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[wwoofing-japan]

I stayed in Hayashima, Okayama for 5 days at a special place called Igusa Guesthouse. Igusa is the plant that tatami is made of, and the guesthouse used to be a tatami workshop. It was in a residential area, just a short walk from the train station.

Loom to make tatami

Igusa was small, but I met a lot of interesting and friendly people. Staying there was like staying with a multicultural family. The night I arrived I had dinner with 2 couples, from Holland and France. All of the restaurants were closed, so we got food from the supermarket and ate in the kitchen. The French couple was middle-aged with stylish glasses that looked almost like they were upside down. The wife kept turning to me and smiling affectionately. The Dutch couple ate thick slices of buttered toast with salad for dinner. The woman worked at a residency for mentally ill patients in the forest. It has 150 people, and they all work and share life together, like a commune.

My roommate for one night, K. We had breakfast together and couldn’t speak each other’s languages. She had been backpacking for a few months

The guesthouse workers consisted of Tatski, Ishi, and Takahiro. Tatski and Takahiro were my age, and knew each other from college. Takahiro had just spent two months walking across Japan and sleeping in parks, pulling a handmade cart that folds out to cook on. Igusa was along his route, so he was going to be working there for 3 weeks.

On my first day I went to Kurashiki, a historic city with a canal that runs through it. It was simple and beautiful, and the cloudy weather made it even more so I think. There were many streets of old storehouses converted into shops and eateries, and it was nice and quiet. By far my favorite place I’ve been to as a tourist.

I had some trouble finding the bus stop to get home, and asked a boy leaving the convenience store for help. He was young but with his mannerisms and clothing he was like a small man, with an an ice cream waffle in hand. He asked two different store clerks where the bus stop was, walked me all the way there, and even offered me bus money. People here are so, so kind..

I got back to the guesthouse and we all had nabe (hot pot) to celebrate Takahiro joining Igusa. It was me, the Dutch couple, Ishi, Tatski, Takahiro, and two girls that usually worked in a guesthouse of the same owner in Kurashiki. There was a mix of Japanese, English, and Dutch around the two bubbling pots of soup and sake. Eventually we all managed to have one conversation in English.

On the ferry to Naoshima

The next day I went to Naoshima, also known as art island. It has many art museums, eateries, and charming hostels. It rained the whole time, so maybe it wasn’t as nice of an experience as it could have been. I also kept getting lost. But ah well! It was still pretty cool. I went to Minamidera, one in a series of abandoned houses turned into artworks. It was a minimal wood constructed building on the outside, and inside was complete darkness. Only 15 people could go in at a time, and once inside we felt along the wall and inched our way to a bench where we were told to sit down. Bathed in (almost) silence and blackness, after about 15 minutes our eyes adjusted and we saw a rectangle of very dim light in front of us. It looked like a screen. We walked up to it and found that it was not a screen, but a hole in the wall. You could put your hands out into it but see nothing, just a purple-grey haze. It was quite surreal.

Yayoi Kusama

Waiting for the bus

Cats at a closed café

I booked an extra night because of the typhoon. It poured all day, so I stayed in on my last day. I made a coaster out of igusa and Tatski taught me how to braid it too. I ate dinner with a new French couple, Francoise and Dominique, two retirees that used to be high school teachers in a part of France that many refugees and immigrants come to. They had many Haitian refugees come, who would have outbursts of anger and get into fights everyday. One time a boy came in with a huge knife looking for someone. There was also a lot of voodoo, and they would find chicken heads and feet on the ground. Sometimes kids would come to school and say they couldn’t see, because someone blinded them with voodoo. Woah.

Francoise and Dominique were funny. I could tell they knew each other very well and enjoyed being together. They met in that school and later taught at two other schools, alway sticking together. At one point Francoise made up a word, to which Dominique said, “Francoise is crazy, always making her own language. A life with Francoise is always an adventure!”

I made a lot of miso oatmeal here

The next morning I packed up my things and left for Okayama station. I had to check out at 11am but my bus to my next host was at 5:40pm. So I put my backpack in a locker at the station and wandered around the city till then. I got a bowl of cold udon and it was so, so good.

And finally I took a 3 hour bus to Hiruzen, where I am staying with Eiko san, Jiro san, and their daughter, Kotowa san (9). She is kind of annoying so far. Eiko san is a tiny woman that is always smiling, while Jiro san is completely expressionless. Only Eiko san speaks English, and very basic, so I’m not able to have much conversation with them. I wonder how living with them will be ?

[wwoofing-japan]

Today is already my last day here at Nagatoro Base. It rained everyday that I was here, so it has been very mellow. Since outdoor work couldn't be done, I mostly swept and drew posters for blueberries and chestnuts. I also cooked some dinners for us. Yesterday I made spinach and mushroom quiche, baked in an ancient oven that lives in the workshop. We used newspapers to transport them back to the house.

It just looks burnt but it wasn't

On Sunday we went to the Saitama Museum of Natural History, a small museum with rocks and fossils and bones.

From the backyard

Many chestnut trees here. They are spikier than I thought.

It has been fun, and I'm ready to move onwards :-)

[wwoofing-japan]

Nagatoro Base

In this home there is Hannha san who stays at home and works on the farm, Mokoto san who does agricultural research, obachan, Haruka (4), and Midori (6). They have been hosting for 3 years, and I am the second American. The first was just before me, a girl from Michigan. Hannha san said, “She was a wild one, she ate the clover when she was weeding!”

When I first arrived, there was no one home and it was very quiet. Hannha san repeated a few times that her children are very excited, and once they come home it will be very loud. “They will make you very busy..so if you have a chance…please escape.”

So at 3:30 I was in my room, and heard giggling and screaming and little footsteps coming my way. A face popped in my doorway, and then another in the other doorway, and then we played tag as our introduction to each other. This was Haruka and Midori, the giggliest people I’ve ever met.

We play Jenga and dominoes

Make music

And read books about poop

We also play a game called Reversi, with double-sided black and white pieces. Each piece you put down flips the opposing pieces across and diagonal from it your color. The goal is to have more of your color at the end.

Bothering a caterpillar

Haruka is always singing original songs of hers, and running and dancing around. Watching her is like watching a musical. She also pretends to be a cat and lays all over me and I can’t escape. Yesterday she ran to me naked and we slungshot her underwear at each other. Midori is quieter, but still very energetic, and always starts games of tag with me by touching my arm and saying, “Touch!” And after that he says, “come” or “this”, and we play with race cars, tops, Jenga, etc. He also plays the piano, the same two songs over and over so the whole family, including me, is humming it all the time. It is very fun and lively here like an all-day birthday party, quite different from Gabare. And then I get very sleepy.

Yesterday Hannha san handed me coveralls to wear, and I thought maybe we were going to do some intense farmwork but instead she had me sew up holes in another pair of coveralls. So we sat together on the couch, listening to our music and sewing.

Uniform

Then we had lunch, omurice (Japanese omelet with rice inside and ketchup), and then I swept the workshops beside the house. There is one with machines Obachan used to use to make manju to sell, and also a wooden mallet and mortar for mochi making. The other shop is where people weigh and purchase the blueberries they’ve picked from the farm.

Pomegranate tree outside

Today Mokoto san and I drove out to the rice field and gathered bundles of straw to load them into the truck. We drove back to the blueberry farm and lay them around the blueberry trees to keep the soil moist and reduce weed growth. We pulled up weeds from the garden and I spotted a fat, foot-long earthworm!

Hannha san makes good ramen!

It’s been rainy so far, so there is not much work. Mostly I just play with Midori and Haruka.

[wwoofing-japan]

On Wednesday night Hiroaki san and Hiromi san took me out to our last dinner together. We walked through the backyard and out to the street where a Chinese restaurant was. The first thing they asked me when I sat down was, "Do you drink?" I got a whiskey mixed with a oolong tea, and they got beers. We ordered potstickers, chicken karaage, shrimp dumplings, tomato eggs, and an iron pot of vegetables with gravy and crispy rice that sizzled and crackled. It was the first time we ate together without watching TV and talked. I learned that Hiromi san studied science education in college, and Hiroaki san environmental science. After college they did volunteer farm work in Africa, while many of Hiroaki san's classmates went to Brazil to start their own farms. Gabare, the name of their farm, means "farmer" in Ethiopian. In Africa, with frequent food shortage from droughts and civil war, nothing was wasted. Returning to Japan where only 0.5% of farms are organic, Hiroaki san started Gabare. Their home and farm has been in their family for over 300 years, and before Gabare was started, fertilizers and pesticides were used.

Hiroaki san said in America, farming is more like a business. "You could get rich with organic farming if you sold daikon at 10000 yen, but no one is going to buy a 10000 yen daikon." Then Hiromi san said, "If you only care about the money, organic farming doesn't work. You can only have what nature provides and know it is enough. We also do need money, of course..we both do and don't."

I asked if they think they will continue hosting wwoofers for a while, and Hiromi san turned to Hiroaki san. "I think so. Because I teach a class in the evenings, he gets lonely. He needs someone to eat with!"

And like every meal we've had together, I finished last. Hiromi san said, "We eat very fast, as you probably noticed. When I had twins, I had to feed them both at the same time, there was no time to feed myself! So I had to learn how to eat very fast."

On Thursday morning I said my goodbye to Hiromi san who was leaving to teach at the high school, but cooked me fried rice before she left. Then at one, Hiroaki san pulled the van up, I said goodbye to Ojichan and Obachan which consisted of smiling, "sayonara", and "arigatogozaimashita" repeatedly. I left their journal with my thank you note and some matcha cakes on the table, and Obachan saw me out the door. At the station, Hiroaki san said goodbye and good luck in his very reserved and respectful way. I really will miss our evenings eating dinner and watching tv together, but instead I just said goodbye and thank you.

And then I was off, to Nagatoro!

Farewell, Ehara family

[wwoofing-japan]

Things have been pretty good here at Gabare Farm. I’ve become well-adjusted and it’s already my third week now, which means I leave in just a few days.. wow.

Last week consisted of more seed sowing, replanting, harvesting beans, and a lot of weeding. In the back of the house is a plantation of broccoli and lettuce, where more weeds than vegetables grow. With the humidity here, weeds and bugs flourish, which makes organic farming harder than in drier climates. I spent a few days pulling up weeds, which amounted to two huge mounds that we then fed to the chickens (who knew chickens eat weeds?) The lettuce and broccoli are covered with a mesh fabric to keep bugs away, but most if it is still pretty eaten up. Hiromi san said sometimes everything gets eaten by bugs.

Unicycles at Koya!

I also went to Koya Elementary School, where Hiromi san sometimes volunteers to teach after-school classes. After work I biked over, the sun lighting the leaves and rice paddy fields golden. I took off my shoes and put on the school slippers, and Hiromi san showed me around. The halls were lined with drawings and paper cutouts, and the staircase had math formulas on each step. We passed classrooms with kids dancing, sewing, and learning math. There were sinks in the halls where flattened milk cartons were strung together to be dried and then recycled. We met the principal and vice principal, who said he saw me that morning with Hiroaki san in the field (and a couple days later we crossed each other in the street haha). I kept being introduced to everyone as Arison from Kariforunia (Allison from California) and felt like a special guest.

An exhibition of children’s artwork at Fukiage station

This past weekend I had both days off! I went to an onsen on Saturday. Going in, I put my shoes in a small locker and then saw slippers before the second entryway which I then guessed was to wear into the building..turns out it was not because when I walked in, the ladies at the front desk waved their hands and said things in Japanese with exclamatory expressions. Ahk! I was to walk in barefoot. I think the slippers were just for walking to your shoe locker when exiting.

But aside from that mistake, it was great! There was a bath that smelled like barley(?), one that pummeled your back, an ice cold one, and an outdoor area with trees and one-person baths. I ate lunch and then wandered over to the rest area where people were fast asleep on tatami mats.

A park I went to afterwards where there were many fishermen.

Line upon line upon line

Then Sunday was spent in Tokyo. I went to the biggest flea market there, that takes place at a horse racecourse’s parking lot. There was everything you could think of: clothing, antiques, electronics, shoes, toys, ceramics, home goods, bric-a-brac, etc. I found a sweet watch for $5 that I am hoping will work with a new battery.

I took a train to Shibuya station from there, where we travelled up above noodles of freeways and a river, and it really looked like we were flying. From Shibuya I went to Shimokita, a neighborhood of winding alleys with thrift shops, cafés, and bars. It was a lot of neat stuff to look at, and just fun to walk around and people watch. Travelling solo lends to dining solo though, and unfortunately I am too shy to go to a crowded eatery, even if the menu looks great. So instead of this really delicious looking and crowded Thai hole in the wall, I wound up getting dinner at a partially empty Italian café. An eggplant panini that wasn’t very good…man I really need to get over the social anxiety that comes with eating alone at a restaurant :-p

Heading home from Shimokita I passed through Shibuya, land of neon lights, entertainment, shopping, and the famous crossing known to be one of the busiest intersections in the world. I didn’t linger long there but stopped at Tsutaya Book Store where there are seven floors of books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, videogames, a Starbucks, and a nice café on the top floor with art books all around.

Shibuya crossing

Tokyo is a long way out from where I am (Konosu), about 1.5 hours. After the whole day of walking through the streets and navigating the subway, I was beat! But it was quite an adventure, and I am looking forward to seeing more of Tokyo later on. For now I am savoring my last bits of Konosu.

[wwoofing-japan]

Gabare Farm

Today marks one week being here in Japan. It feels so much longer than that. Each day feels like an entire event. I've done something different everyday; made a fence for chicks, sowed tiny seeds in trays of soil, planted cabbage and lettuce sprouts into the field (a lot of squatting under the sun. Hiromi san said it's a workout but you don't have to pay for a gym membership and you get veggies in the end), stamped bags for rice and worked with the husk separator machine. It flushes the husks outside, and I saw out the window a flurry of them like snow, making a huge mountain. While each bag filled up, Ojichan swept the remnants off the floor, Hiroaki san did stretches, and I stared out the window...

Everyday I feed the chickens and ducks a mixture of okara (leftover soybean grounds when making tofu), rice, and other compost (yesterday I gave the chickens a whole watermelon and was surprised to see that within a few minutes it was half gone!) The chickens are crazy, and when they see me approaching they all gather up against the door. One time two of them escaped and Hiroaki san had to come to the rescue. The ducks just run away from me, so it's simple. 

Sowing seeds in the greenhouse

My hosts are Hiroaki san (husband) and Hiromi san (wife), Obachan (grandma) and Ojichan (grandpa). Hiroaki san speaks pretty good English, and Hiromi san some. Their parents only speak Japanese but always give me smiles. They are all so kind and hardworking, and have been hosting wwoofers for 15 years. I work alongside Hiroaki san just about everyday. He gives me brief instructions and then leaves me to myself. Hiromi san cooks our breakfasts and lunches, and they are great! Onigiris (rice balls), vegetables, tofu, miso soup, all from their farm. But the best thing is the rice. We eat it with furikake (rice seasoning) and shiokombu (strips of seaweed boiled in soy sauce).

They keep a journal that has letters from all of their wwoofers. There are people from Thailand, France, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, and two from the Bay Area.

In the evenings Hiroaki san cooks dinner for himself and me, because Hiromi san tutors math to junior high students. Last night he handmade udon! We watch tv when we eat. Japanese tv is so different from America's. The commercials are a lot shorter, and there are a lot for snacks/food products. I've seen maybe one car commercial. Hiroaki san points things out on the tv program, and we have small conversations here and there. But mostly we just watch together.

It is noon now, and we just finished harvesting sweet rice (the sticky kind). With hatchets, we cut the rice stems about 5 inches up from the ground, and gathered and tied them into bunches. Row by row by row. It is hard work, but it's quite therapeutic. By the end my shirt was soaked through with sweat. We had lunch and then I was off the rest of the day because it is Saturday. I went to Apita, a department store just a few minutes walk away. There they have a supermarket, clothing, home goods, stationery, a bakery, a pharmacy, etc. There is very triumphant music that plays in the background. I got Vicks Vaporub, which I read is good for mosquito bites. I have about 33 now.

When I came back, all of the rice bundles were hung onto teepee-like structures. Hiroaki san said that is the traditional way of drying rice, as it retains more of the rice's nutrients than the drying machine does.

Tonight we had ramen, toast with cheese, and watched a 10k marathon in Hokkaido.

There are 6 cats here. They mostly lick themselves and laze around in the shade of plants. So far I've only been able to befriend two of them.

Every morning the rooster crows before the sun even rises. I get up at 6:30 and meet Hiroaki san to feed the chickens and ducks. We have breakfast at 7:30 and watch an ongoing drama series that is very sticky sentimental, work from 9 to 12, eat lunch, work from 1:30 to 2:30, feed the chickens and ducks, and I'm done at 3. Then I shower (never in my life have I showered daily) and then hang out in my room writing, trying to learn Japanese, sleeping, etc. We have dinner at 6:30, then I fall asleep around 10. The day sounds short but feels long and full. So far things are going well. At first I felt a little alien but now not so much. It's strange to think that I will be here for my birthday, Halloween, and Thanksgiving because all of those sound so far away. Tomorrow is Sunday, which means the day is free :-) I'm not yet sure where I will go.