There are nutria (coypu) in Kyoto – they have invaded here too. I see a few in the Kamo River now and again. I don’t really like these big water rats but today one entertained a lot of people, including myself on the river bank.
The timing of the experience was quite amazing. Just in timing! We have had a whole lot of rain the last few days and the Kamo River is almost raging. (We’ve had enough rain for a full-on torrent, but since it was so dry this spring, I think that a good deal of the downpour was just soaked up by Mother Earth.)
After an meeting I went to Fujii Daimaru and wandered around for a long time looking at clothing, and not finding anything to my liking. I next went to the food court in the basement floor and bought some sushi. I took that down to the Kamo River and leisurely ate it, enjoying the cool, sunny day and the rush of fresh, clean water.
I had sat down on the river bank above a little wing dam that was creating a bit of a rapids. There was one of those people that come down to the Kamo River everyday with a huge sack of bread to feed the ducks, pigeons and hawks. Speaking of hawks, while I was enjoying my sushi, I was warned by one of those retired people, with time on their hands, cleaning up the riverside that I was in extreme danger of having a hawk swoop down and make off with some of my sushi. He annoyed me, but I was polite and told him that as long as the hawks didn’t get my beer, I really wouldn’t much mind sharing a piece of sushi or two.
Some of the bread in the water went through the ‘rapids’ but the ducks never followed it through the whitewater, much to my disappointment.
Then, I got on my bicycle and headed up stream. I paused for a few seconds to find a trash can to throw my rubbish in, which was moved from its usual spot, now hidden behind some bushes. (In Japan, there are very few rubbish bins in public. Japanese hate to pay to just throw away someone else’s trash.) After doing a 180, I got my trash in the can.
At about that moment I looked out into the river and saw the Kamo River nutria about three seconds from going right over a dam. I stopped but there wasn’t time to get my phone out and take a photo. So, I just savored the moment. There were several other people watching too (it turns out that they make tofu at Otokomae Tofu). The nutria seemed to realize that it was going to be swept over the dam and there was this magical moment where the people on the riverbank and the nutria all held their breath, waiting to see what would happen.
The fall didn’t seem to phase it, however about 10 meters downstream there is some deeper whitewater that seemed to have some undertow and the little water rat disappeared for a few seconds. It then swam to the bank, and seemed to be a bit shaken by the ordeal.
A few people cheered the water rat. I rushed down and snapped a few photos and was approached by one of the Otokomae Tofu employees and we had a nice chat in English about nutria and his boss, who I interviewed for KyotoFoodie.
