asazuke

8th~9th

• Sunday is cold but clear and we get a beautiful view of snowy mountains on our way out of town.
• There are no speed cops – have they moved to a new place?
• There hasn’t been much rain and the well dries up in the night.
• The local timber co-operative have been round and cut some of the trees that were growing just south of our field. This is quite welcome – it gives us more sunlight and lets the breeze through so the house won’t be quite so damp this summer with luck. I suspect our friend Yamada san might have been behind this because there’s no particular benefit from their point of view – the trees were just left on the ground.
• I do some digging in the field where the chillies will be planted this year.
• Min. temp. -4°C, max. 4°C

15th~16th

• A grey Sunday. There’s nothing special to say about it – it’s not even outstandingly cold until we get to the house, where after being empty for five days everything is icy.
• In the second supermarket we run into Yamada san who’s on his way with a vanful of friends to a shrine near Lake Biwa (quite far from here) for a ceremony called “dondoyaki“. He stopped to pick up some beer.
• The next afternoon Yamada san drops in and we ask him round for a drink the week after next. (Next week we have to stay in Nagoya.)
• I finish digging the chilli field. 🙂
• Min. temp. -5°C max. 4°C

29th~30th

• A nice sunny day in Nagoya. It’s been very cold the last couple of weeks, though, with blizzards on the Sea of Japan side of the country and Sunday isn’t exactly warm. We set off a bit worried that the road will be snowed up near the house. I really don’t want to have to put the snow chains on, but we’ve promised to meet Yamada san (at his place not ours) and on the phone he said it wasn’t too bad, so fingers crossed.
• When we arrive the snow isn’t too bad at all, but it’s cold: down to 0°C by 4:00, and the water pipes are frozen in a couple of places, even though we drained the system before leaving two weeks ago. One tap starts flowing after an hour or so, but the cold water in the kitchen is still off at 5:00.
• There’s a flock of cute little birds in our persimmon tree enjoying the fruit T left in the Autumn.
• After a bath we head over to Yamada san’s for the evening. (more later)
• The next day it’s still cold with icicles hanging off the eaves, we decide to skip the bath and stop off at a local onsen on our way home, which is very nice.
• Min. temp. -7°C max. 7°C