2004/06/18
Glimpses of Japan vol.9(外国人から見た日本)
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Glimpses of Japan （アメリカ人から見た日本）
vol.9 "hydrangeas"
2004.6.18
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One of the few things I like about the rainy season is hydrangeas. I once
lived near Kamakura, and often visited Meigetsu-in, also known as Ajisai-
dera. I also used to visit the nearby Tokei-ji. They both have many
beautiful hydrangea bushes, and Tokei-ji has quite beautiful irises, as
well. I've always found hydrangeas to be attractive, especially because
I had learned at a very young age that the flower colors for some varieties
can be changed. The white ones always stay white, and some of the pink
ones don't change, but many of the others can be changed by the quality
of the soil in which they are growing. In general, the flowers are pink
in alkaline soil and blue in acid soil. The intensity of the color depends
on other factors, but the soil pH governs the color of many of the common
kinds of hydrangea. As a child, this seemed very mysterious and interesting
to me. Later in life, I had another reason to like the plants.
Long ago, I had a part-time job as a tour guide. In winter, I would guide
people on bus tours of places like Kamakura and Kyoto, or on shopping
tours to various places in Tokyo. In spring, summer, and autumn, though,
my specialty was mountain tours. We would take the tour bus to some
convenient starting place, and then go on hiking trips in the mountains.
Sometimes they would be day trips, and sometimes we'd stay overnight,
staying at a mountain lodge or occasionally camping out in tents.
As part of the tour office staff, and one of the hiking tour specialists,
I would sometimes be asked to go along with a couple of other guides to
do advanced "scouting trips", when we planned a new tour. We needed to
actually do the hike in advance ourselves, to check the route times,
sleeping facilities, trail conditions, etc., before offering the tour
to the customers. On one of these trips, somewhere in Chichibu in the
rainy season, we were on a narrow, slippery trail just above a deep river
gorge. Both sides of the trail were lined with dense rows of wild hydrangeas.
This turned out to be a very good thing for me, because I slipped on the
trail and off the edge of the cliff. I was caught and held by the thick
tangled hydrangea bushes: they stopped me from a fall of more than thirty
meters to the rocks below, so those hydrangeas may have saved my life.
I have appreciated hydrangeas even more since that day.
I also have a story about Tokei-ji, but it's not about hydrangeas, so
I'll save that for another column.
-- Mike Lloret
Glimpses of Japan vol.9
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