9: Miserable in Mito

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Miserable is an exaggeration; I only used it for the alliteration! But let's say that this "farm" experience wasn't my favourite. The first problem was that it wasn't a farm. This was definitely a case of doesn't do what it says on the tin! I thought I'd be learning about bonsai making and uses of bamboo... a potentially great Japanese experience I'm sure you'll agree! But in fact the host was running a summer school for kids, including giving English lessons. So what she wanted me to do was to help with the English lessons and entertain the kids in between times! Yeah right! On my evening of arrival she asked if I'd help her with an English class the next day and suggested I may like to sing a song to the kids! Now, for those who know my singing ability (or lack of it!) and how much I hate performing, you can imagine how that went down. I thought I better put her straight on a few things, firstly that I don't sing, secondly I don't know any children's games and thirdly that I thought I'd be working with plants not children! She got the hint and suggested that perhaps I read to the children instead. Very quickly I realised that I really didn't want to waste my last farm-stay babysitting, so told the host that I wouldn't be staying the whole two weeks as originally intended. In fact it wasn't just the baby-sitting that I wasn't happy with, after all, how hard can 2 weeks of babysitting be? But unfortunately the family wasn't quite "my cup of tea" either. They were a completely disfunctional family; the mother started the day with a can of beer, the father was the laziest human being I've ever met, and the kids.... well two of the three were teenagers, so need I say more, and the third, the youngest, was a spoiled brat!

In order not to be left responsible for half a dozen school kids, I occupied myself with the house-hold tasks that needed doing, which mainly consisted of hanging out the six or so loads of laundry that were done each day, washing-up and cleaning the kitchen! Oh joy! Is this what I travelled to Japan for? The family also had a poor neglected dog who spent his whole life chained to the corner of the garden, so I befriended him and took him for long walks. I did manage to persuade the youngest daughter to help me groom him one day and take him for a walk; I got the impression that it was her first time holding the dog lead. At first she was really scared but soon she enjoyed it; I do hope she continues after I'm gone.

I deliberated heading over to Sydney to join Steve for a week before we both start out two month tourism stint, but at 800GBP the fare was prohibitive... the price of love is obviously less than that for me!! ;-)

So instead I contacted the riding stables again and asked them nicely if they'd have me back for a week. Luckily they said yes so I spent my last week of farm-stay back there, mucking out, working the horses and teaching riding in my broken Japapese!

Well that's the end of my WWOOF farm-stay blog.　Steve came out to join me in Japan on 1st September so since then we've been doing more traditional tourism. It's harder for me to find internet access these days. Some of the areas were are visiting are very remote so if I get to a city big enough I'll be sure to stop by an internet cafe and keep you updated.

Thanks for comments and emails; keep them up.. I promise to keep in touch!

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