"I think about that often. You seem to have a fondness for using sake in an attempt to fail. I feel responsible for this, and it's hard on me. These days, I'm struggling to reconsider this. Even if I had not taught you, you're definitely the type of guy who, all by yourself, would have become a sake drinker. That's not my business."
"Ah, that's true. That's exactly right. You're not the least bit responsible. You're absolutely right."
Soon his wife came in and we chatted about our children. As the second wind quietly progressed, crowing cocks announced dawn to our surprise, and I withdrew to my bedroom.
When I woke the next day, I heard the voice of T from Aomori City. As promised, he came on the first bus of the morning. I leaped to my feet. With T here, I felt calm and reassured. T brought along a co-worker from the Aomori hospital who was fond of novels and a man named S, the business manager at the Kanita branch hospital of the Aomori hospital. While washing my face, I heard the young man M, who liked novels, was from Imabetsu near Minmaya and tagged along with a bashful smile. N told me about him when I was in Kanita. M seemed to be an old friend of N, T, and S. After a short discussion, we settled on going cherry-blossom viewing in the mountains near Kanita.
We set off to Kanranzan. I wore my customary purple jacket and green gaiters. My garish outfit was not needed. The mountain was a small one no more than one hundred meters high and beside the town of Kanita. However, the view from this mountain was not bad. On that fine day with almost no wind, we could see Natsudomari Cape across Aomori Bay and Shimokita Peninsula, which looked very close, separated from us by Tairadate Strait.
People in the south may imagine the seas in Tohoku as dark, threatening, raging waters. The seas near Kanita are tranquil with light-colored water, a low salt content, and the faint scent of a beach. Snow melts into the sea making it similar to a lake. For reasons of national defense, its depth and other aspects are best left unsaid. The waves gently lap the sandy beach. Over the four seasons, nets are erected close to the seaside, and crabs, shrimp, various fish like flounder, mackerel, sardines, cod, and monkfish are easily caught.
Today as in the past in this town, every morning, fish are piled into carts. Fish sellers walk around and sound mad as they shout, "Mackerel over shrimp! Greens over mackerel! Mackerel over sea perch! They walk around selling local fish caught that day not the unsold leftovers from the previous day, maybe those fish are sent elsewhere.
Therefore, the townspeople eat only fish caught live the same day. However, on days with no fish caught because of turbulent seas, not one fresh fish can be found in town. On those days, the townspeople eat dried food and wild plants. Not only Kanita, any fishing village in the Sotogahama belt, and not only Sotogahama, any fishing village on the west coast of Tsugaru is the same. Kanita is also blessed with amazing wild plants.
Kanita is a town on the coast but lies both on the plain and in the mountains. On the Tokai coast of the Tsugaru Peninsula, the mountains are near the coast. The plain is meager, and some rice and crop fields were reclaimed on the mountain slopes. Over the mountain, the people living on the expansive Tsugaru Plain on the western part of the Tsugaru Peninsula call the people of the Sotogahama region The Shadows because they live in the shadows of the mountains and are not inclined towards pity.
However, only the Kanita region has splendid fertile plains that are in no way inferior to the western region. If pitied by the people in the west, the people in Kanita are tickled. In the Kanita area, a gentle river called the Kanita River flows slowly and discharges rich waters. The rice and crop fields expand widely over the river basin. This area is battered by strong winds from the east and the west, and years of crop failures are not few. However, the land is not as infertile as the people in the west imagine.
When looking down from Kanranzan, Kanita River with abundant waters undulated like a long snake. We had a wonderful view of the rich, paddy fields planted first on both sides of the river and quietly waiting. The mountains are the Bonju mountain range, a branch of the Ou mountain range that goes directly north from the root of the Tsugaru Peninsula, runs to Cape Tappi at the tip of the peninsula, and drops to the sea.
Mount Okuratake consists of small mountains two hundred to three or four hundred meters high and towers in blue almost directly west of Kanranzan. It is one of the highest mountains in this mountain range along with Mount Masukawatake and may be seven hundred meters high. But don't judge a book by its cover. Because the people of Tsugaru are utilitarian, not afraid to be declared killjoys, they see no need to be ashamed of the low mountain range. This range is the leading habitat of hiba cypress in all Japan. The product of Tsugaru with a proud, long tradition is cypress, not apples.
Varieties of apples were received from Americans in the first year of Meiji (1868) and test planted. Later, in Meiji year 20, a French pruning method taught by a French missionary led to sudden success. From then on, the people in the region began to cultivate apples. The products known throughout the country as specialty products of Aomori after entering the Taisho era are not silly novelty products like Tokyo Kaminari Okoshi rice cakes or Kuwana grilled food, but compared to mandarin oranges from Kishu, have a very shallow history.
The people of Kanto and
