Start a trench

I was going to manually remove the rhizomes that I had loosened up with the backhoe, but after trying to lift just one root by hand and feeling how heavy it was I changed my plans. Better let the roots just rot away...
Instead I am now focusing on digging a trench along the north side to stop additional rhizomes to crawl into my plot, while I deal with the ones that are already in there.

just started and got this far. Mr. K In the background 

I had to give up after just 1 hour the first day, because Mr. K came and started burning wood, which should be fine but then he threw in garbage he had brought with him from home, which included big plastic pots and planters, and within seconds the toxic fumes spread all over the woods.
He does that every time. I guess that is his way of interacting with nature. There is this beautiful and clean piece of land which he has inherited form his parents, and he seems unaware of the amazing opportunities and ways he can use it for. Also he is not willing to sell it to someone who knows. He just planted a couple saplings there I guess to be compliant with the laws and cuts the grass a couple of times a year. Other than that he just uses the land to burn his garbage. Which actually is illegal I found, with pretty heavy fines, but who's gonna report him. Maybe he is trying to save a few yen by not throwing away those hard plastic pots and planters on designated garbage days. Seems cheap...
Anyway, I was digging and panting away just 30 meters away from his fire, and had to stop when I started to smell plastic smoke. Not exactly healthy to breath in those while working your body. He noticed me starting to leave, and hurried to me to ask if I could watch his fire while he went and brought more garbage, to which I just said no, cause I was leaving. I assume he has no idea what he does cause he has no mask or anything and spends quite long time next to the fire when he is burning plastic, and inhales all that black smoke himself too.
Digging the top part of the trench and defining its path was the toughest because most tough bamboos and roots are not so deep. I had to cut through those and remove them to make the shallow trench.
After that, making the trench deeper was just a matter of shoveling dirt, with not much cutting roots.
I continued another day and got through 1/3 of the north side. Standing in the trench, the ground level is just between my knees and my hip, so it should be deep enough. Will go back and finish the remaining 2/3 soon. And after that I intend to continue the trench along east side, just between my plot and Mr. K's.

One third done