In The Forest Of The Takenoko

On the Saturday after Golden Week, I got to go on a trip to harvest takenoko, bamboo root.  In the spring, when bamboo shoots come up, Japanese people across the country go to uproot them.  If they don't, bamboo grows so quickly (1 cm/day) and so thickly that it can collapse hillsides.

While we were picking, a man talked to me about how central bamboo is to Japanese culture.  They eat it, make their houses out of it, make irrigation pipes out of it, decorations...I wish I had an analogous attachment to a natural product like that.

The leader of the expedition shows us how to pick right-size roots and hack them out from the ground.

I get my first takenoko!

After getting home, I followed the instructions some women gave me earlier in the day and cut up two takenoko pieces.  I boiled the softer tops with soy sauce and cut up the bottom to make with rice.  The end product was crunchy and delicious.  I topped it with basil and had dinner.

Two roots' worth of edible stuff.  There's a lot of it that you have to throw away, but I'm sure you can use that for clothing to to cure cancer or something.

The tops are finished.  They're my favorite part.