Monday Manglish-- The Magic Stationery Case

"Yeah, so?"  I hear you say.  "It's a zippered stationery case.  Not a very interesting one, either."

So you think-- this is a magic stationery case.

No--really!  Hermione has one just like it (I think hers is green, though).  Professor McGonagall lent it to her at the start of term.

"The stationery and small articles of life are unified."

See?  Haven't lost a thing since-- this is a unifying case.  Wouldn't you just love to have all the small articles of your life unified?  All in one place and never lost again?  Like the Sorting Hat, it may *look* like a small, unassuming item... but don't be fooled.  It's one of the more powerful magical items out there.

A couple of caveats-- do not put a sharp thing in the case.  It may damage the case.

Also, please do not bring close to the fire, as there is fear of modification.

I left my last one too near the stove, and it turned into a newt;-)

Friday Field Notes-- Out and About

An Ajisai as big as my head!  The biggest one this year--I put my hand on it for perspective:-))

I didn't get a chance to take an actual walk last week or this.  When I sat down to look through photos taken willy-nilly over the last two weeks, I was surprised at how many things I'd stumbled across without particularly looking-- just out and about.  On my way here or there (usually to or from school or Kumon).

Gardening on the Porch

Don't you just love running across something that proves you were right?

The last two summers we've spent at my parents', and so haven't done any gardening on the porch.  But the summer before we had quite a little kitchen garden going out there-- basil, mini-tomatoes, green peppers... and an eggplant.  That's Yochien Cici there, with her eggplant:-))

Thing is, one day I went out to water plants... and the eggplant had sprouted a bizarre branch.  With white (instead of purple) flowers and *thorns*.  Thorns all over the stems and even down the middle rib of the leaves.   It was slightly Jekyll-and-Hyde scary.  The only thing I could figure was that edible eggplant must be grafted onto wild stock, and that this one branch was a throw-back to the wild variety.  Ka na?

Solanum torvum... Wild Eggplant

So on the way home from school last week, I came to a screeching halt (my bike brakes really need oiling or something) when a casual glance left at the so-called weeds coming up under the cherry trees presented this.

Have you seen this before?  I never had--but I knew immediately what it was.  Wild Eggplant-- the exact same thing that sprouted off the main stem of Cici's eggplant, only these were whole plants (I counted 24 of them coming up around the stump of a cherry tree removed last year).

Pretty white flowers-- "Prickly Nightshade" is another name

"Hah!" I shouted exultantly, "Ah Ha!" to no one at all.  It needed saying, though.  I have no idea why it was suddenly coming up all around that stump, but as I sat taking photos, it struck me that the flowers were similar to nightshade.  A trip to Wiki revealed, among a number of common names, "Prickly Nightshade" and "Devil's Fig"-- the first one being a reference to the fact that not only do the flowers *look* like nightshade... they are nightshade.  Eggplant, along with tomatoes and potatoes, is in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), and was therefore thought to be poisonous.

Hey, you cows!  Don't eat my leaves!

Click on those photos up there so you can see the thorns-- this is a plant that *seriously* does not want to be eaten!  I don't think I've ever seen thorns down the center vein of a leaf before...

Those center-vein thorns confirmed, though, that this was indeed what I'd seen growing off the main stem of Cici's eggplant, and a visit to Wiki proved my "wild eggplant" theory right.  Hah!  *crosses arms triumphantly*  Also, eggplants are botanically classified as berries.  Got that?  Quiz next week;-)

Lycaena phlaeas

I've been seeing little Benishijimi everywhere, too, on a variety of flowers. 

On small, white daisies that look like weeds until they are sat upon by a lovely butterfly... (he sat obligingly still while I took his photo, intent on drinking nectar as he was)

The Small Copper

...and I saw him again on bright yellow daisies (or coreopsis), where he turned all the way around getting nectar...

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21.... or?

...on a flower whose whorled center made me think of Fibonacci numbers...

Kanokoga...Amata fortunae

On my way down the river to go home, I noticed a moth I'd never seen before.  A pair of them, in fact, copulating with their bottoms stuck together so that they looked like a single, double-headed creature.

The White-spotted Mot

Then I saw them again.  And again...  I must've seen five pairs of this moth mating, though what exactly was so special about the 28th of June that they must all needs copulate on that date, I'm sure I've no idea.  Everybody was having June weddings?

Ardea cinera

 The following day (Tuesday) was Kumon day, and Cici forgot her homework... necessitating a trip on the bike up to the Kumon classroom to drop it off.

Thank *goodness* I had the camera with me!

Aosagi (the Grey Heron), who doesn't visit our little branch of the river too often, was right there!  In the river behind the bus depot!  I dearly love watching Aosagi-- gawky and elegant, all at the same time--and this time he didn't fly off at my approach (they tend to be rather shyer than the Little Egret, Kosagi).

As I watched, I noticed him open his mouth and shake (or vibrate) the skin beneath his long bill (his wattle, maybe).  I wondered why.  When he did it again, I was ready for it and hit 'record'... and got lucky enough to record him catching and eating a fish!  Have a look:-))

Hagurotombo... Calopteryx atranta

I'll have you know that I kept my wits about me, and actually remembered that I was on my way to Kumon.  I did, in fact, drop off Cici's homework, in spite of all the excitement about the Heron;-)

I was nearly back home when I looked over and saw that the pair of black damselflies I'd seen several times over several days were still in the same place...

Black-toothed Damselfly

...sitting on the same leaves I'd seen them on the day before.

I think they sat on those leaves, over the drainage river, for a week.  They occasionally changed spots to a neighboring leaf, but otherwise remained in roughly the same place.  Very mysterious behavior, I thought, for which I still have no explanation....

Yabukarashi...Cayratia japonica

I found the early beginnings of Yabukarashi vines here and there--the vine that butterflies seem to love.  And ants, as I discovered taking this close-up of the flowers.  Click on that so you can see the liquid clinging to it that the ant was drinking.  I got a better photo of the tiny flowers this time--good enough to see that they're not all pink, but pink and orange, like tiny cups of sherbet...

Nothing to see here... or is there?

Of course, I've saved the best for last:-))

I was just in a hurry to get home before the predicted drizzle started in-- I had laundry out drying that needed to come in.

Hopped on the bike at school... pedaled past the temple... took the left fork at the machinist's shop behind the bus depot... and looked at the fence.

Do you see it?  No?  Have a closer look:

Shima-Hebi

I did not fall off my bike.

He sat there-- I would say still as a stone, but it would have to be a very flexible stone to be woven in and out of those small spaces in the fence like that.

I walked right up to him and took several pictures, and he never moved.  I took the camera out of the bag, thinking to catch him and take him home to Koshi so we could look him up online.  As soon as my fingers grasped the longest part of his midsection protruding from the fence, though, he instantly slithered quickly forward.  I let go, afraid that if I held him tightly, he would struggle and scratch or hurt himself in the metal fence.  He wove his way further down the fence, like a shuttlecock in and out of the weft... then disappeared into the vegetation behind the fence. 

Stop and stare whenever you're out and about-- 'cause you just never know... ;-)

Japanese Four-Lined Snake... Elaphe quadrivirgata

Tanabata! The Star Festival

1852 Hiroshige woodblock print of Tanabata in Old Edo

7/7...July seventh is Tanabata (七夕）, the Star Festival, the most romantic festival of the year.

I just love the story behind this one:-))  It goes like this:

"Orihime (織姫 Weaving Princess^?), daughter of the Tentei (天帝 Sky King, or the universe itself^?), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川 Milky Way, lit. "heavenly river"^?). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星 Cow Herder Star^?) (also referred to as Kengyuu (牽牛^?)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet."

Of course, there are other versions of the story, but this is the main one (i.e.-- the one I know:-)).  And, you know, it rains nearly every year on Tanabata. :-(  Poor Orihime.  Poor Hikoboshi.  In the sky, they are Vega and Altair--forever separated by the Ama no Gawa (Heaven's River, the Milky Way), meeting only briefly on July seventh...  This is what happens when you have a Star Festival in the middle of the Rainy Season.  I just checked outside-- cloudy, with a chance of rain.  I wonder whether the Magpies will come if it's just cloudy but not  raining?

Watch this for a minute-- it fills in!

Vega, the Weaver Star (Orihime in the story-- "Ori" means "to weave" and it's part of my daughter's name "Iori"), the brightest star of the Lyre constellation and forming the top of the Summer Triangle...

Altair, the brightest star of Aquila the Eagle at the bottom of the Triangle, is Hikoboshi, her lover.

Deneb, the brightest star of Cygnus, isn't part of the story, but it does form the rest of the Summer Triangle off to the left (as you're looking at the chart over there-- the three stars of the triangle are easily visible at the start, and get a harder to find as stars fill in).

The traditions associated with Tanabata have come partly from Obon traditions (another summer festival)-- things got a little mixed up when they switched from the Japanese lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

The first thing to do, is go cut some Sasa (笹, bamboo-- the kind pandas like to eat:-) and tie it up or put it into a vase if it's short enough.

Then you decorate with colorful paper chains, kirigami stars (video below), kirigami Ama no Gawa (fold a piece of origami paper in half and in half again lengthwise... make horizontal cuts left, then right, then left, all the way down the paper, being careful not to cut all the way across... unfold and pull down to make the Milky Way!).

Then you write a wish on a colorful strip of paper and tie that onto the branches-- Tanabata!

 The rectangular strips are the Tanzaku (短冊), sometimes written as poetry, more often a wish to pass an exam or improve in a skill (traditionally in sewing and craftsmanship skills for girls, in handwriting for boys).

Click that photo there, and you can see the "Ama no Gawa" better (it's done in silver origami paper--very easy to make:-).


Here's the Kirigami Star again-- it's pretty if you use foil paper or sparkly or hologram paper.

Even the grocery store had signs up for Tanabata (you can see the little drawing of bamboo with wish papers on it bottom left)... the big kanji on the right    "七夕 " say "Tanabata" (the kanji read as "seven--evening, but the meaning of the word Tanabata is rather more confusing).

tomatoes for 77yen apiece...

It took me a while to figure out why lots of things were on sale for 77yen, or 177yen, or 277yen...

July 7th... 7/7... Star Festival... 77yen.  Duh.  I was slow on the uptake today;-))

Happy Tanabata! :-))

Mata asobou, ne!

Never In All My Days...

...have I seen hydrangeas so beautifully, naturally blue.  Hydrangea macrophylla.

I took a walk the other day--but not around here.  I went someplace special because the hydrangeas were in full bloom, and if it's ajisai you want to see...

 

...off to Kamakura you go!  There are hydrangea bushes spilling over every wall, adorning every corner right now.  But one temple in Kamakura is so famous for its ajisai that people know it as well by its nickname-- "Ajisaidera" (Hydrangea Temple)--as by the real name.

Meigetsuin Road

"Mei" means "bright", "Getsu" means "moon", and "in" is "hermitage", also translated as "temple".  It is well over seven hundred years old, and the temple with which it was originally a part over eight hundred years old.

Ja... ikou, yo!

Every alley and cross street is lined with pink, blue, and purple.

Get off at Kita-Kamakura station and hang a right.  There are actually  any number of ancient, lovely temples that date back to the Kamakura period of Japanese history (the shogunate established in 1185 in Kamakura that wrested control away from the emperor for about a century and a half).  But on this particular day I (along with all the other Aunties of a Certain Age) had come to see Hydrangeas, so there was really only one temple to see.

The Ajisai-dera is only 500 meters from the station, so I walked instead of hiring a Jinrikisha (人力車... literally "person-power-vehicle").   It tends to be pricey, which is the other reason I didn't hire one.  Back in the day when I was single and traveling around Kyoto, I did shell out $50 for a ride-- and Ladies, allow me to assure you that fifty bucks is not an unreasonable fee to be pulled around town by a young, lithe, good-looking Japanese guy who runs all day for a living.  They wear tight pants.  The view is worth every bit of that 5000yen...;-))

Gradations of pink to purple on a single bush...

Ahem.

What was I talking about?  Oh.   Flowers.  Right.
It's a good thing I was by myself, as I took a picture of nearly every flower I saw:-))  Actually, all these photos are for my Mommy, who would (like me) stop to look at every. single. flower.  I come by it honest;-))  Happy Birthday, Mom!

Lovely blue Lacecap Hydrangeas (Gaku-ajisai)... and crowds.

In spite of it's having been a weekday, the whole area was quite crowded.  I figured it was the nice weather-- we had two beautiful, sunny days in between a week of clouds and rain.  Which meant that I, along with everybody else, thought it would be a good day to go.  It always seems to be that way here-- no matter what you think of to do, when you get to wherever you were going, you find out that ten thousand other people had the exact same idea...

Blue Lacecap, tending to purplish...

I didn't really mind, though-- I was mostly glad for the break in the weather.  And, as a matter of fact, all the rain in previous weeks meant that the ajisai were gloriously happy about being so well-watered and were busting out everywhere.  The last time I visited this temple, the flowers were rather pale blue-- lovely, but not the intense color I'd remembered from my first time seeing them.

My favorite color...because it occurs naturally:-)

 This year, though, the ajisai were almost pulsatingly blue-- True Hydrangea Blue, not the too-bright royal blue you sometimes see in hothouse hybrids.

Ajisai and Bamboo

The really fascinating thing (to me, anyway) about this species of hydrangea (H. macrophylla), is the way the pH of the soil affects the color of the flowers.  Really!

A bush may be initially pink or blue, but depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the soil and the uptake of aluminum ions from the soil, very often you will see bushes with no two mopheads of flowers the same color.   Here's the relevant bit from Wiki:

"In most species the flowers are white, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), can be blue, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple. In these species the exact colour often mirrors the pH of the soil; acidic soils produce blue flowers, neutral soils produce very pale cream petals, and alkaline soils results in pink or purple. This is caused by a color change of the flower pigments in the presence of aluminium ions which can be taken up into hyperaccumulating plants.^[2][3]"

Don't they give the distinct impression of arteries and veins?

 ^{Are you not diverted?  If you look closely at the stems, you can see how they gradually change color from the main stem to the tiny, branching stems supporting the individual flowers.   The main stem is green (as usual), but changes to pink, to purplish, to blue just beneath the flowers.  I wondered whether this wasn't maybe due to the uptake of aluminum ions as mentioned in the Wiki article....}

Pink to Purple... maybe the soil is slightly acidic her

^{I noticed on the way up the street that the ajisai outside the temple were mostly of the pink variety, which had nearly all morphed to some shade of purple, while all the bushes inside the temple proper were blue (intensely blue this year).}  

Not retouched in any way-- this is the actual color I was looking at...

^{Generally acidic soil, perhaps, causing the basically pink plants to shade to purple, while enhancing the blue of the blue plants?}

Ajisai behind the Tea House

 ^{This is getting a bit long, so...}

The Tea House

^{... I'll leave you with a few more images of Hydrangeas at the Ajisai-dera, and continue this post on the weekend with the Other Stuff At The Temple Besides Hydrangeas...}

Kamakura Ishi no Sandou

^{The money shot:  at right, the 800-year-old path of original, weathered Kamakura Stones (鎌倉石の参道... Kamakura Ishi no Sandou).  Of course, ideally, you'd want this shot with just the stone steps flanked by gracefully drooping ajisai and no people, but....}

Ajisai and Jinrikisha...

 Hydrangeas, crowds, and Jinrikisha...




...all the bushes looked like this...

Blue ajisai with a touch of purple...

A Trip To The Doctor's, or, Why Mamas Don't Post Everyday...

Kokuwagatamushi (Small Stag Beetle)...

Sometimes kids wake up with the *weirdest* afflictions.


Koshi woke up Friday morning... and laid in bed.  I nagged him to get up and get dressed.  He continued to loll.  I nagged.  He lolled.  He finally made an effort to put his clothes on--while moaning that his leg hurt.  I assumed he'd just slept on it funny, and it would be fine if he just got up and got moving.

Nope.  Crimping and hopping down the hall, then back to bed.  Koshi is my Drama Kid (when he was a baby and a toddler, he had two levels of crying:  "Call 911" and "Asleep".  Nothing in between-- so I feel my initial skepticism was justified;-)).  I checked the calendar to see whether there was anything going on at school that he didn't want to do.  Nope.  I finally told him he could stay home for an hour and go later to school, thinking that surely his leg would miraculously feel better if he got to stay in bed a little longer.

I walked the other kids up to school, and found a cute little Stag Beetle on the pavement on the way home.  I picked her up and put her in the camera bag, sure that an adorable Beetle represented an Instant Cure for Mysteriously Gimpy Legs.

Consultation and an xray for twenty bucks

No such luck.  So, around eleven o'clock,  we got on our bicycles and went to the hospital (I figured he'd need to be seen by the Seikeigeka--the orthopedic surgeon--and would probably need an xray, so the pediatric clinic was out).  We waited about half an hour before seeing the doctor (no appointments are necessary at hospitals or clinics--usually only the dentist requires an appointment).

He did need an xray, and so I learned more new words-- pelvic bone (choukotsu) and femur (daitaikotsu), joint inflammation (kansetsuenshou).  *Sigh*.  The things I learn at the hospital...  Some water in the joint, apparently--though for no readily apparent reason (*possibly* a cold virus or bacteria that had made its way to the joint).  The cure?  Rest.  No running.  No jumping.  No playing.  No exercise.  No baseball.  No walking.  At all.  For three days.

The follow-up visit... get a real health care system, America

I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday alternately entertaining and attempting to sit on my most energetic child.  By Saturday, most of the pain in his hip joint was gone... and he wanted to play.

No, honey--no playing.  Rest.

"Tsumannai!"  (bored)  "I can't help that, sweetie.  The doctor said to rest, or your leg will keep hurting and you won't get to play baseball all summer.  And the growth plate on top of the leg bone could get damaged.  No growth plate=short leg forever."  That worked for about ten minutes.

Monday I had to keep him home again, because he still had some pain if I moved his leg outward.  So it was back to the doctor for a follow-up visit (which was very inexpensive, as you can see above-- 360yen, or about $3.60.  That's right.  Three dollars and sixty cents.  I simply do not understand the current "debate" in the United States over health care.  We can provide eighteen years of public schooling for children, but not health care?  And can anyone explain how my paying $3.60 for a follow-up visit represents a loss of medical freedom or a "nanny state"?  Surely it is Americans facing bankruptcy due to crippling medical debts who are experiencing a loss of "freedom"?  I just don't get it...sorry.  Rant done;-))

We love our Very Small Beetle:-))

Koshi did get to go back to school today (thank goodness--I'm not sure I could have taken another day of enforced rest for a kid who is not sick), but the Re-injury Warning is still in effect.  No exercise, no gym class, no pool, no baseball, no playing outside during recess, no running in the halls.  Walking only.  I had to call his teacher this morning and apprise her of all this-- so now she can have *her* hands full:-))  Only one more week, then we're off the hook as long as there's no pain.  One more week.

Mata asobou, ne!