Sunday, 29 October 2006

Last Sunday was our school apple picking day in Numata. All the families met at the apple orchard to pick apples, have a bbq lunch and then we all played games and had a few different competitions.

The apple picking itself went well, no one fell off a ladder or got sconed by falling branches and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. After everyone had picked their apples, we all ate lunch in a rice field (sorry, a field formerly known as a rice field because all the rice has been harvested now) and then played games.

Here I am with some of my kids. Back left to right is Yuna and Yuzuki and at the front left to right is Rizu, Kanata and Asato.

Here I am with Yuki and Hiroki (in the blue shirt).

One of the games was a centipede race which is two long planks with rubber attached – you slip one foot through the rubber on one plank and then your other foot through the corresponding rubber piece on the other plank and there are about about eight kids per team. This was the cause of much hilarity among the parents as most of the kids couldn’t all lift their feet in synchrony and so the whole team would keep falling over in a big heap.

Here's Sarah leading the (tiny) troops in the centipede race ably assisted by Kazuha and Ryoko.

We also had the deadly serious “Longest Apple Peel Competition” which is pretty self explanatory. I think the longest was around 2.4 metres which is one long apple peel.

After all the kids and their families had gone home, we got to go the orchard shop and try a bunch of different types of apples some of which were nearly as nice as my favourite “Pink Lady” apple. Apparently one of the biggest problems for an apple farmer at the moment is the bears. Yes, those hungry bears can almost clean out an orchard over night and will attack you if they come across you. Last year saw really good bear breeding conditions in the mountains and this year the conditions aren’t good enough to support the increased number of bears. So the bears are coming down from the mountains in search of food.

When Mark and I were in Tsumago, we were told to take a bell with us if we walked any of the post road because then the bear can hear you coming and get away before you run into each other. The bears usually only attack if they get surprised, frightened or think that their cubs is under threat. The apple farmer said that he also wears a little transistor radio on his belt if he is doing any work where he stands still for more than a few minutes so he doesn’t surprise a bear. The day that we were in Numata happily picking apples, four bears came to a sticky end in the vicinity. One of the girls asked what is the best thing to do if you come across a bear and apparently you have to stare at its face and hope that it is so cowed by your inner power, that it runs away without trying to get a taste of you.

Here's Ryoko practicing her bear stare on me.

After all the excitement, I felt like I could sleep for a week.