WWOOF 3 - SASAYAMA FARM

So I finally made it to another wwoof and it was fantastic! I only had a few days between working and making it back to Kyoto in order to catch the fire festival, but aaah, it was wonderful!

The farm is in Sasayama and the air and surrounding countryside were so fresh and beautiful! The house is at least 80 years old, a traditional grass roof house. Current occupants were Gen and Rei, two cool brothers whose mum, a zen master, was in Tokyo during my visit. Both have amazing english and are very cool, and have spent some time in America, cause their dad is American. Also Gen just came back from a 1.5 year bike trip around Europe. And on his first trip alone too, balsy!

The house was so peaceful...their parents lived in a zen temple in Kyoto for 3 years and you could feel the zen presence in their house...and in Gen and Rei who were so laid back...it was so nice...the days went so slow. Two days there were like two weeks in Kyoto. It was so good for my mind to stretch out time with good work, cooking, eating, reading, yoga (in the field, atlast I could strech out in the sun and do some sun salutations), meditation, good quiet sleeping at night without a sound......

The other wwoofers were Peter from Brno (a Czech from my birthtown, what a coincidence!) and Harmony from California. Both very laid back as well. Our work consisted mainly of getting and sorting wood for the winter, cooking dinner and cleaning the kitchen and on Sunday I went with Gen and Rei to cut edamame beans into piles, it was blissful. Plus those beans are damn tasty when they are boiled and salted!

On top of that, I got to borrow Gens mountain bike and go for an awesome bike ride around the area, it was pouring rain, but it was exhilerating, I was the only one out there, with ponds fringed with bamboo, lonely shrines...I even found a meditation platform by the side of the road and meditated there for half an hour, after which I realized how wet I was and got cold and headed home.

During the weekend there also happened to be a small festival in the town, so I went into town to check that out, and it was wonderful. The town staples for tourists seem to be edamame and maron nuts, so there were stalls along the streets, and it was so festive, flowers, fresh air, I kind of felt like I was in Banff. The tourist center was so peaceful with a garden and koi swimming in it, tables, icecream.....

Another highlight was carving wood in the evening, I made my own chopsticks even! They are nothing compared to the sticks of death that Rei made and laquered, but hey, they're a start!

The following week I returned to the farm after the fire matsuri and more teaching, and this time it was getting damn cold! We had to huddle together under the Kotatsu, a table with a heater underneath and a blanket to hold the cold in, to keep warm. Its actually cool, it brings people together. We watched Sin City one night which I thought was whacked and disturbing, and then I watched the March of the Emperor, about the penguin mating ritual, and that was lovely. Poor frozen penguins! I also read about zen and relished being in a real bed again in a frosty house, like being in a cabin in Canada. So cozy. I like futons but sometimes its nice to be in a comfy creaky bed half a meter off the ground again!

Thanks Sasayama farm, that rocked and was a highlight of Japan for me!

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