We ate Mud snails

One day when I visited a small village up in some mountain around Shonai region, there was an old man, who knew local culture related to mud snails. His story was so interesting. Once upon a time there was many mud snails in the rice paddy fields of his village. It was so common to eat the snails and the taste was so nice, especially in Miso soup. However, all snails had been disappeared long time ago and none of them and the culture related to the snails are left now a days. Did snails really disappear? Here you are! We start cooking those and eat it. The detail of cooking will be reported sometime later. But, anyway, how those snails are good and beautiful!!

とある日、山間の小さな集落に出かけると、そこに興味深い話をするご老人がいた。タニシとそれに関係する村文化についてだ。昔々のあるとき、村の田んぼには沢山のタニシがいたそうだ。タニシ食はとても日常的で、その味、特に味噌汁にすると風味豊かで実にうまかったらしい。しかし今ではそのタニシは村からいなくなってしまい、タニシ食の文化も失われてしまったという。で、タニシ、本当にいなくなったのかな？いやいやどうして、ここに沢山いますよ。はい、それではタニシ食についてはまた別の機会にレポートしますね。