Crow Update

The crows have lost their breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot.

Unfortunately, crows are noisy and the fruit tree was messy.

They still gather. Can you see why?

Corn fields. They've done a lot of damage.

Let's see if this works.

These photos were taken with a Panasonic Lumix 10x.

recent posts about the recent neighborhood crow situation:
Gathering Before the Storm

Gathering After the Storm

Gathering After the Typhoon

Crows gathered here again. About 40. Fluffing and drying their feathers at 5:30 A.M. And...

Gathering and

eating their breakfast

from this tree.

Soaring

and watching me.

Apple Protection

I usually don't take photos of people.

"People aren't scenery," Big Sister told me when I started this blog. Papa, teachers and parents were worried about privacy and safety. And he reminded me, "You are easily found."

But I had to document this. Sorry the photo is blurry. It was taken in a hurry with the iphone. You can't really see what this grocery store clerk is doing. I was trying to protect her identity.

She's putting those little pink plastic skirts on the apples. I thought the apples were shipped that way to protect them. So, no, after making their way to the store the apples are protected from people bruising them while picking over them and taking them home!

But, wait, note the comment section below. A reader suggested that the skirts are for hygiene purposes. I'd never thought of that! Probably because I take the skirts off to look at the bottom of the fruit to check to see how green it is at the base. I've never noticed anyone else do that. Even though there was a time when they stopped using the skirts and there were some bad apples in the bunch (bin). So, they're either protecting the apples from bruises or germs.


A bag of pink plastic skirts.

I've noticed apples and grapefruit wear pink plastic skirts. Green apples, pears and nashi wear green plastic skirts. Click on the labels below for more posts.

Check out the comment section, too.

Garden Raspberries

There are a lot of raspberries this year! This plant has been coming up in our garden every year for ten years.

They don't all ripen at the same time. Even those on the same stem!

Loquat

June is the season for biwa or loquat. This picture was taken a couple of days ago when it was sunny. It rained all day today.

Four Kinds of Oranges

Great Aunt (Baba's sister) from Nagasaki sent us four kinds of oranges. Baba wasn't sure of the names of the oranges so I'm not posting all of them. The biggest one is called natsumikan. The one on top that is peeled is a natsumikan. In my opinion, it's kinda tough. At least the ones I've eaten are tough and not juicy. They are not my favorite, but Little Brother and Big Sister love them!

Nashi Stand

Every summer, a stand is built on this corner. Asian pear apples or nashi are sold here. Click to enlarge.

Nashi

I have heard nashi called Japanese pear-apples in the United States. You've probably seen the plastic web blanket that they sometimes come in to protect them from bruising.

But look at the presentation of this one. This nashi came wrapped in a nice Japanese paper, too.

Click here to read a post about apple protection.

Ume

Here is the last of the fruit on great grandfather's ume bonsai trees. We don't eat or use the plums. We let the birds get them. Some people make plum wine or dried plums.

Dried Persimmons and Fruit

These pictures were taken earlier in the January. These are bags of dried persimmons. Some come in boxes. These cost 2500 yen per bag. How much is that?

They were in a fruit section at the grocery store. The melons next to the bags of persimmons were 45oo yen a piece. The melons next to those were cheaper.

More dried persimmons. There were also blueberries and raspberries. And pears (in the green plastic blanket) for 200 yen a piece.

A box of dried persimmons. Why would anyone want them in a box? To send as a gift.

Yuzu in the Bath

For the winter solstice, yuzu is put in the bath. You just take them out of the mesh bag, wash them, and toss them in. The whole yuzu float around as you take a bath. Yuzu is very fragrant. No squeezing or peeling is necessary.

It is sold at the grocery store in the fruit and vegetable section. I found this net of yuzu and a paper of explanation at our grocery store. It is the first time I have seen a paper like this. It mentions that yuzu was believed to get rid of bad energy. Yuzu is supposed to be good for the skin, too. The paper also mentions eating kobocha on this day, too. We eat it throughout the year, but it is a custom to eat it on the winter solstice. I'll post about kobocha later.

By the way, I put a mikan in the picture to show you the size of the yuzu. They are both smaller than an orange.

Mikan

Throughout late fall and winter, these small net bags of oranges called mikan are in fruit shops and grocery stores. The mikan come in three sizes S,M,L. They are seedless and they have thin peel. They are about the size of tangerines but they don't taste like tangerines.

I have heard some western people translate mikan as "mandarin oranges." I have heard some western people refer to them as tangerines. But again, they do not taste like tangerines.

It is nice to sit at the kotatsu (see table heater), drink green tea, and eat mikan. Baba always has a basket of mikan. We do, too.

Many years ago, Jiji, Grandfather, showed me how to peel a mikan. He said to peel it in one piece. The mikan then has a place to sit as you eat one segment at a time. That's polite, he said. It's neater that way, too. It's also easier to throw away one piece instead of many little pieces.

Here's basically how to keep it one piece:
Choose the side opposite the navel (where the stem is) to start peeling. The navel will hold it all together. Look at the middle picture. The mikan on the right is sitting with its navel up.

Here's another post about kotatsu. Click on the label below for more ways to stay warm in Japan.

Persimmons, Kumquats & Oranges?

The persimmons are ripe enough for the birds now. This gardener did not gather the fruit. There was quite a bit on the sidewalk, too.

This little bird looked at me for a long time. He was waiting for me to go away, I think. I didn't go away and he flew away to join all the other birds. They had flown away earlier.

I waited for a while and these sparrows gathered on the roof next door. The other birds flew away. A hawk almost got one of those green birds so they all took off. Yes, there was actually a hawk in Tokyo!!

I saw these kumquats on the way home. We have a small potted kumquat tree in our garden. The caterpillars ate most of it after they devoured the yuzu tree. Search this blog under "yuzu" for that story. (Actually, I carried the caterpillars to the kumquat tree because they were starving.) These kumquats look big because I was using the zoom lens, and I was too close to them. They were actually the size of a seedless green grape.

I also saw these orange trees on the way home. On second thought, are these Chinese grapefruits?

Drying Persimmons

These persimmons were dryng in someone's garden.

These persimmons were hanging outside someone's door next to their laundry.

This is a close-up of the persimmons in the picture above.

I bought this dried persimmon at the grocery store. They are usually sold by the box, but they had divided a box so I was able to buy just one. We haven't tried it yet.