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| The smaller branches are the ones taking most time |
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| Little by little... |
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| Walking in the flat area is risky though |
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| It's good exercise however |
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| The last one |
An idea hit me by the way... what if after making the floor, I bury it all in cow dung? Surely it would help decomposing and at the same time improve the soil quality... I checked with Mr. O and apparently there are cow farms nearby where I can ask for manure. But he also said I should be careful with cow manure because new weed seeds can come with it as a bonus... so now I am not so sure my brilliant idea was so great.
I will keep flattening and let the ideas hit me...
By the way last weekend we finally got everyone together again, to inspect the moving of the incorrect border post. Mr. K is very particular that everything must be done properly, and I oblige. I remember the first time I introduced myself and asked if we could just meet and agree between the two of us about a border line and mark it, he said he would come once I had arranged with a surveyor. So that's how the whole surveyor thing started, and it was actually good because now it is more official and on paper, though I had to pay for the surveyor. Another time when I was talking about how there is so much bamboo blocking the sun on the south side, he said that I have to talk to the owners of the neighboring lands to those, and then the owner of the actual lands where the bamboo was growing and then to the city office since there is a small road there as well, before trying to cut any bamboo. "Because that is the correct way to do it" he said. So he is that kind of guy. Typical Japanese and quite good that he is too because I can always check that I'm not doing anything out of bounds or reckless.
So of course when I brought to his attention that the post between my and his land was incorrect and showed him the measurements and the maps, he checked it, and agreed that it looks wrong, and then said to get the surveyor so we could fix it.
What surprised me though was that he asked to bring Mr. O who doesn't own any land near that post, and also owner of another far away plot, as well as the owners of the two plots on the other side of the road, again, totally unrelated. "Since they are key persons, and may know a bit of history" he said.
Of course, none of those guys remembered anything useful. And neither of them was interested in or had time for showing up when the surveyor would. I did run around and checked with them one by one though if they did have any ancient stories or background, and also if the proposed new post position did make sense to them. After I reported back to Mr. K, he said that should suffice, now that everyone seems to agree. So I set up a date for the surveyor and me and him to meet and set the new post. Somehow he managed to nag Mr. O and one other owner by himself though, so they did show up as well.
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| All this for 4 more meters |
I was about to go about my flattening too, when I noticed Mr. K pacing back and forth along the new "border" and tilting his head here and there to try and get things to make sense. Curious I asked him if he was OK, and what he was thinking.
Turns out that the new post looked farther to the east than he had "imagined". Damned be the correctness and how all measurements had shown the fact of it, and how everyone else he had insisted to approve also had agreed, it "didn't look right to him". I asked the reason, and he said that there used to be a barricade made of fallen bamboo that his old dad had made. Not to mark a border he agreed, but to hinder the bamboo from going into his plot. So while that old bamboo border in no way was a marker of the border, it was close to what might have actually been the border.
I asked him, mockingly of course, which completely missed him, if his dad had measured anything when making that bamboo fence. Oh, no, not at all he said. Back then people didn't measure, and there were no good measuring tools available like nowadays, he continued laughing. Then he started looking along the line where I had felled bamboo for old remains of that fence. He did find some logs which were decomposed, maybe 3-4 years old at most and said here, see? This is the original fence my dad made with bamboos. Hmm, I thought. So 3-4 years ago when these bamboo were put here, there were no measuring tools? It doesn't add up. That fence was not put there by his dad or anyone who had measured anything... and now he wanted it to supersede proper measuring and other owners' agreement and discussions and other marks. He was no longer the "proper" guy.
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| The old post is red, the new one is not there yet but is just where the picture ends |
I asked him, not hiding my mocking, but he probably just pretending not to get it. He said, well all the landmarks and everything else is not exact neither to be honest. So centuries old trees put there by the old farmers who owned the plots and seen as landmarks are not exact, which I agree. But somehow he maintained that some bamboos laid out in a line a couple years ago by someone was more exact and had to be taken into account more. He probably had laid those himself and was now claiming it to be ancient and made by his dad when he had been young at a time where measures did not exist.
I joked in a worried voice "Wow, and here I was thinking all the bamboo on my land would fall apart after 3-4 years. But bamboo is apparently tougher than I thought. If it is still in this good shape after decades and decades. What am I to do...?" He nodded and said yes, bamboo is tough stuff, you can ask Mr. O...
He was playing dumb, and he was older than me, and I was not in the mood to call his bullshit and remind him how we must be proper and respect facts as he had kept teaching me. If I did, he would be a sour neighbor for all future. I thought fuck it, let him have 1 meter. Neither he nor I can use that tiny strip of land for anything useful, so best to use that 1 meter wide triangle to sweeten his loss.
So I said, pretending to realizing his "facts": yeah I see your point now. While the bamboo fence was not the border, it was probably in-between the old post and the actual border, so if we consider the distance between the old post and the ancient bamboo fence, and take the same distance from the bamboo fence to the east, we are likely to hit the target for the new post.
I did a bit of measuring and said yes, it seems 4 meter to the east is too much. 3 meters is more right. What do you say we make it 3 meters instead of 4? Would you be satisfied too?
He lit up and said yeah, can we call the surveyor back?
I called the surveyor, apologized and handed Mr. K the phone, he explained and asked the surveyor to come back for a short re-surveying.
When he came, Mr. K started explaining his whole silly story, and I could see that it made no sense to the surveyor and he started to grow very bored and impatient. He looked at me: "My job is to make sure there is agreement and mark and document the post. Are you two already agreeing about something?" Yes I said. We want the post to be 3 meters away instead of 4. He was relieved that at least one of us could be short. All right, he said. So 3 meters instead of 4. Got it. I will mark it and let you know once it is done.
He left. I left too, to my plot, thinking how this time no others were needed and how quickly Mr. K had agreed to things. After an hour, Mr. O turned up in his plot to cut some trees. I went to him and told him about the re-surveying. He asked why, and I said Mr. K didn't "feel" right.
His face turned into a frown and it was clear to read "I am sorry, that is too silly." I said to him that extra meter didn't mean anything to me to be honest. I'd rather keep a happy neighbor. He agreed.
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