Chapter 8: CHAPER EIGHT

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CHAPTER EIGHT

“David-san? Ohayo! Breakfast is ready!” the Okusan called through the paper shoji wall panel to my room.

When I came out to the irori I found Kenji sitting next to Akiko spinning an egg on his low dining table and quickly grab it as it wobbled crazily toward the edge. “Ohayo, Dave.”

“Ohayo, Kenji. Why did you spin your egg like that?”

“To find out if it's raw. If it's boiled it'll spin in one place. But if it's raw like this one it'll roll all over the place.”

“Now that I'll have to remember,” I said thinking of when I blithely cracked open my breakfast egg at the minshuku in Shirotori and discovered to my shock it was NOT boiled and had to scramble like hell to get all the white, yoke and broken egg shell back into the bowl it had come in – well, most of it anyhow. I watched Kenji crack open his egg, drop the yoke and white into a similar bowl, stir it vigorously with his chopsticks and pour it all over his rice as Keiko did the same.

So that's what the raw egg was for!

I imitated them as best I could and covered my rice with raw egg, too. I'd gotten used to dipping my sukiyaki in raw egg and liked the way it seemed to sweeten and soften the meat. But when I tried eating my rice like that I found the raw egg definitely did not add any flavor I liked. I reminded myself to ask for my egg to be boiled for tomorrow's breakfast if I stayed here overnight again.

We ate in silence for a time, the others shoveling their rice into their mouths with their chopsticks like they were starving. I drank my miso soup in place of coffee and ate the broiled fish and tsukemono pickles. Just like in Shirotori it was filling. But I still missed the “morning service” breakfast of a boiled egg, slice of toast and small salad that was included in the price of cup of strong coffee that I always ate at my favorite coffee house near my apartment.

“Are any of you going to be staying for another night?” the Okusan asked. “The weather’s isn’t very good right now. It's raining.”

Kenji shook his head. “We've got reservations at a hotel in Takayama tonight. We'll be leaving as soon as we've seen the Gassho-Zukuri Village. Sure wish that hotel was going to be as cheap as here, though.”

“What about you, David-san?”

“It's raining? Yech! I got hit with more than enough rain just on my way out here to last me the rest of my life. So I guess I will stay another night if that's OK with you.”

The Okusan beamed. “Of course! There's a family coming to stay tonight but your room is still free. When are you going to the Gassho-Zukuri Village?”

“Is it open yet?” Kenji asked. “We need to go early as early as we can so we can make it to Takayama in time to see the Old Town before it gets dark.”

The Okusan checked her watch. “It should be open already. And if you go now you’ll miss the tour groups. They usually don't start arriving until eleven or so.”

“Dave, why don’t you come together with me and Keiko?”

The Okusan called after us, “Be sure to take some umbrellas with you on your way out. We have plenty in the genkan entranceway and you’ll need them.”

“Please notice that this house like all the houses in the village built in gassho-style was built without using a single nail,” explained the young female guide at the first house we entered and at five stories the tallest house in the village. “They notched the logs for beams and rafters at the ends so that they would fit snuggly into each other at right angles and the roof beams were tied together with straw rope. Also notice the only pillars are on the low outside walls.”

All three of us stared up in wonder at the beams and rafters that neatly rose in ever smaller rectangles with each of the upper four floors almost as if they were hovering in thin air, the heavy thatch roof coming to its point way above us its beams tied together with thick rope intricately wound around them. Still bewildered by why without any pillars they didn’t all come crashing down on us I asked, “Why is the central area of the house open all the way to the roof?”

The guide smiled. “That’s just what I’m going to show you.” She stepped over to the stairway-cum-ladder and beckoned, “Please follow me up the stairs now, will you? Be careful though. They’re steep and get even steeper the higher we go.”

The ‘stairs’ became more ladder-like with each floor we climbed, the steep roof forming thatch walls crowding us ever closer. The ‘stairway’ up to the highest floor was just a narrow ladder.

“Why are the roofs so steep?” Keiko asked when we’d reached the top, the thatch walls now squeezing us tightly together.

“The main reason is to keep the heavy snowfall from accumulating on them and crushing the houses with its weight. They get meters of snow in the winter here. But if you'll step out on one the planks, I'll show you another reason.”

We were standing on a 'floor' of half-meter wide planks shoved together at the top of the ladder. Leading out from the 'floor' were planks at right angles to it with wide open spaces between them. She walked out on one of the planks as if she were strolling along a footpath in a park.

Hoping my voice didn't sound as queasy as I felt, “I'll go first,” and stepped out onto another plank.

tried to hold back but Kenji took her hand and led her out onto a third plank. Through the open spaces between them we could glimpse the irori and the fire smoldering in it way, way down below us, wisps of smoke from it reaching up to our nostrils

The guide pointed. “Now you can see why the houses were built with the central area purposely left open and without a chimney. That’s to let the warmth from the fire come all the way up through the entire house. Back then the younger generations of the family had to sleep on the second or even the third floor while the head of the three or four generation household and his wife slept next to the irori where it was the warmest. With no chimney the smoke was free to lay a layer of soot on the thatch of the roof that kept out the insects that would otherwise eat the straw. The warmth coming up from the fire also allowed them to cultivate silkworms for raw silk on these upper floors. With so little level open land in this mountain river valley to use for cropland they could only grow a little rice, grain and some vegetables for themselves. So they had to make other things to trade in Kanazawa for metal tools and other things they couldn’t make for themselves. That’s also why the houses are built with such a narrow base and built upwards instead outwards so as to have as much cropland as possible. They even grew crops in the narrow spaces between the houses and it still wasn’t really enough.”

“Did they make gunpowder, too?” Kenji asked. “The Dannasan at our minshuku said they did.”

The guide nodded. “Yes, they did. But you’ll find out all about that at another house.” Then she smiled. “I think you’re going to find that guide’s explanation for it rather amusing. Yamanaka-san’s quite a character.”

Submitted: February 03, 2019

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

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B Douglas Slack

Entertaining chapter, Ken. I was always curious as to how the older houses were heated/cooled.

I've completed my cataract surgery now on both eyes and have been pronounced 20/20 on them. I should wear a light pair of reading glasses for close-in work though or when I'm on my computer.

I trust you made it through the holidays intact?

Bill

Mon, February 4th, 2019 9:22pm