TsukuBlog
Wisteria Hysteria- a PURPLE HAZE Over Tsukuba (and most of the rest of Japan)
15 April, 2021
Wisteria at Matsushiro Park
Under a wistaria trellis, thick with the smell of its nectar and a buzz with the droning of bees
By Avi Landau
From my old house in Konda, Tsukuba, I had a clear view of the Woods. I spend some time each day gazing out over these last remaining wilds of Tsukuba, trying to savor their beauty as often as I could before the bulldozers showed up and cleared them all away. From my window I used to able to observe how , what were at first small patches of light violet, would almost completely take over the thickly foliated forest canopy, which seemed to be enshrouded in a purple haze. This morning, having some time to spare, I took a 3 hour hike in the some of the last remaining Konda woods, those on the site of the ruins of the old Konda Castle ,and most of the time, whether I looked up towards the sky or down on the gro
By Avi Landau
Let me tell you about a fascinating local custom. It involves FUTAMATA-DAIKON(二股大根),which is the Japanese term for a double-pronged daikon radish. These two-legged curiosities turn up at a surprisingly high rate when farmers harvest their daikon crop in late autumn. The aberrant shapes are caused by small rocks, hard clumps of soil or fertilizer, insects, or uneven distribution of irrigation water.
Futamata daikon at a roadside shrine in Konda, Tsukuba
The futamata daikon cannot be found on sale in stores or stalls , and in fact, though perfectly edible, they are traditionally NOT eaten. When I asked several local farmers why this was so, they all came out with the same response, in tones implying that I shouldnt have had to ask