homemade shishi odoshi

last december, when we went to caleruega, nasugbu, we saw this interesting water  feature in their garden.  after a few days from our trip, i can't seem to get that thing off my mind and went ahead and searched the internet.  from what i have read, i found out that this weird-looking, noisy water feature with a "clunk" sound was a shishi-odoshi,  a japanese garden acessory/device used to scare animals away from the garden.  shishi odoshi literally means "scare the boar."  i convinced my husband to make me one.  we watched different youtube how-to videos and read different articles on how to make this water feature.  finally, after a few days of asking him again and again, he gave in and made this bamboo fountain.

cutting the parts made of bamboo

 assembling with screws

 

making adjustments

digging a hole

see the old ugly basin?remember that one..

grass removed :)

our shishi odoshi with my niece a few weeks after..can you spot the difference??? tada!  we threw the old basin out and put a new one in and also edged it with a few rocks.

our shishi odoshi a few months after with the water source hidden.  we placed an old jar and gotu kola beside it and stones and rocks from our trip to puerto galera on top of the water source. (also noticed our fence is higher? hee...hee..made it higher for security reasons.  not yet painted though..)

 lovely eh?
this shishi odoshi had drawn out quite a crowd in our compound.  you see, every time someone passes by, an unexpected "TONK" will be heard. they'll look back and find nothing.  hee..hee..my mom says the sound it makes sounds like someone throwing a plastic dipper ("tabo").  even kids who saw our fountain will tell their playmates to come see this nice fountain of ours.  talk about it, how "cool" it is...it was a very popular topic for them. kept tham guessing and wondering how we made such fountain.  even neighbors who only saw our shishi after the water source was hidden kept asking where does the water come from, did it come from the bamboo, where are the tubes and wires, is it electrically powered? kept them entertained/busy for a while...

but as for me, this shishi odoshi will be a mainstay in my garden (with plans of convincing hubby to build a new/better one once this one wears out) no matter what crowd it attracts or scares away.
it relaxes me, gives me a sense of peace with the water gushing from it's spout hitting those rocks, making a mild splash.....until i hear another.............

"TONK!"