WWOOFing in Japan

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The two weeks I spent in the farm was one of the best time I have in my lift so far. First, the scenary of the farm is amazing, with snowy Yotai Mountain at the backdrop, ending green all around, dogs barking, chicken running, and quiet. Second, the work is so different from what I used to do in the office. Pure manual labor, not too much brain work. Third, great people, cute cats, delicious food and great conversations. Everyday is hard labor, but you will so satisfied and rewarded with great home cooked food. Here are few of the things I really missed and memorable moments:

1) Food made by Hiroko-san is amazing: Hiroko-san used to be a cooking teacher in Osaka. With the limited ingridients grew in the farm, she was able to come up with different delicious food every meal. Even everyday we have asparagus and potatos, but it is never boring. More amazingly, Hiroko-san can pick many eatable green from the roadside after walking the dogs and incorporated them into dinner. I wish I can get the recipe from her. One of the most memorable meal is home-made Takoyaki by Takahashi-san. Delicious!

2) Bread made by the bread machine: the Parasonic bread maker is amazing. At first I thought the bread we ate everyday is from the store. But it is not. Hiroko-san prepared the ingredients every night and set the timer to have the bread down by the morning. Very minimal labor, but delicious soft bread.

3) Takahashi-san: Takahashi-san is in his seventies. Takahashi-san's dream from early on is to own a farm in Hokkaido. In order to fulfill his own dream, he worked in an office for almost thirty years until he felt that he is ready. He quited his office job and went to work in the farm for almost two years, where he learned all about farming. Takahashi-san and Hiroko-san designed the house themselves and took care everything on the farm themselves. Every morning Takahashi-san would wake up and can't wait to work on the farm. He enjoys every moment of it. Hiroko-san is Takahashi-san's second wife. His first wife died from cancer and his late wife's dying wish is for Takahashi-san to find a good woman to take care of him. The nurse of his late wife, who knew Hiroko-san, set them up. Takahashi-san did not speak any other language other than Japanese and never travelled abroad, but you can see that he is enjoying every moments with the WWOOFers from all over the world. He said he is very glad that they participate in this program, which made him feel that he travelled all over the world without leaving the house. Takahashi-san loves sweets, candies, chocolate, Poke. Every day after dinner, we will have sweets for desserts. You can see the eagerness on his face when we take out the sweets. The funnies moment was Takahashi-san doing the 10 famous Hong Kong photo-taking-poses. He is SO cute!!!

4) Watching Sumo wrestling on TV with Hiroko-san: one day after work, I tuned into Sumo wrestling on TV. Before this, I did not have any interest in Sumo wrestling and sometimes made fun of the big fat guys fighting each other in a circle. With Hiroko-san's help on explaining the game and the rules, it got much more interesting. There are actually a lot of money, frame and skills involved in a fight. Sumo wrestling is truely a national sport for Japanese people. For the next fews days, I even followed the game on TV.

5) Farm knowledge and skills: I have distant memory as a kid playing with mud from the rice field, parents harvesting rice, running around in the field, pick eatable green from the riverbank. Those are good times that I missed. Living in the farm, I was able to relive this. I learned how to prepare a greenhouse for planting, how to build a net for the beans to grow on, how to take care of young tamoto plants, how to drive a tractor, prepare the filed for potato planting, planting potato at the back of the tractor, etc. I enjoyed every moment of it. Even though my back and knee hurts from getting up and down hundreds time everyday, got countless mosquito bites, soaked up my shirts everyday, the satisfaction that I get from these hard labor and being a participant in growing all these plants is priceless. Through this process, I also learned that are much planning invoived in farming. Takahashi-san calculates the distance between each plant based on the legth of the greenhouse, number of young plants. The one regret I have in this trip is that I was not able to go back to the farm during harvest season, to hand pick the various plants that I put into the ground in May. I can imagine that feeling must be so good and satisfying.

6) The Japanese qualify: Japanese products have reputation of good quality and last forever. Japanese are extremely serious about the quality of the products they put out, to the smallest details. I was able to experience this first hand in the farm. Takahashi-san and Hiroko-san also sell their products online, such as various kinds of jam (veggie curry - YUMMY and my favorite), pumkin, etc., organic fresh vegetable to resturants and households. During my stay in the farm, the purple asparagus is in season and it is also one of the top sellers. I helped Hiroko-san prepare packages for shipping. The packages were not mass-produced like many products we used in our life. Each asparagus is examined by Hiroko-san, cut to the legth of 24cm, wrapped nicely into a bundle, put into plastic bags, then into box of 1kg or 2kg. Based on observation, the portion that got selected for packaging is only less than half of the havested amount (the leftover will be our dinner). In addition to this, Hiroko-san would not send out mass amount of the veggies to the restraurant at once. In order for their customer to taste the freshest veggies, they only send out the amount of veggies needed for the day by the customer and make repeating shipments everyday. No wonder Takahashi-san has loyal customers for over a decade. Another thing I noticed is that the soil in the farm. When people think about working in a farm, they will think of worms, dirty and smelly mud, bugs, trash, etc. But the soil in the farm is so healthy and clean, it makes it easier for me to get down on my fours sometimes and don't mind it at all. My clothes are covered with mud everyday, but I am Okay putting it on the next day. Later I found out that Takahashi-san and Hiroko-san used fish, shells and other natual products to fertilize the land. No wonder all the veggies are extra delicious.

7) Traditional Japanese Onsen: Takahashi-san is a big fan of Onsen, but Hiroko-san is not. On my first day off, Takahashi-san took me and Kelly to a traditional Japanese Onsen about half hour away. Since it is traditional, they mean all naked inside. It is kind of award in the beginning, but glass off, I don't see anything. Problem solved. = P The best part is the outdoor pool surrounded by snow. It is just like what I see on Japanese drama. LUXURY!! Before my last day in the farm, Takahashi-san took us to Onsen again. It was not my day off. But since I said I really enjoy onsen, he purposely give everyone the day off early and took us to an onsen. So nice of him!!! This onsen is even more traditional. There is separate indoor pool for men and women, but the outdoor pool is communal. There are five of us by then, all girls. We are hesitate at first of going outside. But the pool inside is so miserable, we decided to go outside with a towel (not very Japanese = P). It is beautiful outside with mini waterfall, decorative stones. We enjoy it, but definitely not Takahashi-san and his son. We scared them inside. They did not think we will have the gut to go outside. = P Snowball fight on the ride back. Great time!!!

8) Cats and dogs: I always like animals, but I kept my distance from them. But on the farm, I felt in love with the two cats: Chuby and Nana-chan. Nana-chan is so big, it reminds me of the cat-bus from Totoro. Per Hiroko-san, Nana used to be the king of the jungle. Chuby-chan has an attitude. She is more than 10 years old, which is very very old in cat years. Chuby does not listen to anyone and only eat from Hiroko-san. But by the end my stay, Chuby and I connected. She grew close to me and would eat from my hand. Sometimes during dinner, she would jump up to the back of my chair and just hang out with me. She marks the beginning of my connection with animals throughout my trip. I became a cat & dog person, they all love me. Sometimes a little too much = P One fond memory is "walking" the dogs at the back of the truck. One evening, Takahashi-san asks all five of us to join him walking the dogs. Actually not walking, but drive-walking the dogs. Takahashi-san had all of us at the back of the truck and drove around the farm with the dogs tracing the truck.

My experience at the farm will be one of my most precious memory in life. It took me back to basic and brought me peace in mind, which was essential for the rest of my trip. I am grateful for the hospitality of Takahashi-san and Hiroko-san. It was home away from home. I was so sad on the day that I have to leave. Both of them took me to the train station, stayed with me in the train until the last minute and wave me off in the platform. I was holding back tears. I left part of my heart in the farm.

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Photos

The Loving Family
On my last day....