderful place to play house.  I would certainly have taken my dolls and stuffed animals and crayons and notebooks and spent hours playing under bushes like that when I was a kid.



...but, of course, I hadn't any toys along and so had to be content to stand under the tall pink azaleas and suggest to Cici what a marvelous play-place they would be...

I Miss My Kitty Already...

Tsutsuji Fair at Komuroyama Park-- Azaleas in brilliant bloom...

It's "Golden Week" here in Japan-- so called because there are five holidays that are nearly back-to-back so that most people get a week off for travel or visiting family.  We went to O-Baasan's house near the city of Ito down on the Izu Peninsula-- and it's Azalea Time.  More about that tomorrow:-)

Since we just got home and it's a bit late for me, this post will be a little shorter than usual-- mainly just an update about our Kitty...

First, he's as healthy as can be (apart from the diarrhea he came down with the night before we left for Grandma's...)-- playing, jumping, climbing, scampering, gobbling his food down, and already using his little toilet more or less by himself (still having trouble covering up the poo without actually stepping in it, though...).
O-riko da, ne!  (what a clever one!)  The cousins were immediately enamoured of him (although they just took in a kitty about a year or so ago, so Mom said 'no' to another one),  as were Grandma and Grandpa (a good sign).

Second, we don't get to keep him.  Even though I thought of him as my kitty by the time we got home from the vet and the pet shop for kitty food.  Even though it appears that Ceiling Cat approves of the match.  Even though everybody voted that we keep him (thanks everybody!).  I would keep him. Koshi would keep him (when I woke up this morning, I looked around for Kitty--found him curled up on Koshi's pillow next to his head:-)).  But I've been down the road of keeping a Secret Kitty in company housing before, and it's not an argument I want to have again.

Which brings me to number Three:  O-Baasan *is* going to keep him!  Yay!  Three cheers for Grandma!  So that means that whenever we go to see grandma, we can play with Kitty (name is currently Under Advisement... possibly Haru; possibly Mario) and maybe even catsit from time to time.

Who could say No to that face?  (Japanese Zabuton cushions were made for Kitties...)

And I'm very glad for that. 


But I already miss my kitty...