Farm Life

Well, after a few physically and mentally exhausting days as a WWOOFer (Willing Worker on an Organic Farm), I am slowly adjusting to life here. Today was my fifth day and it was finally sunny!
There are 80 cows on the farm, 40 of which we milk twice a day. It's an exhausting amount of work between the 2 of us, but Katsunori-san does it by himself when there are no WWOOFers to help out. I can hardly imagine. Maki, one of his 2 daughters (he also has 2 sons), lives here as well, but she is at work at a fish factory in town from 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning until about the same time in the evening. When she gets home, she usually makes us dinner, but a few nights a week she also works evenings at a cafe!
For me, the average day goes roughly as follows:
6:30 - Wake up, eat a banana and slip into my coveralls and gumboots.
6:45 - Heat up some milk to give to the calves, by bottle or bucket. During that time, I also prepare for milking by sanitizing towels and setting up the milking machines. When the cows come in to the stalls, I dip the nipples in a type of soap then wipe off the dung and mud with a hot moist towel. Before attaching the milking machine (which works like a vacuum), I milk each nipple a bit. It took me a bit to get the hang of it because I was always afraid I was going to hurt them, but I guess they're pretty tough animals, you just squeeze as hard as you can and squirt, squirt, squirt! When the machine has finished, there's another dip and on to the next cow...
8:45ish - As we finish up milking, I shovel the dung out of the milking stalls. Today I had to get Katsunori-san kill a spider because I couldn't walk past it. I just freeze up, but seriously, they're as big as golf balls, with butts that size of olives! Then we put away the equipment and I hose down the milking stalls.
9:30ish - We come back to the house and make something for breakfast... usually a full meal of delicious Japanese food, homemade bread, veggies from the garden, etc. There's definitely plenty of food around here and of course fresh dairy products... milked-this-morning milk at dinner and the other day, Kastunori-san made yogourt and cream cheese! We also had homemade ice cream and caramels!
10:30ish - I get suited up again and take the cows out to one of the pastures. This is my favourite part of the day because I get to walk through the mud to the fields under the mountains and I always listen to music on my MP3 player and sing at the top of my lungs because the cows don't mind! Back at the barn, I shovel the dung off the cow beds and sweep them off so that Katsunori-san can plough the dung, etc. out of the barn and lay down fresh saw dust.
11:30ish - I have some free time, so back at the house, I do the dishes and write in my blog, hopefully soon I can use this time to study Japanese or climb the mountains.
1:00ish - We make lunch, another full meal! I made tacos for us today because Katsunori-san had gone to cut the hay in one of the hay fields. Tomorrow he has to continue preparing it (we're hoping it doesn't rain in the next few days).
2:00ish - Time to bring the cows in from the pasture... another episode of fun singing (and sometimes even dancing, heh heh!).
4:00ish - We repeat the same thing as in the morning from giving the calves milk to milking the 40 milk cows.
6:30ish - I'm done and take a much appreciated shower after the backbreaking day of getting splashed with dung, pee, milk, mud, and sometimes even whipped in the face with a tail.
7:00ish - We eat a good dinner and chat a bit then do our own thing until next thing you know it's nearly 11:00pm and I climb up to bed, exhausted.
Tomorrow afternoon, 2 students from Taiwan are arriving, so things are going to change once there are 4 of us around. I'm looking forward to their company.

Rainy Days on the Farm

My first 4 days volunteering on the farm have been pretty dreary, not only weather wise, but psychologically. I have been pondering and pondering just how to express my experience so far and I think it's best if I give you a bit of background on my expectations since so much depends on our prior impressions.
I guess I envisioned a quaint organic dairy farm where I would spend about 6 hours of my day shovelling dung, taking care of the animals and assisting the 60-year-old farmer with milking and making meals. I thought that the rest of the time I could mountain climb, bathe in the hot springs, wander around the small town and study Japanese (I brought 4 heavy text books with me to do so).
Now I don't know if you've heard that cows are one of the main producers of Earth's methane gas, but I can sure tell you that with gas comes flies and with flies comes spiders... gigantic spiders and lots of them... everywhere, in the barns, in the raspberry bushes, in the kitchen, in my room, in the shower... I have arachnophobia, it's not just a hatred, it's a fear and so I am constantly cowering from the doorways and corners. The night before last, I got up to use the bathroom, but physically couldn't go down the stairs because there was a huge spider building it's web above the staircase and I just froze.
It's impossible for me to express everything that went through my head on that first day. Sometimes I think my pride is still getting in the way of me admitting to myself that I have failed in a way. I don't mind pit toilets, I don't mind shovelling dung, milking the cows is hard on my back, but it's part of the job and I can do it, I don't mind eating bug chewed lettuce from the garden, it's natural! But my failure is in that I just can't enjoy this grungy, spider infested, back breaking lifestyle 24 hours a day.
That being said, I stressed a lot debating whether I would stay here for the whole month or find something else to do for half the time. It was a hard decision to make because I felt like I was letting Katsunori-san down and I felt like I was giving up and I don't like to give up. But I've realized that my priorities in Japan are to learn the language while experiencing the culture, but I haven't had time yet to open a book and conversation is a little stilted. Because of that and other things, I have decided to go to a vegetable farm in central Hokkaido after I have visited with Lizzie for 5 days in Asahikawa.
Anyways, I think that the 2 weeks I spend here just might be one of the best experiences of my life. I have learned so much already. I know that I am able to live here, but I just can't willingly do this for a long time. I have decided to stay here until Aug.9th so I am going to try to enjoy the positive aspects as much as I can. That being said, I hope to have the time soon to write in more detail about daily life on the farm and post some pictures.

Overnight Ferry

Originally my plan had been to go all the way to Hokkaido by train, but I soon realized that it was going to take several very long days of local train travel and a couple nights in hostels (which are not very cheap here). But then we (Ikue and I) discovered the overnight ferry from Sendai to Hokkaido!! It was just $105 Canadian and I even got my own futon, in a women only room, with noone in the beds either side of me!
It took almost 16 hours, but the boat was like a cruise ship, so it was awesome! I had brought some snacks with me that were adding weight to my pack, so I opted so eat some of them for dinner instead of going to one of the on-board restaurants.
Once I had got settled in, I went to the hotsprings! It was Japanese style, so clothes off, shower sitting down and into one of the two hot tubs. Mmm... my, so relaxing. There was even a sauna and the windows looked out on the open ocean (glad there wasn't a ship going by, lol).
After reading my book for a bit, it was lights out time. I got a pretty good sleep, except that a kid 2 beds over was caughing a bit. In the morning, I ate my snacks for breakfast and went in the bath again. I read my book for a while then got talking with some of the women I had shared the room with before we landed at Tomakomai around 11:00am.
From there, I took a bus to the main station where I waited for 2 hours and had lunch at a little cafe where the lady gave me some extra snacks for the road. I once again took the local trains during 4 hours to Asahikawa where I had an hour to wander around before catching a 3-hour bus to Monbetsu. During the whole trip it had been cloudy and wet. By the time I reached the bus station where I would meet Katsunori (the owner of the dairy farm I am volunteering at), it was pouring with rain. I have been here for 3 days and it has been pretty wet ever since. I am extremely busy around here and internet is a bit limited, so I'm sorry if I'm not very up-to-date with my blog or emails. I hope you're all having a great summer!

Long time no see...

How is 9 years for long time no see? Especially when you're in your early 20s. Well, I visited Mayuko just north of Tokyo where she is working as a nurse. She stayed with our family for a week one summer, 9 years ago. Since then we have kept in touch with her by writing occasional letters and short emails.
I didn't recognize her when we met at the train station, but despite the language barrier (we spoke only in Japanese), we were like old friends. We went to Chiba prefecture and shopped around a bit. The weather was quite hot and I was still wearing my 15kg backpack, but I can't complain because she had worked about an 11-hour night shift the night before and I had got a relatively good sleep at the hostel.
In her letters, she often sent little stickers that her and her friends had made in the photo booths, so I suggested we do so together. Those things are so much fun! There are several different poses you can choose from and then you can edit your hair colour, add the date, write anything you want, put little shapes, etc.
That evening, in her little one-bedroom apartment, we looked at pictures together and made dinner (chicken curry and miso soup). For dessert I taught her how to eat TimTams (Autralian cookies) by using them as straws for milk. We ate the whole box! We set out our futons side by side and it really gave the feeling of a good old sleep over!
We went to bed early because we were both exhausted and the next day, after breakfast, she walked me back to the train station. From there, I travelled for 6.5 hours on the local trains, all the way up the coast to Sendai. While at Mayuko's house, we called her friend, Noriko who been in Nelson 9 years ago as well. I remembered watching the fireworks with her.
Well, it turns out that she lives in Sendai (also working as a nurse) and she had the afternoon off so her and a friend could meet me at the station for an hour before I caught the bus to the ferry terminal. We tried some samples of the local snacks (namely cow toungue!) and then took pictures in a photo booth together and played a round on one of the slot machines because we had won free tokens.
I caught the 5:45 bus to the ferry terminal, arriving there around 6:40, an hour before departure....

Asakusa Shrine

Before leavning Tokyo, I went to see the Asakusa shrine. We had studied a bit about it in my International Relations class. Many Japanese people who died fighting for their country are buried there. Traditionally, the Japanese Prime Minister makes an official visit each year to honour the soldiers. However, this is very controversial because several Class A war criminals are buried their, including a former Japanese Prime Minister who served during a war with China.

Tokyo

After a breakfast of more sushi and even some natto (fermented soy beans), I took the train out of Izu. It took me about 3.5 hours on the local trains and the Tokyo Metro. I checked in at the "cheapest hostel in Tokyo", Tokyo Backpackers, for about $25 Canadian (hostels are usually at least $35 or $40). The neighbourhood wasn't the nicest, but that hostel was clean and convenient.
That evening, I met up with Takuya (who studied at Selkirk last year and is living just North of Tokyo). It was so great to see a familiar face! He took me to Shibuya, the busiest place in the biggest city in the world - yikes! It was crazy! We wandered around the streets packed with people and even ventured into a mall for young girls that was really bright, noisy and all around overwhelming. I was surprised that it is actually fairly hilly and there are some large trees lining some streets.
For dinner, we went to a hip little Japanese restaurant and had some tasty food! We spent the evening talking (mostly in English) about life, especially long distance relationships (his girlfriend is from Hong Kong and living there).
Tokyo's an interesting place and I'm glad that I went there in the end, but it's not somewhere I'll hurry back to anytime soon, it's just too busy for me.

Sister City Presentation

When Toru and I got home from the theme park, Atsumi and a friend came over for afternoon tea and then we all went to city hall in the evening. Atsumi had asked me to make a presentation to the middle school students who were not able to go on the annual visit to Nelson because of the swine flu.
At the meeting, there were 9 students and some adults who are part of the sister city association. Even the mayor showed up to have a picture taken.
After an ice breaker of "Duck, Duck, Goose" the students introduced them selves and some even gave me little gifts! For the presentation about Nelson, I used the power point I had prepared for my Japanese course. I forgot my notes at the house, but this turned out to be a good thing I was able to present it all in Japanese and even add in a few extra facts.
The rest of the time the students asked me questions while we ate some Canadian style snacks (maple cookies, pretzles and chips) and I taught them an easy group card game.
Back at the house, Toru's wife had come home from work and prepared a type of sushi with sashimi that each person makes their own mini roll at the table. Mmm... simple and delicious!

Mini Nelson

In the afternoon of my day in Izu-Shi, Toru took my to the mountain top theme park. Here there are set ups from England, Canada and Japan. You can buy products from the countries in the shops there and eat at little cafes. After walking along a path through the extensive forests, we arrived in "Canada", complete with Nelson Station, the Orange Bridge and a mini Baker Street! I bought some maple cookies there to share with everyone later on.
We continued to walk through the rose gardens, then the rododendrons to the Japanese garden and coy pond where we fed the huge fish. It's a really peaceful place to just hang out and experience the cultures.

Tagata-gun Fire Department

On Wednesday morning, Toru and I went together to visit Izu`s regional fire department. We were concidently there at 11:00am which is 7:00pm on Tuesday in Canada... the exact time that I would have been at fire practice if I was still living in Nelson! At the fire station, we were greated be the cheif and deputy cheif. They offered us some cold drinks and got some officers to show me a video of them at last years national rescue competition in which they placed first of the whole country!! We exchanged fire crests and then they proceeded to show us around the entire 3-story building. In the office, I met the only female fire fighter out of 60 or so fire fighters. There we were offeres green tea and everyone started trying to firgure out what they could give me as gifts, which turned into me receiving all sorts of fire department trinkets and even a t-shirt!
We got to see the regional call centre where they receive fire and ambulance calls. There were also sleeping quarters and a kitchen. Out at the trucks, they let me ride up the 40 metre tall ladder truck!! So awesome!! I could see really far! And it was at the exact time as the solar eclipse here in Japan. Although we couldn`t see it because of the clouds, it did get a little dark. Everyone at the fire department was extremely welcoming! Meanwhile, I should mention that this was all happening in Japanese as with the rest of this visit which is challenging, but awesome!

The Grand Adventure begins...

After a late night of packing and various other preparations, I woke up early on July 21st to begin my 7-week summer journey around Japan and Korea. With by 30-pound backpack on my back and using one of my 5 Japan Rail day passes, I rode the local trains North along to coast during 6 hours until I reached Izu-shi (Nelson`s sister city) on Shizuoka peninsula.
There I was greated by Atsumi-san, a member of the Nelson/Izu-shi Frienship Society with who I had arranged the visit by email. Toru-san , my host father, met us there too and drove me to their house about 10 minutes from the station, in the rolling hills. This area is really quite pretty, with the hills and streams. It has been cloudy the whole time I`ve been here but if it wasn`t, you can see Mount Fuji from here.
That evening, we made dinner and waited until Toru`s wife, Yoshiko-san came home from her job as a high school English teacher. Toru is a semi-retired electrician, their son, who I met last night, works with computers and their daughter is living in Vancouver with her Canadian husband, working together in the movie industry. I`m staying in a guest room beside the main house and their big garden. For the past few days we have been eating fresh tomatoes, cucumber, blueberries, etc. from the garden!

Sumo

Ok, so you know that sport we've all seen on TV or in the movies with large, nearly naked men wrestling in a small ring... that often seems kind of strange... well, it has reinforced my theory of "with knowledge comes appreciation"! As I mentioned early, when Hitoshi came to visit us on Wednesday, he explained to us all about Sumo and last week I went to a lecture about it at the university. It's actually really interesting! And if you know what's going on, and why, it's quite enjoyable to watch!
Of the official Sumo league tournaments that happen 5 times a year, they happen once in Nagoya, in July. So on Katsutoshi's recommendation I watched some of the competition on TV (the first time I've watch TV here) last Sunday afternoon. This morning I went with Ikue-san to a small temple near her apartment that is also a Sumo house. They wrestlers practice from 6:30am-10:00am there. There was even a foreigner wrestling there, which is quite rare. He is from the Czech Republic.
For those of you who are interested in knowing some facts about Sumo, please read on... but I do warn you than some exact details may have got lost in translation, so please excuse any mistakes if you know otherwise...
The name Sumo is actually derived from the Chinese characters for "naked" "hands" and "dance". It originated from Shintoism (the Japanese native religion) from the legend of a village that tried to coax the sun god out of a cave by dancing and making merriment. When she got curious and finally peeked out, "Sumo" (the first god of Sumo) pulled a huge rock away from the entrance of the cave, to let the light out.
From there, it evolved into a sport which has become Japan's national sport. In old times, the wrestlers' muscular, fat bodies were considered beautiful, they were the "hot stuff" of the times. To prepare for a match the wrestlers throw salt on the ring for cleansing, pat their bellies, clap there hands (which are remnants of religious traditions) and stare at each other until the "right moment" and strike. Back then, the wrestlers could take as long as they wanted... sometimes days until they had the "feeling", but now, a referee initiates the fight after about 4 minutes.
The wrestlers' belts are made of a length of approximately 2-foot wide and 20 foot-long piece of cloth. Nothing can be worn underneath it and if the knot comes undone during the match, that wrestler looses. One tactic they sometimes use is to try to undo the other wrestler's belt. The belt cannot be washed either, only hung out to air. If it gets dirty, they just fold it differently and eventually get a new one.
There is no punching with fists or grabbing of top knots (their hair). Kicking is not permitted, except for tripping of the legs. Slapping and bear-hug back-bending is only allowed in the pro-games and not the junior leagues.
There are various techniques of grabbing, pushing and even clapping to distract the other. The objective is to push the other wrestler out of the ring or throw him to the ground. If you're interested, watch some clips on YouTube!

Great start to the summer holidays

After wandering around the Saturday market in Nagoya with Alexis, I went to Nagoya Station, bought my train pass for this summer and continued up to Konan to visit with John and Shoko.
First we went out to a Japanese restaurant in Konan and it was delicious!! We had some neat appetizers follow by sashimi tofu curds and scallops. They insisted that dinner was their treat, so I treated us to coffee and dessert... tiramsu and green tea/ red bean cake with ice creammmm....
I stayed the night at their place and we had a very relaxing Sunday morning with a leisurely breakfast. In the afternoon, we decided to go for a drive into Gifu prefecture - the mountains! On the way there, we stopped a cute coffee shop called "Canada" because it is a wooden A-framed shaped building. There I had toast with red bean paste.
The drive through the mountains was stunning, along a curvy road, through tunnels, beside a river, between cliffs and trees and little communities. We stopped at a little market shop and while we bought some veggies and such, it started to pour... and I mean pour!!! Big sheets of rain tossled by the suddenly raging winds. It was awesome!!! It calmed down after about 10 minutes and we were able to get back to the car. At another market shop, there was a trestle covered in kiwi fruit vines, full of kiwis!
We continued up the valley following the river where we could see people with big long fishing poles, trying to catch "sweet fish" called so because they eat a sweet moss that grows in the river. We kept going until they found a restaurant on the side of the river where they had eaten before. There we ordered some "sweet fish" and ate them completely... I mean completely... head to tail fin and everything in between (even the bones!). They were really tasty and not very chewy at all. So cool!!
On the way back to Konan, it got dark and poured with rain. And we saw wild monkeys running across the road! How cool is that! I wanted to take them for dessert again, so we stopped by Baskin Robbins before they dropped me off at the train station. It was all around a randomly wonderful Sunday!

Goodbyes

Well, our last week of classes is over and it's almost time to say goodbye to the students who are returning home this month. Yesterday we had our final Kanji test, did a group project and had a graduation ceremony for the students who are leaving. The picture is of me and my classmates (except for Rosie who wasn't there then).
Last night at I-House, we celebrated Atchan's birthday (the RA who is also leaving this semester). After that everyone went out to an all-you-can-drink final party and Alexis and I relaxed watching a movie.
Today I am off to a market in Nagoya.

Everything comes and goes...

So a part of my time in Japan is coming to an end. We finish first semester tomorrow and as the majority of the students here prepare to go back to their countries, the rest of us are figuring out plans for our summer holidays.
On Tuesday, I celebrated France’s revolution with the French students and at the same time, said goodbye to Jeremy, from Quebec who left yesterday. Last night I also went out for Ramen (delicious noodle etc. bowls) with Daisuke, the guy who’s studying French and Spanish. I knew he was graduating this semester, but what I didn’t know was that he is going to France in September, so once I leave for my summer trip on Tuesday, we won’t see each other again… well for a long time anyways…
C’est la vie!

Lovely Saturday

I went again on Saturday morning to the hill shrine, this time with the intention to visit the caretaker, Osho-san (this is her job title, but she figures it is easiest for me to pronounce). I took her some raisin oatmeal cookies I had baked the other day and was hoping to help her out around the temple. She invited me in again for tea... Japanese pickles... rice... and a little Japanese lesson. I tried to offer to help, but she insisted it wasn't necessary. As she drove me home, we stopped by a funky art gallery on the way home to visit her friend, the owner. This time she sent me home with a basket of veggies which I use to made potato-cabbage pancakes to share around. She is such a sweet lady.
In the afternoon, I walked to Ikue-san's house because she had been helping me with train schedules etc. for my summer trips and wanted to go through them with me. It was starting to get really difficult and seemed that it would take me 4 days of travel and 3 nights in hostels in go from Tokyo (where I will be visiting some friends next week) to Monbetsu (where I will be volunteering on a dairy farm for 4 weeks). Then we had a break through in that we found an overnight ferry! Now I can get there in 2 days and not have to spend a single night in a hostel! We also found a very handy bus on Hokkaido that saves me some time and money. What a relief!

Ceramics!

Esha and I received our finished ceramics pieces in the mail and they're beautiful!
I chose the glaze for my little sweets plate and the Suzukis chose the colour for my tea bowl and Esha's vase which they bought for us.
I went to the store today and bought some powered green tea and a Japanese treat. I didn't have the other tea ceremony tools, but I still enjoyed drinking my tea from my new tea bowl!

Visitors

This Wednesday, I had the pleasure of welcoming Katsutoshi and Hiromi Suzuki to I-House. They came all the way to Nisshin to visit me and Esha before he leaves back to Canada. We started with afternoon tea and cookies (I had made some oatmeal raisin ones the day before) and Katsutoshi taught us all about Sumo since there is a big tournament happening in Nagoya this weekend. Hiromi had also brought me some lovely homemade black soybean juice (that tastes like black current cordial!) and sweet soya ginger to eat with rice.
After tea time, we showed them around the university where we bumped into Jun and Keisuke! I haven't spoken much Japanese with Jun and Keisuke, so they were kind of surprised that I could have a basic conversation.
That evening, the Suzukis took Esha and I out for dinner at a Yakitori (grilled chiken) restaurant nearby. It was fabulous!! We sat on cushions on the wooden flour (my legs still aren't used to that). We got a set meal, so the food just kept coming with a portion of each thing for each person. We even had chicken sashimi! My instincts told me that raw chicken is dangerous, but apparently the way they prepare it is not (they also flash boil it before serving it). Then came the chicken skin, chicken liver, chicken dipped in raw egg yolk, etc. So interesting... and delicious! We had wonderful conversations (almost all in Japanese!) about the different dishes, including varieties of mushrooms.
I am so glad that they could see where we live and am so grateful for their generosity and kindness.