Japan Mountain Village Encounter 日本の村人を満たす - Walking in Japan 日本のモンスター
Mountain | reviews | videos | photos
A visiting friend and I explore a small village in the Japan Southern Alps and are welcomed into the home of an elderly tea farmer and his wife. The couple's son and daughter-in-law are visiting from the city and the family is busy making Japanese rice cakes called mochi. Mochi making is a very special activity in Japan and this family is making three color mochi in celebration of the Japanese holiday Girl's Day (hinamatsuri) which is a special day reserved for young girls. Girl's Day is normally celebrated on March 3rd in Japan though the people in this particular village celebrate the holiday in April due to the fact that the month of March is still rather cold and unfestive in the high mountains. Few young Japanese know how to make mochi the old fashioned way and it's a real treat for us to get to watch the family steam a special type of rice called mochikome over a wood-fired stove before pounding the rice by hand in a large wooden basin. I've tried this myself with my wife's family and I can report that the hammer is very heavy and the process much harder than it looks, as one poorly aimed swipe will strike the side of the basin and send tiny splinters of wood into the mochi and thus ruin the batch. Also, to do the job properly requires a coordinated effort between the man swinging the hammer and the woman turning the rice. Many older men in Japan take considerable pride in their ability to handle the hammer well and mochi making events within large families (like my wife's) can result in some pleasant competition between the men taking turns at the hammer. The couple in the video were very kind and even gave us a little tour of their home. The wife proudly showed us the family's collection of antique scrolls including one which depicts several significant figures in the Japanese imperial line. We can roughly date this particular scroll by the fact that the small child shown at the bottom of the scroll is the Showa emperor Hirohito who was born in 1901 and ruled Japan until the end of World War Two. The husband has lived in this village his entire life while his wife grew up in another village across the mountain and moved to this home when the couple was married in 1955. The house where the couple lives is more than 100 years old. At the start of the video we walk through rows of cultivated green tea plants. As it is almost the tea season the plants are nearly ready for harvest, and at one point you can see a shade tarp over some of the plants which is a common practice in this area and is done just before harvest in order to sweeten the tea. In the video we get a quick glimpse of a small garden with Japanese wasabi plant growing in a tiny flowing stream. Wasabi is the spicy green horseradish used to season sushi, and wasabi root requires very clean, cold water to grow, and many farmers in this area make use of the mountain's abundant rainfall to grow wasabi for their own use or to sell at small roadside stands along the highway. Many of the farmers also raise a special type of edible freshwater fish in special pools fed by the streams. Another point of interest with this old home is the fact that it includes a special indoor work area called a doma just inside the front door. The doma was where the rice pounding was being done in the video and traditionally this special area of the home was reserved for outdoor work which might need to be performed indoors in bad weather. In this case the rice pounding is being done inside in order to reduce the chance of dust mixing into the rice paste. The doma was also the area where the kitchen and bath might be located. The actual living area is raised up and away from the floor and one's shoes must be removed before entering this area of the home. Most modern Japanese homes will have only a small area within the front door called a genkan which serves the same function. It was rather dark inside the home and I was unable to properly film some wonderful sights such as the open ceiling which revealed an intricate lattice of huge hand-hewn beams with interlocking joints held together without a single nail. Before we said our thanks and departed the family filled our hands with large and delicious Japanese oranges and wished us well in our further ventures which included a visit to a lovely Shinto (native religion of Japan) shrine immediately behind the family home and a leisurely stroll through the rest of the village admiring the wonderful antique architecture. ---- Welcome to the softypapa channel. My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have chosen to walk awhile with me. I'm available on Facebook and Google+ if you have questions or just want to chat and say hi. All links are listed below. I look forward to meeting you on-line. Have a great day! :-)
Comments
-
These Japanese people are very friendly. Thanks for Nice video. Love it
-
reminded me of my mother's relative's family whom were living in the mountainous area...
now the whole village is under the dam, go sake, why.... -
Wow what a treat!!! I would love to spend time with the grandma( Obaa-Chan) in this video and help her prepare foods in a traditional way every day.
-
Aww the old lady was so cute! They seem so friendly! (Alicia Marchesseault)
-
Wow! That's really awesome. What a great warm and welcoming family.
-
So happy to hear the family was so welcoming. Reminds me of the movie Kikujiro, where a bunch of strangers help a kid on a journey. I wish them well. Glad to know sone old traditions are still maintained.
-
変わる物と変わらないものがある。本質を残しながら変わるのが日本の特技であり伝統。
-
I miss my home country sooo much
-
北海道では、伝統などありえない(きっぱり)
しかし、自然なら腐るほどあるさ(笑) -
Why do they always mention China has 5000 years history like a dumb parrot, without any context to the related discussion. It makes most who spout out such useless context look like dumb monkeys. As a result of your useless spout of China has 5000 years of history I have lost respect for you and think you are an idiot, a dumb fool. My gut reaction to you of saying China has 5000 years history is, "SO WHAT!" Every major population region has archeological finds that can be traced to be 10,000 years or more, even the North American and South American tribes. So think next time you get a dumb dink with yellow tawnish hides spout to you that China has 5000 years history, just respond so what and inform him or her that many of your cousins have traveled to the back side country of China and most of it is dirt poor. So much for 5000 years history you dumb dinks.
-
この動画は日本の特徴をよくつかめていてとても良いと思います!
自分としても誇らしいです -
I appreciate the Japanese fear of God , but with much ignorance · China five thousand years of imperial culture, to China disaster · s hort and t roubled J apanese history · se e this ol d man li ke my mother
-
What a treat to come to you tube today searching for something to watch and finding this beautiful video that you have shared! It is so much fun to learn about how others do things and how they live!
-
風情のある家にいらっしゃいますね。 非常にうらやましいです。
-
This is pretty fascinating!
-
Np. I thought it was pretty cool! Thanks!
-
I presume by lots of study and practice and making a lot of mistakes along the way. Learning any language fluently that isn't your native language will be time consuming and many times difficult. Helps to be surrounded by people speaking the language you wish to learn.
-
Ano baachan wa kyaaa kawaikatta nda! Omochi kaeri!
-
How did you become fluent in Japanese?
9m 43sLenght