Hello everyone.
Here in Okuma, there are a lot of dragonflies. When we came to school this morning, the walls were full of dragonflies. If you walk, dragonflies will stop everywhere on your body. When I was convinced that this was a typical Okuma event, I was told "That's not true. It is very unusual this year."

After the holidays, the children are in an uproar, as expected, due to the abnormal occurence of dragonflies. I hope everyone is doing well. It was very nice. Well today, we had another "Nature Lab", following the one from last Friday. Today, we visited Mrs. Aki Sato's home. Mrs. Aki is a musician who lives in Okuma, and is a multi-talented person who is energetically active in agriculture, town development, and migration support. Now, what kind of reaction will be born from meeting Mrs. Aki?

Today's temperature in Okuma easily exceeded 30 degrees. As expected, the children are a little tired of the heat. Still, the greeting was pleasant from team Yumenomori.

"Thank you very much!"
"Welcome! This is my home."
Mrs. Aki welcomed us with a lovely smile.

"Let's go see the kiwi field first."
Mrs. Aki guided Team Yumenomori to the back of her house. The garden is large, and there is a forest behind her house. The view of many thick zelkova trees tower over the garden, it's like a masterpiece.

"This is the kiwi field."
Kiwi trees were growing on a ledge beyond the zelkova trees. 

"It's a bug!" "Frog!"
Everyone crawled under the kiwi trees making a fuss. But if you look up, you can see small kiwis swaying.
"Can I eat these already?"

After all, this question was bound to come up. I definitely want to eat freshly picked kiwi. Everyone's shining eyes are focused on the little kiwis in unison. Then Mrs. Aki said, "Unfortunately, we can't eat them right now. We will have to wait until Autumn to harvest them." "So, can we eat in Autumn?" they said curiously. "No, after harvesting them, you have to let them ripen." Mrs. Aki responded. After they learned they could not eat them, they become sad. "But when they get sweeter, let's eat them together!"

The childrens faces lit up at Mrs. Aki's offer. "Excuse me." The ninth grade students raised their hands straight up. "Um, we would like to make a parfait with Okuma's fruit for our social studies class. Could you help us?" Business negotiations begun with the 9th grade. "Yes, by all means. Please use them. I'm looking forward to it!" The 9th grade student who got an OK from Mrs. Aki, it's like she's like a smart corporate buyer. Cool!

After the kiwis, we visited a pond. There is a large pond in front of the garden, and amazing koi fish were swimming in it. In addition to the koi fish, you can see countless other fish swimming too.

"What is that?"
Thanks to the rock fish from the other day, the children have become interested in fish.
"Thats Oikawa. It's troubling because they keep coming from the waterway."
"Good. I want one."
"Yeah, next time you come, please bring a net. You can catch them." 
And so Mrs. Aki made another charming event. 

There is a small waterway next to the pond. A lot of snails live there. Next up is the observation of snails. Kawanina are small black snails about 1cm long that lives in clear streams. Why are they so interested in this tiny snail? Thats because snails are the only shellfish that firefly larvae feed on. In other words, where there are kawanina, there are fireflies. Our hometown where fireflies fly. How romantic! In the intense heat, while we were staring at the kawanina, we imagined fireflies fluttering by, hoping they will return.

"Let's go see the rice fields next!"
Mrs. Aki's cheerful voice woke me up daydreaming about fireflies.
If we go down the slope in front of the house, the rice fields are spread out. The wind blows through and shakes the tops of the rice plants, making it a little cooler. "This is Gohyakumangoku rice. Gohyakumangoku rice is different from the rice we normally eat. It is for making sake." Even though we told the children that the rice would make a delicious sake, the children didn't seem to understand. Feeling this, Mrs. Aki exclaimed, "It would make me happy if everyone could help with the autumn rice harvest." All the children said together "Let's try!!"

A common "experience classroom" in the world. Even if you say "experience", many people do it once and that's it. Of course, "experiencing" even once is valuable. However, not only "I did it" and "It was fun", but "meeting, experiencing, observing progress, and experiencing again" should be much more fruitful. 
We met Mrs. Aki today, and made many new discoveries. Also, we received a number of "promises to the future" from Mrs. Aki. From now on, I wonder what kind of Okuma story we can weave together with Mrs. Aki… A one-time "experience" is important, but we must meet in Okuma, connect with Okuma, and spin the story of Okuma. The future of Yumenomori has just begun.