a day in the sei

so imagine this- in the deep american south, on a steep dirt road winding its lonely way through the forest toward wide expanses of rice fields below, an elderly female farmer comes across a fallen poplar tree hopelessly blocking the progress of her chevy pick-up.

suddenly an enormous giant of a japanese man skids his bike to a halt behind her, leaps off and wordlessly runs to the fallen tree, and begins to struggle mightily with the large shaft slanting diagonally across the road. apparently discerning the physical impossibility of this (its trunk is still securely attached at the base), the giant then attempts to scramble up the muddy imbankment bordering the left side of the road clad only in flip flops, and appears to violently twist his ankle as he falls heavily back down. the farmer utters her first words- "Stop! It's too dangerous!" but the giant either hasn't heard her or is too absorbed in his simple but urgent task to heed her cautionary pleas.

after a brief inspection of the slope he takes a dashing start, leaps up to grab the protruding trunk and frantically hoists himself over the edge, scrabbling clumsily over the top and sending dirt flying behind him. regaining his footing and replacing a flung flip flop, he strides to the base of the mighty poplar, braces his knees over it, and begins to pull. at first nothing happens. then, to both of their surprise, the trunk slowly lifts out of the ground with a deep tearing sound until it is miraculously free.

grinning broadly with this unexpected success, the giant then clambers back down to the road, and together he and the lady maneuver the defeated tree into the woods, safely clearing the forest path once more. the farmer bows courteously to the giant and softly says "Thank You", and he responds with a smile and a cheery grunt that falls somewhere between "No!" and "House!". climbing back in her pick-up, the old farmer proceeds to the base of the wooded slope, across the rice fields, and up the opposite side of the valley toward her home and family to relate the strange and somewhat unsettling incident.

her family is worried they haven't seen the last of this giant, for there are rumors circulating the small village that a similar-sounding giant was recently seen buying a six pack of beer, a miniature folding stool and some goldfish food the day before, while several parents have reprimanded their children for creating exaggerated stories about a strange grotesquely-bearded man who shows up to their school seemingly at random every other week or so to teach them how to order coffee or a coke in Japanese, or reads them dramatic guilt-inducing short stories about the devastating effects of the atom bomb in World War II, or just sits silently and awkwardly with them as they eat lunch. now if you switch japan and japanese with american and english, chevy pick up with miniature white k-truck, and poplar with hollow bamboo tree you have a pretty good idea of what happened in Ueki last thursday afternoon.