As I was filming, I felt like giving it a try, so I gave collecting bekanbe a go. Originally, bekanbe grows upside down in the water, so you have to turn the leaves over by hand to get the fruit. However, once the fruit is big enough to be collected, it easily falls off, and as soon as you turn the leaves over, they fall off and sink into the lake. This is extremely difficult... And since bekanbe fruit is very prickly, it hurts if you grab it too tightly. It may look easy, but it is a task that requires skill and patience.

The fruit grows on the underside of the leaves. The fruit being picked up by hand is a bekanbe.

In this way, the fruit is picked by grabbing the leaves and turning them over, but the fruit is very fragile and often falls off...Tosa-san picks them one after another with practiced hands while talking to us.

Although I was distracted by collecting bekanbe, the early morning sun shone over Lake Toro, creating a truly fantastical landscape. Since it is close to Kushiro and the climate is prone to fog, the lake is often shrouded in fog in the mornings at this time of year.

Foggy Lake Toro. If you're lucky, you might see deer coming to drink water.

Mysterious flowers blooming on the water surface and Lake Toro

When the fog clears, it's beautiful too.