Still Blooming After All These Years

Great-grandfather's mums are blooming again this year. I transplanted these from a pot into the ground. Check this post.

There are still chrysanthemums in a pot outside the gate. Here they are today:


They are in the second pot between miniature bamboo and Mexican heather. The mums are blooming, but they're scraggly. We had a very hot, dry summer this year. (The Mexican heather did much better than the mums and I did!) Click on the labels below for more posts about chrysanthemums. There are chrysanthemum festivals and competitions here.

Happy Labor Thanksgiving!

Click on the label below for older posts. And see what Kids Web Japan has to say about it here.

Transplanting

This 85 year old farmer transplanted some broccoli seedlings today. At least I think it's broccoli. I didn't interrupt him to ask. I just watched him dig up the seedlings in one area of his field to transplant here.

He made a hole with one hand,

placed the seedling in the hole with the other hand,

and pressed the dirt around it with both hands.

When the tray was empty he went back to get more. He stopped along the way to look at other vegetables.

Using a hand tool, he dug up more seedlings to transplant. He used this tiller to prepare the soil, but he has touched every seed, seedling, plant and vegetable in his field. He does all the work himself. His wife sometimes helps in the field. She usually stays at the vegetable stand.

He transplanted this whole section. He covered up the tiller at the end of the day.

He still has more seedlings to transplant.

Note the shape of his footprint. Click on the photo to enlarge it. When these vegetables are ready in the winter, he will sell them at his vegetable stand. Click on "vegetable stands" in the labels to see other posts. Click here to find out what it really is.

Found

I disturbed this caterpillar when I replaced the morning glories with fall plants. It will be a hummingbird moth. I thought it had already taken off but it didn't. It ate the morning glories and then went under the soil in the planter.

This is what it looked like before it went underground. In the middle of September, it was green. Sorry, this is a photo of a pooping caterpillar. Or is it? I thought that was its mouth.

Soon, it turned brown and black.

It turned black and then went underground. I saw it wriggling around on the ground trying to move the soil. I put it back in the planter.

I disturbed this slug when I added flowers to the pot near our entrance. I think it's going to be a Japanese rhinoceros beetle. Sorry, this photo is blurry because there wasn't much light. I was gardening in the early evening. I put this back under the soil, too.

New Light Bulb

There was only one kind of light bulb available at our local grocery store today. This kind. It's more efficient than the old ones. It was more expensive, but it should last longer. The old light bulb is near the bottom of the photo. The new one is more opaque. You can't see through it.

Unless you hold it up against the light. This bulb is much heavier than the old ones.

The old light bulb is on the right. You can see the filament at its base.

Our View

Four houses will stand where the community gardens were. See the new fences? And the portable potty? Our view of Mt. Fuji from the roof garden may be gone. It depends how tall the houses are.

Setting Up

Yesterday, a workman set up a tent and then tables and chairs on the spot where the new house will be built beside the vegetable stand. Today, a Shinto priest performed the ceremony for blessing the ground. The family sat in chairs and watched. Then they went up one by one to put a leaf branch on a table of offerings. We did the same thing 11 years ago when our new house was built. The same is done for companies and commercial buildings, too.

P.S. Though it was out in the open, it was a private ceremony so I didn't take photos.

Thanksgiving in a Box

First, sorry this photo is so blurry!

I ordered the turkey late this year so we had our Thanksgiving dinner today. We had to wait for the turkey to thaw!

I order everything from the Foreign Buyers' Club. I have seen turkeys in some grocery stores here in the past, but I didn't see any this year. Next year I'll order earlier.

Filming the Field

I've been following the vegetable stand man around and taking photos. Today, there was a film crew filming the field for a commercial about the area. At one end of the field, they filmed. At the other end, I was taking photos of the vegetable stand man storing his sato imo for the winter. I'll post a photo later.

Autumn Field Work

Those guys missed all the action. That's our vegetable stand man working in the fields. He's moving sato imo to store them for the winter. Those are sakura, cherry blossom trees on the right.

Back to Work

It was the day after Labor Thanksgiving, the day to be thankful to workers. Today was busy day for workers. This worker dug a hole next to the vegetable stand, put a pole in it, piled dirt around it and stood back to see if it was standing straight. It will be the power source for workers when they are building the new house.

Then he wired the pole. Note: I took these photos from our kitchen window.

Down the street, this worker is unloading boards and stacking them in a storage shed.

This worker is delivering lunch boxes to an office. I took these last two photos from the roof garden.

Busy Even Today

Even though it was labor Thanksgiving in Japan today, our vegetable stand man and his wife were busy. He cut the stems of yatsugashira. He biked them over to the stand where his wife stripped the outer skin off them. She put them on top of the stand to dry. Click here to see how they used to dry it.

This is yatsugashira in the field. It looks like sato imo (taro) but it has red stalks. Click here for a post about the root of the yatsugashira.

Kids Web Japan--Labor Thanksgiving

Vegetable Stand Loses a Wall

Workers tore down the house, the garden wall and the trees next to the vegetable stand. The vegetable stand lost its side wall.

Doors from the old house were salvaged. The vegetable stand man nailed them on the side of the stand.

Now the stand has a wooden wall. Click here to see its old wall.

Tearing Down the House part 2

Usually workmen hang a heavy curtain around the property line before they tear down a house. That keeps the dust from spreading. These workmen put the poles but didn't put a curtain. We can see the laundry hanging from the line on the balcony of a neighboring apartment.

Also, note how thin the walls of this house were. That is an outside wall of the house. There was a piece of wood on the outside of that slatted piece. Then plywood with wall paper on the inside of the house.

The machine that broke the house also loaded the pieces onto the back of a truck. In this photo, pieces of the tin roof are being loaded. See the man standing in the bed of the truck? Click to enlarge the picture and you can see the vegetable stand man standing by. Dangerous!

The pieces of tin were crushed with the crane and then wood from the house was stacked on top.

They tore down the fence and the trees, too.