Chinita Farm

I just finished a few wonderful days at my last WWOOF placement, Chinita Farm in Kami Furano. The first day or two were a little rough since the WWOOFer house was really crowded and messy, the pit toilet stank up the whole house (fan not working), the other WWOOFers neglected to tell me how to turn the hot water on for the shower. I also kept, unknowingly, trying to eat food that apparently belonged to other people (they didn't think the budget was enough so they bought their own food, but didn't tell me). However, the 2 friends and the couple from Hong Kong soon left. When we got a day off from the rain, we gave the house a thourough cleaning! At least I was no longer scared of spiders by then!
For the rest of the time, it was just me and Kevin, a 40-year-old American who has spent the last 15 or so years teaching English etc. in Japan and China. He's a character alright, very opinionated, often pessimistic and eats horse flies. As for the Tanaka family, they are all such sweet people. Tanaka-san and his wife run the vegetable farm and look after the little 8-person farm lodge they have. Their oldest son, Shotaro (30) and his wife also help out on the farm. Their baby is nearly a year old and is so cute! Our first day was spent sorting spinach and bagging it. Then we weeded the spinach fields a bit and the rest of the time was spent harvesting potatoes, which was tough work.
It rained a lot which is unusual for this time of year and meant that we got a few days off work! Kevin and I biked to the local grocery store one afternoon and on the way back, stopped to pick juicy wild raspberries! Another day I biked to the post office and stopped by a little shrine on the way back. It was such a wonderful feeling to coast down the straight deserted road on my bike, arms spread as if I was flying. I felt so free! Another day, Tanaka-san took us grocery shopping and on the way back, we visited the fire department and got the full tour. They even do rope rescue!!
Yesterday we couldn't work in the afternoon again because of the rain, so we all went to the mountain hotsprings. It was a beautiful drive and we even saw foxes - 4 of them! It was my last full day so we all had dinner together in their log house. Today I studied a bit more before packing my text books into the box that I sent back to Nagoya. My pack now weighs about 9kg instead of 15kg! I am spending one night with the host family in Asahikawa (so great to see them again!) before catching a plane tomorrow to Korea!!! On to the next adventure...