Yesterday I took a walk with my 6 year old nephew around my hometown Hijiori Onsen. This is my favorite time of a year to take a walk in the mountains! Because A. The scenery of fresh green leaves and white snow is incredible! B. There are plenty of eatable wild vegetables C. There is no bear threat :-)
There is no bear threat now since there is plenty of food to eat in the mountains for the sleepy eyed bears. But instead, we met 2 long snakes drying their bodies in the warm sun :-)
I don't hate snakes but they always give me a jump. In Yamagata, there are some poisonous snakes but they live deeper in the mountains. This is one of the wild plants called "Warabi". It cannot be eaten as it is. It's got to be soaked in water with soda and ash for one night to take away bitterness.
We have so many variety of dishes made of this "Warabi". It's enough to boil it and wash it with cold water and eat it with soy sauce. It's also great as Tempura. My grand-pa's favorite is to smash it (it gets really sticky like Natto) and mix with miso and eat it with hot rice :-)
When I was a child, we had "Warabi Picking Competition"(!) every year around this time. All the kids go into the mountains super early in the morning and collect Warabi. The one who picked most Warabi get a prize. It was a huge honor :-) I was so bad at it so I hated the event :-( My mother felt sorry for me so she would buy some Warabi from the morning market and add some for my portion, so that I wouldn't get embarrassed at school (lol)
After the event, we would walk around the town to sell Warabi to the locals and guests stayin in Ryokan :-)
We also found lots of baby bamboos. Yum!
This is my nephew trying to crawl into the natural snow tunnel. Unfortunately, his endeavor was interrupted by his aunt's yell "Dame!" :-)
This is my beautiful hometown, Hijiori, in Yamagata prefecture~~~~
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