Takiya River's Honma San

Honma san centre, with OBs Hashimoto san (left) and Sekine san (right) taken 2006/06/30

Today I enjoyed field work with my good friend Honma san. Honma san's home town is the small village called Nunobe, located at the confluence of Takiya River and Miomote River, but for many years he has lived and worked in Furumachi of Niigata City. I came to know Honma san when he attended a hydrology seminar at the university, given by a visiting professor from the United States, Dr. Roy Sidle, back in the summer of 2000. Honma san is an experienced fisherman and hunter. He knows many of the rivers in the Miomote basin like the back of his hand, and especially he's known every inch of Takiya River since childhood. He is an endless source of fascinating information on how the river has changed and how life used to be in the village at the mouth of Takiya River. He is also keen to join me with field work when he has time, and find out what I am up to.

Stage = 33cm with clear water

The water level was about 11cm lower than at the end of May. Now we enter a season of relatively little water, as the snowmelt season comes to an end, and we wait for the arrival of the rainy season later this month. Looking at the hydrograph below, we can see the diurnal snowmelt pattern has gone by early June. The small peak on May 31, when there was no rainfall, perhaps marks the end of the snowmelt season for Takiya River. Of course, other basins with higher mountains (e.g. Iide Mts. >2000m) still have lots of snow and snowmelt continues in those basins until late summer. But for Takiya River (max. elevation <1000m), the snow has mostly gone and the water in the river is decreasing day by day.

Water levels are falling at the end of the snowmelt season

After measuring the discharge in Takiya River and one of its tributaries, we download the data for water stage, precipitation and shortwave solar radiation. Then it's time for lunch by the river, and Honma san is in his element as he cooks up some sansai (mountain vegetable) miso soup using fresh sparkling water from Takiya River - absolutely delicious! Thank you every time Honma san.

Sansai (fuki) miso soup