２０１０年４月３日放送分の

テレビ東京 (TX) の「土曜スペシャル」

今回探検したのは、神奈川県の相模川です。

都心からこんなに近いところに、こんなにいい景色が見えるという事、オラ初めて知った。

まるで、山形に里帰りしたような気がした。

まんづ最初に訪ねたのは「かたくりの里」。

橋本駅の２番乗り場から臨時のバスに乗ってたった１５分で行ける。３月中旬から４月中旬の間、次から次へと春の花を満喫できるスポット。

かたくりをはじめ、めんずらしい花をいろいろ植えはじめてから、５０年も経っている。

とにかく、すんばらしい花のコレクションだ。

I did a travelog gig for Tokyo TV (TX) recently. That’s channel 12 for those of you who live in the Kanto Region. The program is called “Doyou Special” and it airs every Saturday evening from 7 PM.

On April 3rd, the broadcast will be about local “hiking courses in the Kanto Region”, in other words, near Tokyo.

I helped with one of the reports. We went to the Sagami River in Kanagawa Prefecture, just west of Tokyo.

We started off by taking a bus from Hashimoto Station to the “Katakuri no Sato” (lit. “The home of the Dogtooth Violet”). It’s a privately operated flower garden with dozens of different varieties of Spring blooming plants.

The big draw is, of course, the Dogtooth Violet, which is the first purple flower shown above. It blooms in profusion around this time of year and covers half of the whole mountain. Quite a sight.

The Dogtooth Violet faces downward when it blooms so they gave it sort of a nickname “Hatsukoi”, which means “First Love”. I guess the bloom looks like a shy teenager who can’t seem to find the courage to tell the object of his affection about his feelings.

Anyway, this garden is an explosion of color around the beginning of April.

The guy who runs the place gave me the tour. He ticked off the name for each flower and a bit about its history and when they first planted it in this garden, etc.

Real nice guy but I am afraid I don’t process information as quickly as I used to. I’ve already forgotten many of the names for these flowers.

Just enjoy the photos.

There were dozen of people with cameras taking photos of all the flowers. There is also a lady there who teaches people how to actually draw flowers and make their own personalized post cards. I tried my hand at drawing a Dogtooth Violet. The result was mediocre so I won’t post it here. But it was fun to try.

花の名前は全部覚えられなくても、写真をいっぱい撮ったから、どうぞゆっくり見てけらっしゃい。

「かたくりの里」のあとは、相模川ハイキング。

いい季節です。河原沿いにかなりワイルドに咲いている花が沢山。

３月２０日、撮影に行ったとき、一番目立てたのはこれ、ショカッサイ(諸喝采）という紫色の野草。

Later, hiking downstream along the Sagami River, we took some time to film this field of purple wildflowers called “Shokassai”. That’s the official name in the reference books anyway.

The locals apparently call it “Daikon no hana” (lit. “White radish flower”) which is a lot easier to remember.

Anyway, you can probably spot this flower all over Japan except the far north.

正式正名はショカッサイだけど、地元の方々はこれを「大根の花」と呼んでいるらしい。

ん、その方が覚えやすい。

相模川沿いに見るものが沢山。

花、キャンプ場、バーベーキュー場、アユ釣りのおとり売り場、水鳥、等々。

釣り堀までもあった。

Lots to see hiking along the river. Flowers, a campground, a little shop selling “decoy sweetfish” for the upcoming fishing season, lots of waterbirds, etc., etc.

旅番組ならではの不可欠のところは、やっぱし御馳走。今回最初のうんめ〜もんは、なんと「ダチョウ料理」老舗の旅館「旭屋」で６年前からダチョウ料理を出し始めたそうですが、あまりのヘルシーさにお客さんは大喜び。

でも、グルメ・レポーターの舌をごまかす事は出来ない。

食べてみたら、本当にヘルシーだけでなく、めちゃくちゃおいしかった。

普通の鶏肉と違って赤身なんだ。なにに例えれば悩んだが、鹿肉と鴨肉と間ぐらいな感じかな。

サイトは：asahiya-cc.com

The really “tough” part of being a travelog reporter is
eating absolutely fabulous food. We visited a traditional Japanese style inn called “Asahiya” which has been in business for close to 200 years. Their usual fare consists of locally caught river fish and locally gathered vegetables. But starting six years ago, they began serving ostrich meat dishes to their health conscious guests.

The ostriches are raised locally in Sagamihara City.

I had never tried ostrich before. I was suitably impressed. It’s sort of a cross between deer and duck meat.

通りすかったら、望地弁天の社を管理する方が、たまたまいらっしゃいまして、開けて下さった。年に２回ほど、掃除するためにしか開けないそうですが、これがラッキーだった。ちょっとめんずらしい弁財天さまです。手は８本、頭の上にまたもう一つの頭がある。

We stumbled across a little shrine along the river just as the caretaker was passing by. He allowed us to peek in to see a very unusual statue of Benten (also called Benzaiten). It has 8 arms and a smaller head on top of the main one. Sort of reminded me of the Juichi-men Kannon you see here and there around Japan.

最後に「瓢禄玉」（ひょうろくだま）という川魚料理の老舗の「ますのからあげ」と｢ます寿司」をいただきながら、相模川沿いにある土手のシバザクラを眺めた。オラの一番好きな花かも。

We finished up the program again enjoying food — deep fried trout and trout sushi, both of which were wonderful — while viewing another bank of flowers along the river. these are called “Shiba-zakura”, literally “lawn cherry blossoms”. Best time to see them this year is probably early April.

キーワード: Kanagawa, location, Sagami River, Sagamigawa, travel, TV program, TV Tokyo, TX, walking, オウーキング, テレビ東京, ロケ、旅, 番組, 相模川, 神奈川