Children's Day Koinobori

Today is Children's Day, and for the past week or so the koinobori, carp streamers, have been flying around Japan.

Our local Chamber of Commerce puts up 2 strings of them across the Gonokawa river.

This is the spot where the Suijin Matsuri will take place on May 5th.

Though it is called Childrens Day, really its Boys Day as the girls celebrate Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival.

The carp symbolize endurance and strength as they swim upstream.

A one hour walk in the morning

Yoko dropped me off about one kilometer upstream at my favorite overlook.

I hung around for about 20 minutes hoping for the sun to break through but I was getting cold so started to head back home.

Yoko gets to drive up the river every morning and often remarks when she gets home how beautiful it was with the mist and sun and snow.

I stopped in at the Zen temple. There is a nice garden behind it and I hoped to get some shots of it in the snow, but the priest wasn't home, so no luck.

Headed down to the riverbank to take photos of the plum blossoms and scared off a heron

And a flock of ducks. I think these might be a species of Eider. I suspect they will be heading north soon.

We have a lovely new set of tetrapods.......

and back to the village about an hour after I left....

Along the tracks

On Sunday I went down to Gotsu for the annual Kagura Festival, but after a few hours indoors I couldnt stand it any longer... outside was another beautiful clear day and as we have had so few this month and as the good weather was not likely to last, I headed off for another walk.

I got off the train in Kawahira and headed up the tracks.

This section of the river has no road on this bank, and as it was 90 minutes or so till the next train I reckoned I could get along the tracks before it came.

There are a few abandoned farms along this side of the river....

Closer to Kawado I passed by a place that has fascinated me since I moved here, a hidden valley. The entrance is very narrow and choked with bamboo and undergrowth and there appears to be no trail in, but one of these winters when the undergrowth has died back Im going to try and find a way in...

Though its the longest river in West Japan, the Gonokawa is not well known but I have yet to see a river in Japan that is more beautiful.

I arrive safely into Kawado without encountering the train.

Kawado, the bustling commercial hub of Sakurae Town.......

The Bridge over the River Go

I've already posted on our very own candy colored bridge that crosses the Gonokawa. Between it and the sea 20k downstream there are 4 more bridges over the river. This first one is about halfway down the river and crosses over to Kawahira.

The next 3 all cross the river at Gotsu. The first is the most recent, a doubledecker built 17 years ago. The upper level carries the Gotsu bypass, and the lower level is for local traffic between Watazu and Gotsu Honmachi. It is used on the local manhole cover design.

The next one is the bridge that carries the single railway track of the Sanin JR line. It was built in 1920.

The last bridge before the sea is the one that carries Route 9 through Gotsu.



From there its just a few hundred meters to the mouth of the river and the open sea beyond. The east bank is very sandy.

The west bank has the huge factory and of course tetrapods.

Flood update.

3pm and the river has come up over the bank and is inching its way towards my millet, chingensai, carrots, tomatoes, corn (what was looking to be my best ever harvest), butternut squash, sweet potatoes, black beans, taro, and peppers....

5pm and the river has claimed my garden.

7pm and I am now an aquaculturist as my garden is covered with a meter of water that is flowing faster and faster. Bits of garden sheds from gardens upriver speed by on their way to the sea.

The village paddies behind the levee are getting deeper and deeper, though I am assured that the rice will survive and be fine. It continues to rain a little, but the rain here is not the problem. Hiroshima is getting heavier rains and half the watershed of the river is in Hiroshima, so it depends on releases from the dam upstream whether the river rises anymore. Tomorrow I will find out what, if anything, in my river garden has survived. My village garden is above the flooding so really its only half my garden that has been damaged, and once the river recedes it will leave behind a layer of rich silt for next years planting :)

Flood!

Flood

It's been raining heavily for a couple of days, and yesterday I noticed the river was high, so last night as it continued to pour down all night I worried about my riverside garden flooding, like it did 4 years ago.

As soon as I got up I checked the small stream that runs through the hamlet. Normally this is virtually dry, but when it rains it runs quite heavily. This morning it didn't look bad. I've seen it a meter and a half deeper.

Down in the paddies, the lowest of them were flooded. Underneath the water is my neighbors rice.

Down at the riverside my garden is safe. The river was up to the edge of the bank, so my corn, millet, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and black beans were about a meter above the water.

100 meters downstream my neighbors were not so lucky... the gardens were under a meter of water. The community PA announces that the dam 30k upstream is going to release more water, followed by the siren. They expect the river to rise at least one more meter with the extra water. That should just about wash my garden away. The local rail line has closed due to a landslide upstream, and the police told me they are going to close Route 261 upstream aways .

The village is protected from the river flooding by the levee that route 261 travels over. To stop the river backing up through the stream, huge steel floodgates are closed. But, you may ask, what happens to the water coming down the mountains and through the village?

It backs up of course, which is why the paddies are starting to flood and people with low-lying gardens now have ponds.

Kawado Suijin Matsuri. part 2

The procession reaches the riverbank where two boats are waiting to ferry the mikoshi upstream.

One boat carries the young men with the bamboo and banners to replace last years. The giant Onusa is taken by road. By now the young men are inebriated. Drunkeness and matsuri go together and always have. The earliest records of japan from China in the 3rd century make mention of the Japanese love of alcohol.

The second boat carries the mikoshi, priests, musicians, kasaboko, and a couple of other village representatives.

Both boats head upstream a few hundred meters to the spot where suijin is venerated

A rocky outcropping at the base of a cliff. On the cliff above the Onusa is replaced. This one extends horizontally out from the cliff top so the Onusa is above the water below. You can just make it out in the top right of the photo. Here is also where the string of koinoburi are strung across the river in honor of Boys Day.

The young men pass up the bamboo and banners to the group above. Last years bamboo and banners are lowered down and disposed of in the river.

The priests read norito and make further offerings to Suijin.

The boats then return to the riverbank and the procession proceeds to a second spot on the Yato River. It used to go by boat,, but since the damming of the river it is too shallow and no longer navigable, so it goes by truck.

It seems to be a tradition that some of the young men end up in the river.

The seven bridges of Daiwa.

Daiwa Town is a collection of villages along the middle reaches of the Gonokawa River. With the recent spate of consolidations it is now considered part of Misato-cho.

It's a pretty area, and other than a couple of onsens there are no tourist attractions. We go up there sometimes to visit a potter friend whose work can be seen here.

Seven bridges cross the Gonokawa within the town boundary, and these bridges form the design for the towns manhole covers.

Here are some photos of just a couple of them.

Winter in the village

It's early days yet, but the stinkbugs prediction of heavy snow this winter has not materialized yet. We are getting a lot of snow, but its melting pretty soon after falling. Hotei, sitting outside our front door doesn't seem to mind the snow.

My neighbours tea doesn't seem to mind the snow either.

The village rice paddies with my garden in the foreground. Won't be working in the garden today. I don't mind.

My favorite viewpoint over the Gonokawa, about 1k upstream from my house.