Hokkaido Marimo(毯藻) and spherical shape in fruits and seeds

Hokkaido is a place that I have to go in Japan, not necessarily for the fauna, but the Marimo ball. It grows on the base of river, 10m deep, where it's pretty cold and dark. The spherical shape of the ball ensures the lowest surface area to volume ratio. Thus photosynthesis does not work flourishingly like it does on a flat plant leave.

This creature can survive low temperatures, but it does not mean the lower the better. Optimal growth happens on 20 deg C. I want to get one from Hokkaido and cut it in half to see if it's truly like a earthworm that can still survive after that detrimental harm.

tamarillo tree (type of a tomato)

A spherical shape can also be seen in most of other fruits and seeds, like apples, peers, peaches. Fruits are the very nutritious storage room full of water, dissolved minerals and Vitamins. A sphere shape ensures minimum evaporation thus efficient in helping the plant body retain water.

As for some tropical fruits such as Starfruit(carambola), it has a very high surface area to volume ratio, exactly opposite to Marimo and other fruits. This fruit tree grows in rich, moisture soil with full sun. When the fruit is still green, the chlorophyll on the fruit body can take advantage of the high Area to Volume Ratio, to undergo photosynthesis and eventually turning the fruit body to matured yellow.

A rainy afternoon's Enoshima

Surfers enjoying the ocean.
Colorful "fan"sometimes features anime character.

The very traditional train track running from Enoshima（江之岛） to Kamakura(镰仓).
When the train comes, nearby signal stations always sends out jinglebells sound, really light and pleasing to hear, to signal walkers trains are coming. as for the actual sound of the train moving on the track, yeah sometimes it can get really loud. Here the ambulance and sometimes police car also `speak`with female voice, like when traffic light is red but they have to surpass, to tell other nearby cars to stop. Its really pleasing because in China those special priviledge car often make sharp alarming noise while squeezing through a lot of traffic and scare the heck out of people

Pretty flowers in the yard of local rescidents.

Waking up in Utsunomiya

Host mother Kimiko-san is already 73 years old, but looks just like 50. I didn’t understand how until I saw her house, also fortunate enough, to be able to sleep in it for one night.

Kimiko-san’s house is completely made of wood: walls, rooftop, and furniture. Everything has a warm texture that gives out golden glow. It is such a beautiful place! I later found out, Kimiko-san and her ottosan(husband) Moriyama-san were girl and boy scout leader. Under this mutual interest in kids and outdoor activities, they furnish their house with ropes and knots falling down from the roof for kids to climb up and down like Tazan from the Disney movie.

Later in the afternoon that day, four teenage girls showed up in front of Kimiko’s door. They asked if they could come in to play. Kimiko-san joyfully let them in and showed them the way, even though she had never known them before, only thing she knew was that they live nearby. I was so impressed by the trust and understanding they had given to each other. For Kimiko, she does not take it as a burden, that those kids might make a mess in her house. For those kids and their parents, they must know about Kimiko either themselves or heard from other people, and they trust her a great deal!

Japanese are really pioneers in human ergonomics. From the butt-warming toilet seat, feet-warming wooden floor, temperature-preserving Ofuro, to intelligent baking matrix, technology is integrated into every detail in life, making it enjoyable and pleasant.

The next day in the morning, Kimiko-san took me to the ichigo field nearby. The strawberry of Tochigi is big and red. Bite it, it’s very “amai”(sweet) and mitsu-mitsu-shi(watery). It was until later when I realized that almost all the strawberries sold both in Yokohama (where I live) and near Tokyo Tech Ookayama campus are from Tochigi. Then it becomes really interesting just to imagine those strawberries arriving at Tokyo after a relaxing three-hour-bus-ride from Tochigi, just like what I did!

It was really chilly after picking strawberry, so Kimiko invited me to an ofuro nearby. The hot spring is around 45-50 degrees, warmer than a lot of hot spring in China. Everyone took off her clothes in the changing room, facing each other without secret at all. It’s in the Ofuro that different shapes of body, types of personality and levels of literacy blurred the boundary. This reminds me of a Buddhist saying, “we were born into this world naked, and will leave this world naked too”. The possession we obtain, during the meantime, is just a process, not a result. Remember this, then there isn’t really too much to be burdened in life.

At the lunch with Sato-sensei after the ofuro, we did some tempura soba (freshman level) and tororo(yam) soba (intermediate level). Taste very different from the soba I made at home. I told Sato-sensei I had been worrying of being rejected by this YSEP program because when I was applying, there was Senkaku Island conflict that put a lot of tension on China-Japan relationship. Sato-sensei then spoke, “Na, we don’t really care about it. It’s not going to affect your application.” I don’t know why, but this short comment stirred up quite a bit of emotion in me. I want to say a lot of thanks to them.

Hard to explain, but warm inside.