＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
About a week ago, I happened to see a preview of an NHK TV program and learned about an NHK Educational TV program called “Survival Strategies Learned from Plants 4: Speaker Yamada Takayuki,” which would be broadcast from 10:50pm to 11:20pm on Wednesday, August 26th. I scheduled a recording and watched it the next day.
I’ve long been interested in the struggle for survival and plant wisdom of plants, especially weeds, and I even wrote an article titled “Tactics for Expanding Plant Growing Areas.” The “silent power struggle” among plants is also fierce.
1. I was surprised to see “Djembe-san” becoming a hot topic online
After watching the program, I looked online to double-check the content and was surprised to find so many articles asking, “Is Djembe making fun of Prime Minister Abe?” and “Is NHK criticizing the Abe administration?”
It’s true that the “only one” analogy features three people: Tsuyoshi Shinjo (white teeth), Kumiko Takeda (shell swimsuit), and Prime Minister Abe (Abenomask), but I feel like the above comment is a bit of a stretch.
This program appears to be aired irregularly once or twice a year, with the first episode airing on September 27, 2018, the second on May 2, 2019, and the third on January 30, 2020.
Actor Takayuki Yamada talks about plant survival strategies, and NHK announcer Risa Hayashida listens, and the program progresses through a dialogue between the two.
2. Thoughts on the program’s structure and progression
(1) Surrealistic comedy sketch style
The surreal comedy-like dialogue between the speaker, Yamada Takayuki, and the listener, Hayashida Risa, is unique, original, and eccentric. However, some may have felt uncomfortable with the bold anthropomorphism, with Yamada Takayuki speaking with a blank expression, unblinking and seemingly alien-like, yet with an ulterior motive.
(2) Serious content and accurate explanation
The content is very serious, and it provides an accurate and easy-to-understand explanation of the heart-wrenching “survival strategies” that plants have ingeniously evolved over the years to preserve their species.
Plants have survived for over 400 million years, surviving in all kinds of environments on Earth. They have diverse ways of life that have overcome dangers and challenges unknown to us humans.
The video is divided into three parts, each with a 10-minute explanation of a single plant species.
(3) An educational program for adults, not children.
E-TV is often thought of as a channel for educational programs for children, but this is an educational program for adults.
3. My honest thoughts on the program’s content.
(1) Plantain (Large leaf plant/Plantain sieboldii)
Plantains used to grow everywhere, but you don’t see them much these days. This may be because all roads have been paved with asphalt and dirt paths have become fewer.
Plantains grow in the middle of the road, so they accept being trampled on and quickly bounce back even when trampled. They are solitary plants that walk their own path. Their unorthodox aesthetic means they have no competitors.
Seeds that fall on the road become sticky when wet with rain, stick to the soles of shoes, and are carried far away, reproducing.
(2) White clover
White clover used to grow abundantly in fields, but these days it’s less common, perhaps because there are fewer fields or because it’s been pushed out by invasive plants.
This white flower, which is associated with the legend of happiness associated with the four-leaf clover, also has a clever survival strategy. Its many petals don’t bloom all at once, but open at different times, lengthening the period during which they attract bees and carry pollen.
This then attracts bees deeper into the inflorescences, where they suck up the sweet nectar and produce lots of pollen.
The roots also house bacteria called rhizobia, which have the ability to store nitrogen. The plant receives nitrogen from these bacteria and provides carbohydrates in return, creating a mutualistic (win-win) relationship. Nitrogen is an important element in fertilizer. Because the plant produces its own nitrogen and uses it as fertilizer, it has a very high reproductive potential. Furthermore, the rhizobia, which don’t produce much nitrogen, don’t provide much carbohydrate either.
The analogy, “Put together similar members and replace them if they fail. Control the ‘insignificant people’ like rhizobia and suck up nutrients. Let talented people like bees suck up sweet nectar,” seems to have been seen as a jab at Prime Minister Abe.
(3) Haran
I’m familiar with the Japanese orchid (also known as “baran”), as it grew in the old house where I lived as a child. My mother often used its jagged, mountain-shaped leaves as dividers in my lunch boxes. Nowadays, most of them are replaced with plastic…
I previously wrote an article about pine flowers, but I first learned about Japanese orchid flowers on this program. Because Japanese orchid pollinators are fungus gnats, their flowers bloom in inconspicuous places at the base of the plant, mimicking the appearance of mushrooms. Apparently, they also emit a mushroom-like scent to attract fungus gnats.
The program’s title is “The long-standing mystery of seductive shade plants revealed! The love-wooing technique of shade plants that disguise their flowers as mushrooms.”
In the past, it was believed that snails and slugs helped with pollination. I also had lots of snails at the base of the lily of the valley in my garden, so it’s not surprising that people in the past believed this.
However, the long-standing mystery of who pollinates the lily of the valley has now been resolved with the current leading theory that fungus gnats are responsible for pollination.
Although it wasn’t featured in this program, tumbleweed, a staple image of Western movies, also demonstrates a robust plant survival strategy.
This is a type of grass that withers, detaches from its roots, and rolls around while scattering seeds. It belongs to the genus Alnus, and is known as zhuanpeng in China.
