Wild Plants Tempura at Osugi Park...

Yet another trip organized for foreign students here...
Hah...it's so nice being a foreigner here in Japan.

Anyway, this time, it's a trip to a farm, planting sweet potatoes, then it's a hike up a hill to have sansai (wild plants) tempura for lunch.

The schedule for the day was this:

1. Gather and depart by bus to some place
   
2. Reach a small farm, help turn the soil, fertilize it and plant sweet potato shoots
3. Hike for about 30 minutes up a hill
   
4. Have Tempura for lunch at Osugi Park
   

Okay, seeing this kind of schedule, what would you choose to wear?

Shorts? A jacket that you won't mind soiling? A comfortable pair of sneakers for hiking?

YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!!!


You should wear a beautiful sari, put on make up, wear cute sandals and paint your little toes!!!
Hahahahah....

You can always count on Indian people to dress up like this to no matter where. They love their clothes very very much...such show of patriotism!

Ever seen a woman in sari and cute sandals planting sweet potatoes?
I have!

Hahaha.....

Okay, now on to the main story.

I originally forgotten about this trip...then a girl contacted me the night before, asking me if I could take her place instead as she had some other stuff to do. Just like Jim Carrey in Yes Man, I said "Yes."
I mean, why not? I have eaten sansai tempura only once before and I enjoyed it a lot.

So, gathering was early in the morning. It was then when I got my first haha in the morning. Me and Farhan saw the lady in the sari and we thought that she was there probably just to wave goodbye to her friends.
Then we saw her get on the bus....needless to say, we instantly hahaha-ed at her.

I don't mean to be rude towards Indians here, but damn....a sari to a farm? I can forgive an eyeliner...but a sari? AND one of them was late....haih.

Anyway, reached the farm not long after that and was at once put into labor...









Honestly, I was expecting a good laugh watching Sari pouring stinking fertilizer on the soil. But I was disappointed to find that she's the designated camera person.

Anyway, we did stuff you see in the photos above. We were invited to come back here again to harvest and consume those sweet potatoes we planted. But too bad, by that time, I would be away doing industrial training.

There were about 20 people working on that small piece of land, so work ended as soon as it started.

Next was the 30 minute long walk up the hill to the park for lunch...










The walk was scenic and very refreshing. Seriously, can't remember the last time I took in so much green into my eyes.

Just in case you're wondering, they gave us the option of riding the bus there as we had old folks amongst ourselves. So, folks with white hair, sagging skin, and sari rode the bus there.





Waiting for us on the table was various kinds of wild plants ready to be drowned in flour and oil.

On the way there, I told Farhan's lab mates; Toyoshima, Oshio and Sakurai, that I had eaten these before, and while I remember the taste, I can't remember their names....so we ended up calling them "Randy no.1", "Randy no.2", "Randy no.3", "Randy no.4".
During lunch, they found out that, while Randy had a unique taste, Randy is sometimes hairy and bitter...but they all liked Randy anyway. Haha...

Oh, I have to mention here that the lady(polka dot top) who joined us at the table was one of the organizers. She is very very Japanese ladylike. And by that I mean the way she was seated with her legs neatly folded beneath her, the way she addresses everyone, the way she carefully dips the wild plants into the flour and then the oil, the way she politely asks if there's anything that we like, the way she partly covers her mouth when she talks....like I said, very very Japanese.
She even went as far as frying only the things that she recognizes, like pumpkin, asparagus and bamboo sprout....Japanese is always cautious of things they don't recognize.

Takes a challenger like Randy to deep fry things like Randy no.1, Randy no. 2, ......don't remember doing anything I already know when it was my turn at the fire. Haha...

Anyway, lunch was great. I even manage to get my hands on some sake. Always nice getting to eat these kinds of things once in a while...a rare break from the usual chicken and fish.

The day ended with the organizers waving hands at foreign students.

The Japanese ladylike bowed...



PS: What I meant by Indians was India's Indians....not Malaysian Indians. Forgive me very much but I have heard a lot of funny stories from my brother who is working for MAS. He hates flights to India, but always comes back with the funnies stories ever on their antics.
Oh, I later found out that they weren't from India after all. They are from Bangladesh. I should have studied Geography more seriously in Form 3.