Fifth Day

When I went to the site at 8 am, a large crane (like a clam shell) and a dump truck arrived.

Tree planting today. Large cranes could only be used today, so at least magnolia Kobus with large root pots had to be planted …
First, planting magnolia Kobus and Japanese maples, which were gifts from the mayor. I planted 6 plants by 10 o’clock. However, Yoshida was dissatisfied with the fact that he couldn’t increase his pace. One of reasons for his frustrations was that there was no machine that can be lowered with a wire like a crane. However, I thought overall work was a pretty good pace. Kaneko seemed to agree with the work progress.
Planted while digging from the outside garden area with a large crane and clam shell.
For inside garden, dig a planting hole with Luigi’s backhoe. Good luck, Luigi!

At noon, we ate curry rice dishes which were cooked by Mr. Uemura, one of our interpreters!
I heard the day was Mr. Uemura’s birthday.
It seems a custom that a birthday person treats people around them here.
I ate the second serving with Japanese food since I have not had a Japanese meal since I arrived here.

Planting continued through the afternoon.
During a tea break at 3 o’clock, the lady across the street served a cup of coffee.
I feel like a picnic with watermelons.
Then afterward, planting, planting, planting.

When the tree arrived yesterday, it felt very big, but when I put it in, it didn’t look so big.
The size of the root pot was so huge; thus, the tree would not die. Because of the size, I had a hard time especially when planting it near the waterfall group.
All machines were big overall, so I couldn’t make subtle movements. Moreover, since each root pot was large, the huge amount of soil had to be moved. I had to destroy the created small hills. We were a little frustrated because the soil had to be leveled many times.

Many of the plants were much larger than I expected, and I had to correct the position.
Since the pine did not fit near the top of the waterfall group, I decided to use one of the two boxwoods that I had set aside as a shield on the roadside. I also decided to put Sorbus Commixta, which I was originally planned to put in the sea.