Yesterday, we finally started working in the field!

Cold and rainy days are still around, but gradually we’re preparing the soil for seed-planting season.

First, we start with the potatoes left from last year’s harvest.

With a thud, I sink the hand plow into the soil. Gently resting the potatoes in the newly loosened soil, I realized that the busy days - tending the rice patties, working the field, and checking the wild boar traps - are fast approaching.

Our next task: working dried leaves into the soil. After digging a long line where the seeds will be planted, the dried leaves - that have been composting since they were collected in the fall - get laid down, and covered back up with soil.

Little did I know digging in a straight line would be such a challenge! Of course the veggies aren’t the ones particular about the line… we are, because this too, is part of our training for dance. Becoming spatially aware and able to move conscious of the invisible line…has everything to do with dance.

To my relief, here you won’t find us doing 10 mile morning runs! (Many Taiko groups have intense workout menus like that) Instead, we train our bodies and movements through our daily work.

As we move our hands, our conversation lands on the topic of edible weeds. Soon we catch ourselves sounding more excited about eating the weeds than the veggies we’re preparing for! Hmm… Maybe we should forget the veggies and just graze on grass instead?

So after yesterday’s conversation, I HAD to pick some of these unassuming and underrated “veggies”!

Most kids in Japan know the Pen-Pen Gusa as a plant you play with - making a noise maker by pulling down the heart-shaped leaves and spinning the stem. But after a quick web search, I found that when called by its more mature name “Nazuna” , adults recognize it as one of the “Seven Herbs of Spring/ Haru no Nanakusa” - a blend used on the rice porridge eaten on January 7th, as the seasonal celebration “Nanakusa no Sekku”.

As for the Nobiru… They’re delicious and taste like chives. I remember collecting them with my mom in Yoyogi park, and eating them boiled with some shoyu or mayonnaise.

Anyway, there was another reason I decided to go back and work the field on my day off.

The reason was this - a sweet stewed “Hana Mame” bean!

I tried it for the first time when we visited my teacher’s hunting friends last week.

So delicious, and big, and new to my senses… it was an immediate hit in my stomach!

In the U.S. I cooked beans often; mostly with garlic, spices, peppers… in soups, in salads… in savory dishes. But since being back I realized that in Japan, beans are more commonly prepared sweet! A revolution for my taste buds!

I’m only familiar with the well-known beans like Daizu (soy), Kuro Mame (black soy), Azuki, and Ryokutou (Mung Bean), so I’m super excited to enter the world of Japanese beans! I wonder what new flavors and colors I’ll meet…!

So, even though planting won’t start until around May, I started to prepare the soil for the beans. Right underneath the beautiful Ume plum trees that’ve been giving off this lovely sweet-tart scent.

As I was working and playing with my teacher’s black cat who came to visit, I noticed something white and small flutter from the sky. At first I thought it was the flower petals from the Ume tree, but quickly I realized it was snow. The small snowflakes that gently floated in the sunny, crisp blue sky had a mesmerizing power that forced my hands to be still. For a moment, all my senses felt present and absorbed in the changing of the seasons.

Then I remembered a conversation I had with my teacher last week. He was explaining the meaning of the stomping movement in the “Okina” dance - it symbolized waking up the dormant earth, calling for harvest/goodness/bounty. I wondered if the work we did yesterday and today was that very thing; the calling of the earth to wake.

Ah, here comes the busy season! Better get ready!

Waking the Field