Picking mountain vegetables by the ocean.

As some of you may know, there is a three-day holiday every year the first week in May in Japan. This year, the Mino family took advantage of the nice weather and went picking for mountain vegetables on the coast, near the village of Ryori. We were successful at finding some "warabi" which are long, green plants that are eaten here, cold after boiling them first. I believe they're called "bracken" in English. They are only good as young shoots, before they've "opened" up. Sort of like fiddleheads back in Canada. Incitentally, you can find and pick those here as well. As well, we picked some young tree shoots called "tarapo" which are very mild, and are usually eaten tempura-style. In the picture, Junko and her mother are bagging what we'd collected for the morning.