Bamboo Art in Numazu
There's an old man who lives in a house in Numazu, Japan who has turned his garden into a local tourist attraction and has a small workshop next door where he makes a variety of bamboo artifacts that demonstrate not only his ample ability as a craftsman but also the great versatility of bamboo as a material.
I was amazed at the amount of different things that he had made from bamboo. There were bamboo baskets woven from thin strips of bamboo. There was a bamboo picture of Mount Fuji. There was a bamboo toothpick holder and lots of bamboo hanging baskets.
The Hunt for Takenoko
April is the month in Japan when they go crazy for two things: cherry blossom viewing and hunting for new bamboo shoots or 'takenoko' as it is called in Japanese.
We went to a nearby temple and the old lady who looked after the place showed us a bamboo groove in the grounds of the temple. It was next to the cemetery, a small, densely packed stand of high bamboo plants.
It didn't take us long to find a bamboo shoot popping up through the undergrowth.
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is a mouthful to say and tough to spell correctly. It is a term that was coined by Dr. Ilya Raskin who was sent as part of the IAEA task force to clean up after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. It is basically, a way to clean soil and groundwater that has been contaminated with radiation or heavy metals by using certain green plants. These green plants extract and contain harmful elements within their ecosystem and thus remove them from the soil and water.
Read how bamboo can be used for phytoremediation
Making Bamboo Charcoal
I've been reading about the amazing benefits of bamboo charcoal. It seems that turning bamboo into charcoal gives bamboo a new set of useful properties that until recently I was entirely unaware of. Bamboo charcoal has a high porosity that makes it good to suck out the excess humidity from the air as well as unpleasant odors. I'm sensitive to chemicals and so I don't use air fresheners. As an alternative, I thought I'd try and make my own bamboo charcoal. I bought some bamboo chopsticks from a shop in town along with some aluminum foil and then went back home.
Bamboo Charcoal Soap
A friend of mine recently went to Seoul, South Korea for a long weekend with his Japanese wife. It's close to Japan and because of exchange rates and Korean dramas it's a popular place to visit. The custom here is that you bring an omiyage (souvenir) back for your friends when you visit a place. Normally, it's some boring bit of over-wrapped food, so I pre-empted such disappointment by asking for some bamboo charcoal soap from Korea. I had read that Korea make some of the best bamboo charcoal soap so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get my hands on some.
Bamboo Vinegar Foot Detoxify Patches
My latest foray into the wonderful world of bamboo was bamboo vinegar foot detoxify patches. I found them in a department store in town. They were made by a company called Chikusaku. When my Japanese girlfriend came round to my flat I asked her to translate the instructions on the pack. Firstly, I was pleased with myself that I had actually bought the right thing. There had been plenty of times when I had got home from shopping to discover that I had purchased the wrong thing - pictures can be deceiving.
Some Recommended Sites and Reading:
Another versatile renewable resource with many useful properties is coconuts. Coconut palms are known as the 'Tree of Life'. Coconut water is close to blood plasma and was used for emergency blood transfusions during WW2. As with bamboo, coconut is anti microbial, anti fungal and anti bacterial. Coconut oil has many benefits. It contains lauric acid (also found in mother's milk), electrolytes, and antioxidants that inhibit free radical growth (and thus aging signs) Coconut oil also contains medium chain fatty acids (also known as medium chain triglycerides) that relieve pressure on the pancreases and stimulate the thyroid gland. These medium chain fatty acids are easier to metabolize and so coconut oil, although a saturated fat, actually helps weight loss. Coconut milk is great for cooking. And coconut flooring is a good alternative to hardwood flooring. And that's just the start of it. Coconut is an underused and misunderstood resource that has health, environmental, beauty and economic benefits.
Bamboo is a renewable resource and a safe and hygienic material to use in the home. These two properties of bamboo make it useful for green interior design which strives to 1) responsibly use natural resources 2) reduce carbon emissions 3) conserve water supplies 4) saving energy and 5) improving indoor air quality.