Today I got to harvest persimmons. It was a beautiful day. At noon all I could think was "I haven't seen a cloud since Monday!" Clear blue skies, bright sunshine, dark shadows, green leaves and grasses... everything was so stunning!
However, today was also hot. Though the wind was crazy strong, in my work suit I got too hot so I ended up just wearing normal clothes. Harvesting persimmons didn't really make my clothes dirty so it worked out. Muto-san told me to come up to the persimmon tree, it was on the top terrace above the vegetables and sat right on the corner where a dirt path forked. There was just one tree but it was full of fruit. He showed me how to use the long pruning tool (we have it America too, a long adjustable pole with a snipper at the end). The only difference between this pruning tool and the one I've seen in the US is that one side of the blade had two tabs that would clamp down on the branch after it had been cut, therefore you could lower the branch that had the fruit on it carefully, rather than having it fall and bruise on the ground. At first it seemed pretty fun and I was having fun snipping at the branches, so much fruit! I find it very satisfying collecting food. (Oh, so THIS is where it comes from, THIS is how it is done!). But as I started to thin out the lower branches I had to really reach for the tip top of the tree and soon my arms grew sore. The wind blew the branches and leaves all around so it was hard to see where I should cut. But soon I had filled two crates. I could only not get maybe 10 at the very top. After lunch, though, Muto-san said he would fly to the top of the tree and get them, so no worries.
We took the little green truck and road it (slowly slowly) towards the tree on the hill. At one point he got out and said, "switch drivers!". I said no no but eventually I got into the drivers seat and he sat on the passenger "crate". We were going up (slowly slowly) but I got stuck on a big boulder thing in the road (the little road is very bumpy and uneven). So he had me back up, but then he told me to brake and I tried but I was so stupid because I forgot in a manual car you have to push in the clutch too (but we didn't know that that's what had happened at the time...). Luckily we were going slow enough that I could quickly get out and he could stop the truck.
When we had collected the kaki (he stood on the truck and could reach the top), he told me to drive back but to push in the clutch when I wanted to brake...haha...oh boy though...me and automobiles don't mix.
Then I cut the extra branches and leaves off the kaki I'd collected, only leaving a tiny little "T" of the branch and stem left on the fruit, like how you see they cut Japanese melons in anime. And after that...I weeded a little. Then chickens. Then we made curry for dinner. I asked if it was hot and he said not really, but when I looked at the box I saw it was level 5 hot! The hottest! I only used a little curry sauce and ate a bunch of rice to balance it out. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain.
No more blue skies.
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