Out in the Orchard

Today I went orange picking with my friend Mikaho from Ube. It was a bit like choosing a Halloween pumpkin in Canada; all these city people drive out to the country to "get back to nature" by picking their own fruit.

This kind of orange, called madarin or Japanese orange in Canada, is called mikan (mee-kan) in Japan.



These pictures were all taken on my new digital camera which was super cheap, but seems to be working well, and is much smaller than my borrowed one I brought from Canada, which is big and heavy.

The many orange trees and a view of the sea and mountains...and the very overcast sky.






The gorgeous bento prepared by Mikaho's mum for our picnic lunch:



A new sport?
Maybe the Yamaguchi-ken take on luge in the absence of snow? The orchard people were renting out these plastic toboggans for 100 yen to slide down the very dry grassy hill...
Of course we had to try!
Maybe needless to say, it was not as much fun as tobogganing on snow...