After having spent the winter away from the island, I can say it is great to be back. As I take a walk around the island, I am comforted by the little touches of home: Bent-over ladies with bundles of sasaki on their backs, white-haired fishermen bringing in their day's catch, and old men sitting on the wharf. It's a typical day on Shiraishi Island.
I watch an old lady as she heads up to the graveyard. The sasaki branches are harder to collect nowadays and the obaachan use long poles with clippers on the end to reach the top sasaki branches since the lower branches are all gone.
I have heard that giraffes have long necks in order to allow them to reach the leaves at the tops of trees, and I wonder if in another generation, the babies on this island will all be born with very long necks too. Or perhaps this is the real reason the Japanese are getting taller.