Diary: 'Picking Chestnuts'

The other day, I went chestnut picking with some elderly ladies from the neighborhood.

The ladies know every chestnut tree on their usual walking route—or rather, every tree in general—and they teach me so much: where this and that place is, what time of day is best to pick a lot of chestnuts, how it gets dangerous later in the day when the wild animals come looking for them, and how the leaves will turn beautiful colors here in a little while.

My grandmother is well-known throughout the neighborhood, so she never lacks for invitations of that sort.

"Ayato, why don't you come along too?"

For some reason, they seemed absolutely determined to take me with them.

***

Since it was a kind offer and I wanted to eat chestnuts too, I decided to join them.

The members of the 'Chestnut Gathering Squad,' starting with my grandmother, had the look of seasoned veterans about them.

I followed them around to several different chestnut-gathering spots.

Everywhere we went, I could see many burrs lying on the ground.

I found a burr that looked like it had a nut inside and tried to get it out, but I couldn't do it well.

The brown chestnut burrs have needles that are each so hard that even through my work gloves, they were too painful to touch.

***

I learned later that chestnut burrs are actually a type of leaf.

Come to think of it, I recall that many of the chestnuts still on the trees were green.

The ones that have fallen, hardened, and turned brown are much like fallen leaves, I suppose.

And as I would later learn, the part we eat is actually the seed.

It is classified not as a fruit, but as a nut.

Thinking of it that way, I feel a sense of gratitude for receiving a single life, which is quite a strange feeling.

***

Now, as for the grandmothers, the 'Chestnut Gathering Squad,' they laughed merrily at the sight of me in pain.

'Watch closely now.'

Saying this, one of the grandmothers stepped firmly on the burr, took out a seasoned sickle, and split it open with the blade to extract the nut.

I borrowed the sickle and tried to imitate her, and while I could feel the pain of the burrs piercing through the mesh of my running shoes, I managed to successfully extract the nut.

Under the strong sun for October, we searched intently for the glossy chestnut kernels.

'Picking these is the fun part.'

The grandmothers all looked like children.

***

'Ayato, can you reach that one?'

When I looked in the direction my grandmother pointed, I saw a burr still clinging to a branch, with some green parts remaining.

'There's one over there too.'
'Pick that one, that one.'
'Pull that branch.'

The 'Chestnut Gathering Squad' began saying things like that, one after another, as if counting the stars scattered across the night sky.

I felt like I finally understood why I had been brought along.

***

Before long, we had finished visiting the chestnut trees in the neighborhood, and it felt like we had taken out most of the contents from the burrs we could see.

The tote bag my grandmother was carrying was overflowing with a great many chestnuts.

Naturally, I had never seen such a massive amount of chestnuts before.

The 'Chestnut Gathering Squad' had given all the chestnuts they collected to my grandmother. It seems they really just 'wanted to gather chestnuts' after all.

It was an amount of chestnuts that would be a bit of a struggle to carry home.

The chestnuts ended up occupying the vegetable compartment of our refrigerator.

At that time, I still didn't know.

That the truly difficult part comes after you've gathered them.