Bamboo Harvesting

Hello I thought I would tell you about our little excursion into the woods to cut bamboo. Josh is teaching in our tea room and I am in between classes waiting for boiled salt water to cool so I can proceed to pickle some diakon radishes.
We drove to Sasayama because we wanted to build a bamboo fence in our backyard, we have laid new beds for vegetable gardening in most of the backyard but have reserved a spot near the house for a Japanese tea garden, so we are putting a fence between the two, Josh has just laid the posts in the last two days.... but I digress.
We got to Kasu-gaeh and met Midori, our boss' mother, who told us not to go to the bamboo mountain that we had earlier been instructed to go to but to go to one of their back fields to the bamboo forest there. Never listen to Midori.....
We spent the whole afternoon cutting bamboo, it was quite easy. Just get a Japanese saw and go to town, Josh cut the big ones and I cut the little ones. (We needed both to build the fence.) I also got some turnips and diakon from my boss' field for pickling (yes they are still growing.) Number one rule about cutting bamboo: If you drive a tiny 'Mira Pico' always size up your bamboo first. We cut it all too long, once we got it to the car we had to re-cut it all a second time. We had a fabulous time and a great new experience.
We drove home and did not see a soul the whole time, which we found out later was a very good thing... apparently the farmer who 'owns' the bamboo forest told our boss last year that if our boss wanted to cut bamboo from his forest our boss would have to pay him. In the end, the one thing we learned is .... NEVER LISTEN TO MIDORI!