Chapter 31 2 The re-decline of Judetaki and the sheep

We changed trains at Asahikawa and headed north over Mount Shiokari.It is almost the same road that Ainu youths and eighteen poor peasants trekked ninety-eight years ago. The autumn sunshine clearly reflects the remnants of the primary forest and the red leaves of the Nanazao tree that are burning like fire.The air is crystal clear.Looking at it all the time, it seems that my eyes are about to hurt. The train was empty at first, but some high school boys and girls started to come up on the way, and the crowd became full.Their noisy voices, laughter, scalp breath, inexplicable conversations and sexual desire with nowhere to vent filled the car.After this state lasted for about thirty minutes, they disappeared at a certain station in an instant.Then the train became empty again, not even a word could be heard.

She and I were each biting half of the chocolate, each looking at the scenery outside.The light fell silently to the ground.It's like looking through a telescope from the opposite direction, and everything feels far away.For a while she whistled in a hoarse whispermelody.We have never been silent for so long. ◇ It was after twelve when we got off the train.Once on the platform, I stretched and took deep breaths.The air is so clear that the lungs seem to be shrinking up.The warmth of the sun on the skin feels so comfortable.However, the temperature is indeed two degrees lower than Sapporo.

There are several old warehouses built of red bricks and tiles lined up along the railway, and some thick logs with a diameter of three meters are piled up next to them, piled up like a pyramid, soaked up by last night's rain, and dyed black.After the train we took left, there was no one to be seen, only the marigolds in the flower bed were shaken by the cold wind. The streetscape that can be seen from the platform is a typical small-scale local city.There are small department stores.There is a sprawling main street with only ten bus stops and a tourist office.It doesn't look like there's anything interesting about it.

Is this the destination?she asked. No, it's not.We have to change trains here.Our destination is much smaller than here. I yawned and took another deep breath. This is the so-called relay location.It was from here that the original pioneers changed direction and headed east. What original pioneers? I sat down in front of an unlit heater in the waiting room, and told her about the history of Twelve Taki before the next bus came.Because the year number became a bit troublesome, I made a simple chronology on the blank page of the notebook based on the information at the end of the volume of "History of Twelve Takicho".The history of Twelve Takicho is written on the left side of the note, and the main events in Japanese history are written on the right side.Into a rather impressive historical chronology.

For example, Lushun Kaesong surrendered in 1905/Meiji 38, and the son of Ainu youth died in battle.According to my memory, that was also the year Dr. Yang was born.History gradually connects in some places. From this point of view, the Japanese seem to be living in the cracks of war.She said while looking at the chronology from left to right. It seems to be oh.I said. Why did it become like this? a little complicated.It is beyond words. oh? The waiting room, like most waiting rooms, is empty and tasteless and featureless.The chairs were unbearable, the ashtray was full of soggy cigarette butts, and the air was stagnant.Several posters of tourist destinations and lists of wanted criminals hung on the walls.Apart from us, there was only an old man in a camel-colored sweater and a mother with a boy of about four years old.After the old man decided on his posture for a while, he continued to concentrate on reading the novel magazine.Turning the pages of the book as if tearing off a bandage, it took about fifteen minutes from one page to the next.The mother and son looked like a couple in a period of burnout.

As a result, everyone is poor. In fact, if things go well, I think we should be able to get out of poverty.I said. Like the people of Twelve Takicho? right.So everyone farmed desperately and frantically, but most of the pioneers were still poor until their death. Why? Because of the relationship with the land.Hokkaido is a cold land, and there is always a cold injury every few years. When the crops cannot be harvested, I don’t even have food for myself. Since I have no income, I can’t buy diesel oil, and I can’t buy the seedlings I need for the next year.So the land was mortgaged to borrow usury.However, the agricultural productivity in this place was not high enough to pay the interest, and finally the land was taken away.As a result, many farmers were reduced to tenant farmers in this way.

I flipped through "The History of Twelve Takicho". In Showa 5, the ratio of owner farmers to the population in Twelve Taki fell to 46%.Because of the recession and cold damage occurred one after another in the early years of the Showa era. The hard-working land and cultivated farmland cannot escape the doom of the loan. ◇ Because there were still forty minutes left, she went shopping alone in the street.I stayed in the waiting room and drank Coca-Cola while opening the half-read book. I tried to read it for ten minutes before giving up and putting the book back in my pocket.Nothing can fit in my mind.I had the sheep of Twelve Taki in my mind, and the type that sent me rattled and ate them up one by one.I closed my eyes and sighed.A passing truck blew its whistle.

◇ Ten minutes before the drive, she came back with a bag of apples, which we ate for lunch and got into the car. The train is almost on the verge of being scrapped.The floor is worn and wavy from the soft part.Walking on the passage, the body will shake from side to side.The fluff of the seats has all but disappeared and the chair cushions are like bread from a month ago.The smell of toilets and oil mixed into a fatal atmosphere dominated the entire interior of the car.It took me ten minutes to push the window up to temporarily let the outside air in, but as soon as the train left, fine sand flew in, so it took me the same amount of time to close the window again .

The train consisted of two cars, carrying about fifteen passengers in total.And all are held together by the thick rope of indifference and ennui.The old man in the camel-colored sweater continued to read the magazine.Judging from his reading speed, it would not be surprising even if he read the month issue from three months ago.The fat, middle-aged woman has the expression of a music critic who is listening intently to Scriabin's piano sonata, her eyes fixed on a point in the sky.I followed her line of sight quietly, but there was nothing in the air. The children were also very quiet.No one is noisy, no one runs around, and they don't even look at the scenery outside.Only one person occasionally coughed dryly like chopsticks hitting a mummy's head.

Every time the train stops at a station, people get off.When someone got off the bus, the driver went down to collect the ticket. After the driver got on the bus, the car drove out again. Even without a mask, it was enough to look like the expressionless driver of a bank robber.Not a single new passenger boarded. The river outside the window continued to stretch, and the river collected rainwater and turned it into a brown color.Looks like glistening coffee and milk gutters in the fall sun.Along the river there is a paved road flickering in and out.Occasionally, huge trucks laden with lumber could be seen heading west.Overall traffic is very light.Billboards lining the road continue to send aimless messages towards the empty void.In order to pass the boring time, I looked at every fashionable and urban-style advertising board that appeared in front of me one by one.Up there in the hot sun the bikini girl is drinking Coca-Cola, the middle-aged character actor is wrinkling his forehead and drinking from a scotch glass, the diving watch is splashing violently, and it cost a terrible amount of money to decorate In the luxurious room, the model is applying nail polish.The new pioneers in the name of the advertising industry seem to be subtly cutting this land.

It was 2:40 when the train arrived at the terminal station, Judetakicho Station. We both fell asleep at some point and did not hear the announcement of the station name when we entered the station.Complete silence fell as the diesel engine exhausted as if expelling its last breath.A skin-tingling silence woke me up.Notice that there are no other passengers in the car except us. I hastily unloaded the two people's luggage from the rack, and patted her on the shoulder several times to wake her up and got out of the car.The wind blowing across the platform was already so cold that it reminded me of the end of autumn.The sun had already slid down the sky, leaving the black mountains crawling on the ground like wrinkles of fate.Two mountains in different directions converged not far in front of the street, arching their palms as if to protect the matches and fireworks from being blown out by the wind, enveloping the entire street.And the slender platform is just like a thin and thin boat that is about to rush into the towering huge waves. We were stunned, looking at the scenery like that for a while. Where is Dr. Yang's pasture?she asked. on the hill.It's another three hours drive. Do you want to go now? No.I said.If you go now, it won't be until midnight.Find a place to live today and leave tomorrow morning. ◇ There is a small, empty circle in front of the station.There is no shadow of a taxi at the place where the taxi boards, and there is no water in the bird-shaped fountain in the center of the circle.The bird didn't do much with its mouth open, it just looked up at the sky expressionlessly.The fountain is surrounded by a flower bed of marigolds.At a glance, it can be seen that this place is much more in decline than it was ten years ago.There are almost no people on the street, and people who occasionally pass by face to face have the expression of hopelessness that is unique to living in a declining place. On the left hand side of the circle, there are half a dozen old warehouses built in the railway transportation era.It is built of ancient red bricks with a high roof. The iron gate has been repainted many times and has been abandoned.A row of huge crows lined the roof of the warehouse, silently looking down at the street.In the open space next to the warehouse, the tall goldenrod grows like a dense forest.Right in the middle there were two old cars left there to let the sun and rain shine.Both had no tires, the hood was open, and the guts were dragged out. On a circular square that looked like a closed ice rink, there stood a map indicating the town, and most of the text was almost unreadable due to the wind and rain.The only things that can be read are the characters of Twelve Taki Town and the sentences of the large-scale rice farming north limit. There is a small shopping street on the front of the ring.The shopping street is similar to the general shopping street, but the passages are very wide, which makes the impression of this place even colder.Although the leaves of Nanazao trees planted on both sides of the wide road are dyed bright red, the feeling of cold has not abated.These creatures have nothing to do with the fate of the place, and each enjoys the joys of life to his heart's content.Only the people who lived here and their meager daily livelihoods were swallowed whole in the cold. I carried my backpack and walked to the end of a shopping street about 500 meters long, looking for a hotel.But no hotels.A third of the store's iron shutters were closed.Half of the billboard in front of the watch shop fell off.It was blown by the wind and rattled. Where the shopping street breaks off suddenly, there is a weedy parking lot, a cream-colored Honda/Fairlady and a red sports car Toyota/Celica.Both are new cars.Although it feels a bit strange, the expressionless new doesn't feel out of place with the empty village atmosphere. There is almost nothing beyond the shopping street. The wide street turns into a gentle slope and goes down to the river. Where it meets the river, the road turns into a T shape and diverges to the left and right.Small wooden bungalows are lined up on both sides of the ramp.The trees in the garden stretched out their gnarled branches to the sky with the color of dust.Every tree has some strange way of sticking out its branches, and every house has a big diesel barrel and a milk crate in the same porch.Surprisingly high TV antennas stand on the roof of every house.As if to challenge the mountains behind the village, the TV antenna stretched out its silver tentacles in the air. It seems that there is no hotel!she seemed worried. no problem.Everywhere must have a hotel. We returned to the station and asked the station clerk where the hotel was.The two staff members with the same age difference as father and son, seemed to be bored to death, and explained in detail the location of the hotel very kindly and politely. There are two hotels.Said the old man.One is more expensive and the other is cheaper.The expensive ones are used when the important people in the Taoist hall come, or at formal banquets. The meals are pretty good.said young. The other house is for businessmen, or young people, alas, it is for ordinary people anyway.The exterior looks a bit poor, but it is not unclean, and the bathroom is quite nice. But the walls are thinner.said young. The two then continued to argue endlessly about the thickness of the walls. We choose expensive.I said.There was quite a bit of money left in the envelope, and there was no reason why it should be saved. The young clerk tore off a post-it note and helped us draw a map of the hotel. Thanks.I said.But compared with ten years ago, it seems much deserted here. Oh, yes.Said the older one.Now there is only one lumber factory left, there are no other decent industries, agriculture has shrunk, and even the population has shrunk. Even the schools can't organize classes properly.Young added. What is the approximate population? It is said to be about 7,000, but it is actually less than that.I think about five thousand or so.said young. Where is the route, sir!It might be gone one day.Because it's the third-best deficit route in the country.Said the older one. I was surprised that there were two routes that were worse than this one, but I thanked me and left the station. The hotel goes down the ramp at the end of the shopping street, turns right and walks about 300 meters, and it is on the river.It's an old hotel that feels good. It still has the shadow of the town when it was still lively. Facing the river, the well-kept garden is quite wide. In the corner, there is a little wolf dog eating an early dinner with its face buried in the tableware . Are you coming to climb a mountain?asked the waitress who showed us to our room. It's for climbing.I simply say. There are only two rooms on the second floor.Quite wide room, walking out of the corridor, you can overlook the same coffee and milk-colored river as you saw on the train. Because she said she wanted to take a bath, I decided to take a look at the town hall (township office) by myself during that time.Although the town hall is located on an empty road on the west side two streets away from the shopping street, the buildings are far newer and more presentable than expected. At the animal husbandry section window of the town hall, I took out the business card with the name of the magazine on it that I used when I was a half-time freelance writer two years ago, and indicated that I wanted to ask questions about sheep breeding.Although it was a bit strange that a women's weekly magazine wanted to interview and report on sheep, but the other party immediately agreed and let me go inside. There are now more than 200 sheep in the town, all of which are Suffulks.That is to say, for food.The meat is sold to nearby hotels and restaurants, and the reviews are very good. I took out the manual and took some notes.I guess he will continue to buy the women's weekly for the next few weeks.Thinking of this, I feel gloomy. Is it for a recipe report?After telling me about the raising conditions of the sheep, the other party asked. There are too.I said.However, our theme is actually biased towards capturing the overall image of a sheep. Whole image? That is, personality, ecology and the like. oh?The other party said. I closed the notebook and drank the tea that was brought to me.I heard there is an old ranch on the hill. Well, yes.Before the war, it was still a decent ranch. After the war, it was taken over by the US military, and it is no longer in operation.About ten years after the return of the U.S. military, some wealthy people bought it as a villa, but because the transportation was really inconvenient, gradually no one came, and it became like an empty house.So the town rented it from them. In fact, it would be good to simply buy it and use it as a sightseeing ranch, but the poor town does not have the ability.What's more, the road must be sorted out first. rent? About 50 sheep from the sheep ranch in Xia Town were rushed to the mountain.As far as the pasture is concerned, it is quite a good pasture, because the pasture grass of the town is not enough.Then in the second half of September, when the weather starts to turn bad, the flocks will be driven back. Is it possible to determine when those sheep were on the mountain? It changes a little every year, but it is probably around the beginning of May to mid-September. How many people take the sheep up the mountain? one.The same guy continued to do it for ten years. I want to meet this person. The clerk made a phone call to the sheep farm for me. You can see him if you go there now.He said.I will drive you there. I said no at first, but after asking, I realized that there is no other way to get to the farm except to have someone drive me.There are neither taxis nor taxis in the town, and it takes an hour and a half to walk. The light vehicle driven by the clerk passed in front of the hotel and proceeded west.Cross a long concrete bridge, walk through cold wet terrain, and drive up a gentle ramp up the mountain.The gravel rolled up by the tires made a crackling sound. From the perspective of people from Tokyo, this place looks like a dead town, right?He said. I answered vaguely.But actually it's dying.It’s okay if the railway is still open, but if it doesn’t work, it will probably really die.It seems strange to die in one place, and it is understandable for people to die, but there is something wrong with dying in one place. What happens after death? yeah, what will happen?No one knows.Before they knew it, everyone fled out one after another.If there are less than 1,000 people in the town, it is also very likely because our job opportunities have almost disappeared, maybe we should escape too. I offered him a cigarette and lit it with a Dupont lighter emblazoned with sheep. There are still good jobs in Sapporo.My uncle is running a printing factory, but there is not enough manpower. Since the school is the main target of his work, the operation is relatively stable.In fact, going to help him is the best way, it is much better than counting the number of sheep and cattle shipped in such a place. yes.I said. But when I thought about leaving here, I couldn't do it.do you understand?If this place is really going to die, I have a strong feeling that I want to see the death with my own eyes. Were you born here?I try to ask him. yes.He said.Never speak again.A third of the gloomy sun had sunk behind the mountains. There are two pillars erected at the entrance of the sheep farm, and between the pillars is a sign board for the sheep farm operated by Twelve Taki Township.After passing under the signboard, there is a slope, and the end of the slope is hidden in the forest of red leaves. Across the woods is the pasture, where the caretaker's quarters are.What about the return journey? Because it is downhill I can use walking.thank you very much. Out of sight of the car, I walked between the pillars and up the ramp.The maple leaves, yellowed by the last rays of the sun, add an orange-red hue.The trees are tall, and the speckled light and shadow flicker and shake on the gravel road passing through the forest. After passing through the woods, you can see the slender pastures on the slope of the hill, and you can smell the smell of livestock.The roof of the ranch house is a compound sloping roof, covered with red iron sheets, and three chimneys are set up for ventilation. There is a kennel at the entrance of the ranch. A border collie with a collar barked two or three times when he saw me, and his eyes looked sleepy. The barking of an elderly dog ​​was not hostile.After stroking around its neck with your hand, it immediately became obedient.In front of the kennels are yellow plastic bowls with dog food and water.As soon as I let go, the dog returned to the kennel contentedly, with its front feet neatly lined up on the ground. It was already dark in the pasture house, and there was no sign of people.There is a wide cement passage in the center, with fences for keeping sheep on both sides.There are U-shaped grooves on both sides of the passage to let the sheep's urine and cleaning water flow out.The boarded walls had glass windows in several places.The ridgeline of the mountain can be seen from there.The setting sun dyes the flock on the right red and casts blue and gloomy shadows on the flock on the left. As soon as I entered the pasture, two hundred sheep turned to my side.About half of the sheep stood, and the other half sat on the ground with dry grass.Their eyes are almost unnaturally blue, looking like little wells gushing from the ends of their faces.When the eye receives light from the front, it shines like a prosthetic eye.They have been staring at me quietly, not a single sheep moved.A few continued to chew the dry grass in their mouths, making rattling sounds.Other than that there was no sound.A few of them were sticking their heads out of the fence to drink, but they stopped drinking and looked up at me in that posture.They almost seemed to be thinking as a whole, and their thinking was interrupted for a moment when I stood still at the door.Everything stopped, and everyone withdrew judgment.When I started to move again, their thinking homework started again.In the fence divided into eight grids, the sheep began to move again.In the pen where the ewes were gathered, all the ewes returned to the stud sheep, but in the pen where only the rams were in, they retreated and took a defensive posture respectively.Only a few curious ones did not leave the fence, but kept watching my movements. The sheep's faces protrude horizontally from either side of their faces, and their ears are slender black with small plastic tabs attached to them.Some sheep have blue flakes, some have yellow flakes, and some have red flakes.They also had big marks on their backs with colored markers. In order not to frighten them, I walked slowly as much as possible without making any noise.And pretending not to care about the sheep, he approached the fence and quietly reached out to touch a ram.The sheep only trembled slightly and did not escape.The other sheep have been watching the sheep and my posture suspiciously.The young ram stared at me tensely, his body stiffened like an unreliable tentacles creeping out from the whole flock. Suffolks sheep have an air of wonder somewhere.They are black all over, only the body hair is white.The ears are big, stretching straight out horizontally like the wings of a moth.The blue eyes shining brightly in the dark, and the tall and straight nose, always feel a bit exotic.They neither reject nor accept my existence, they just look at it as a momentary scene.A few sheep were urinating loudly.The piss flowed over the floor into the U-shaped groove, and passed under my feet.The sun was preparing to sink behind the mountains.Light blue shades cover the slopes of the mountains like blue ink dissolved in water. I walked out of the shed and stroked the dog's head again and took a deep breath. I walked around behind the shed, walked across a wooden bridge over the creek, and walked to where the caretaker lived.The administrator's home is a small one-story house with a large warehouse for pasture and farm tools next to it.Warehouses are much larger than homes. The administrator is stacking plastic bags of disinfectants next to a cement ditch about one meter wide and one meter deep next to the warehouse.After he glanced at me approaching from a distance, he continued his homework as if he didn't care much.When I reached the edge of the ditch, he finally stopped and wiped the sweat from his face with the towel wrapped around his neck. Tomorrow I decided to disinfect all the sheep.the man said.Then he took out a crumpled cigarette from the pocket of his work clothes, straightened it with his fingers, and lit it.Pour disinfectant into it, and then let the sheep swim from one side to the other, otherwise they will be covered with bugs in winter. Do it alone? How can it be.Two helpers will come, plus me and the dog will do it.Dogs are the most capable.Sheep also trust dogs the most.If you can't get the trust of the sheep, you can't be a shepherd dog. Although the man was about five inches shorter than me, he was well built and strong.Aged over forty-five, with short, coarse hair that stood up like a hairbrush.He pulled the plastic gloves for homework from his fingers as if peeling off a layer of skin.Slap twice at the waist and tuck it into the patch pocket of the trousers.Looks more like a Master Chief in recruit training than a breeder of sheep. Do you want to inquire about something? yes. go ahead. Have you been doing this job for a long time? ten years.the man said.It can be long or not.But I know all about sheep.I used to be in the Self-Defense Forces. He hung the towel around his neck and looked up at the sky.Do you live here all the time in winter? Um.the man said.yes.With a dry cough.There is nowhere else to go.And there are a lot of chores to do in winter.The snow accumulation in this area is nearly two meters, or if the roof collapses, the sheep will be crushed to death.But also to feed the feed, clean the pasture, busy. Then when summer came, he took half of the flock up the mountain. yes. Is it difficult to walk with a sheep? Simple.Humans have done this since ancient times.The settlement of shepherds in pastures is quite recent.Before that, it was a year-round journey with sheep.In the 16th century, there were roads that only shepherds could walk everywhere in Spain, and even the king couldn't get in. The man spit on the ground and rubbed it with the soles of his work shoes. In short, as long as sheep are not frightened, they are very obedient animals.They will follow the dog and walk silently. I took the photo sent by the mouse out of my pocket and handed it to the man.This is the pasture on the mountain. right.the man said.good.Sheep are also our sheep here. What about this end?With the point of my ballpoint pen, I point to a chunky sheep with a star on its back. The man stared at the photo for a while.Not this one.Not our sheep.But it's strange.Impossible to get involved.There are barbed wire fences all around, and I have checked them one by one every morning and evening, if anything strange gets in, the dogs will find out and the sheep will make a fuss.What's more, I have never seen this kind of sheep in my life. Didn't anything happen this year from the time I drove the sheep up the mountain in May until I came back? Nothing happened.the man said.safe and sound. Do you spend a summer alone in the mountains? Not alone.The staff of the town will come once every two days, and officials will also come to inspect. I go down the mountain once a week.There are agents who will take care of the sheep.And also have to replenish food, groceries and the like. So it's not like a person lives in seclusion on it? of course.As long as there is no snow, the jeep can go to the ranch in an hour and a half, just like taking a walk.But as long as there is snow, the car will be useless, so it is really called Winter Hidden. Is there no one on the mountain now? Except for the owner of the villa. Villa owner?I heard that the villa has been useless for a long time? The caretaker dropped the cigarette on the ground and stamped it out with his shoe.It has been useless.But now someone is using it.You can use it whenever you want.I was in charge of cleaning up the house. Water, electricity, gas, and telephone were all available, and none of the glass windows was broken. The people at the town hall told me that no one lived there. What they don't know is that in addition to my job in the town, I was also secretly employed by the landlord.Don't tell the outside world about this, because the owner doesn't want me to say it. He tried to take out a cigarette from his overalls pocket, but the pack was empty.I handed him a half-smoked pack of Larks cigarettes with a 10,000-yen bill folded in half.The man looked at it and put it away.Hold one cigarette in your mouth and stuff the rest in your breast pocket.Excuse me. So, when did the owner come? spring.The snow hasn't started to melt yet, so it should be March.Haven't been here for about five years.Why it came again this year, I don't know, but that is the owner's freedom, we have nothing to say.Since he told me not to tell anyone, I figured there might be some reason.Anyway, it's been on top ever since.I secretly bought food and fuel, and then sent them up bit by bit by jeep. With those stocks, I can live another year. Is that guy around my age with a beard? right.said the administrator.That's right. Very good.I said.There is no need to show him the photos.