On the Bottom Half

Land of Trees, Land of Packaging, Land of Big Beetles

The field area was full of trees and narrow, well graded forestry roads. The roadbuilders went a bit nuts in Hokkaido and they have full on bridges and graded roads in places that you wouldn't think any vehicle would ever need to go. My little field vehicle was recently mocked for it's size and unassuming appearance. I assure you that that faithful little Toyota made up with intrepidness its lack in size, never failing a call to duty in the backwoods of south eastern Hokkaido.

I'll now give a geological run down of the field area in strict geologish: We spent the first three days with Hiro and Ruyo from Hokkaido University investigating heavy green-coloured rock and not so heavy grey coloured-rock. After that, Andy and I continued the hunt and found that: some of it was spotted with a black mineral called biotite, some of it wasn't. Some of it showed that it mixed with other rock, some of it didn't. Some of it had shiny, heavy gold- and silver-coloured ore minerals in it, most of it didn't. Most of it was in creek beds, little of it was on ridge tops. It was damnably hard to break, heavy to carry (you should see my back!), and slippery when wet. Foxes live in the forest and come down to inspect you when you are eating. Some of it is partially melting, most of it isn't. There are folds, faults, squished rock, heated rock, weathered rock, and fresh rock.

There, that's dispensed. I took about 300 or 400 pictures like this: This is mingled rock - a tonalite on the lower right is mingled with a gabbro - the grey stuff everywhere else. You see this a lot.

Hiro and Ryuo fed us sashimi and curry for the nights they were with us. Japanese all have skill with knives I think and Hiro demonstrates his for us in the picture. The first couple of days we spent in a Hokkaido University Seismic Observatory. Apparently there is about one feelable earthquake in this area each month. Unfortunately, I didn't feel one, but I'm sure there was at some point.

As for the packaging, fruit is precious in Japan. It is a treat not often enjoyed and for good reason. Two large peaches are 598 Yen, which is about 5 US dollars. But, with them you get this incredibly beautiful packaging. They were good, too.





In Japan, they have giant beetles and this one tried to eat our field vehicle one morning. We upgraded for the day to a Coca-Cola delivery Dodge Ram, as you can tell from the picture. But after the beetle finished with it, shards of scrap aluminum were all that were left and we had to go back to the trusty Toyota.

Last for this installment is the story of the Konbu Men and Women. Every sunny day, they go out when the Sun gets up, and scour the ocean for giant kelp, or konbu. Hundreds of Konbu people do this every day and they pull out bushels of the stuff. In this area of Hokkaido, there are everywhere gravel patches alongside the road and once the konbu is winched up from the beach to the road level, the women set about flinging it in straight rows upon the gravel to dry in the sun. Late in the afternoon, they bunch it up, cut it, and send it to market. Hokkaido konbu is Japan-reknowned for its quality and fetches a fairly nice price by the look of some of the houses of the Konbu men and women. You can use konbu as a soup base, like OXO; as a soup itself if you cut up dried strips of it and throw them in boiling water; wraps for fish; flavouring for noodles; tea for drinking. You name it. And, it's not that bad. Behind the gravel fields are mountains in the field area.

posted by Kyle @ 18:17