Last day in Seoul

On my last day in Seoul, I met up with Alan (a past Selkirk student) and his girlfriend who studied in Philidelphia. They took me out to lunch at a nearby Korean restaurant where we had many seafood and tofu dishes, with noodles and rice - yet again delicious! It was good to see Alan and reminisc about all the fun we had at Selkirk. He is now teaching English to little kids and his girlfriend is a Korean teacher. They gave me a cool shirt with Korean on it. I made sure I asked what it said, it's from a famous Korean song about not giving up and just going for it - the sun will rise tomorrow.
Alan had to go to work, so I went for a walk to a historic park a few blocks away. It is actually the tomb for King Seongjong, Queen Jeonghyeonwanghu and King Jungjong who ruled in the late 1400s, early 1500s. The trees there are very beautiful and the tombs are pretty neat, with large stone carvings of civil and military officials and animals, etc.
In the evening, Christina's family took me out to an incredible dinner of various Korean dishes in Jeonju-style. On the way to the restaurant, Sam gave me a book for learning the Korean writing system :) and back at the house, Christina, Sue and Sarah also gave me gifts!! I am so spoilt here in Korea!

A day with Sue and Sarah

Today I hung out with Christina's mom and sister. In the morning, we went grocery shopping at a huge store where we tried samples of many delicious foods, including tofu, pork, fish, etc. In the seafood section there were live eels, crabs, sea urchins and octopuses in big tanks.
On the way home, I tried to pick up of some of the alphabet by reading the bilingual signs along the road. It is all phonetic and each syllable is created using combinations of the 24 letters, much easier than Japanese that has 100 symbols in both alphabets and also uses thousands of kanji with various readings. I had been thinking lately of just learning 5 languages instead of 7, but if I ever get the chance, I think I would like to learn Korean.
For lunch, we walked to a nearby Samgyetang restaurant. The dish seved here is a small chicken, stuffed with rice, a piece of ginseng, a chestnut and a date, served in a boiling broth. If anyone thinks that eating with wooden or plastic chopsticks is hard, try eating a whole chicken with thin metal ones! A challenge for sure!
In the afternoon, Sarah went to her academy. Christina got back from high school around 5:00 (she leaves around 7:30am everyday). We chatted for a while about politics, education, the environment and society in general until it was time for dinner at 8:00.
Sue had prepared a beautiful meal with many typical Korean dishes so that I could try as much as possible while I am here. The main dishes were kinchijigae (spicy fermented cabbge soup) and bulgogi (spiced beef and veggies, wrapped in a lettuce leaf with rice). Mmm hmm...
It is 10:20 and I just got back from a beautiful walk along a nearby river with Sam, Sue and Sarah. Christina is in a 2-hour lesson with her math tutor right now... the studies are non-stop!

My Fabulous Tour Guide

On my first full day in Soeul, I met up with Chris, a past Selkirk ESL student. He came to the subway station near the apartment and spent the whole day showing me around the historic district of Seoul.
First stop was Insadong a popular market street with a great variety of beautiful (and cheap!) crafts and souvenirs. I wanted to buy everything! I tried a very sweet rice sugar drink before we went for lunch. We had Sashimi Naeng Myon (cold noodles with fish fin, egg, cucumber, pear and spicy sauce on top... really spicy sauce). I know that Korea people like spicy food, but man! I could barely finish the dish it was so spicy! And Chris didn't find it very spicy at all.
From there we took a bus to Chong Dok Palace. This beauiful, ancient wood palace has been partially destroyed by fire and wars, but was resconstructed each time. Now you can take an hour and a half tour of it, which we did. I was expecially fascinated by the traditionally-coloured, painted roofs.
In the afternoon, we relaxed at a cafe and shared an Ice Breaker (shaved ice, with cream, red bean paste, rice balls, melon and nuts...mmm...). Then we went for a walk along the Chun Gae River (a little stream that runs through the middle of the city). It had started to rain, so instead of going up a tower as planned, I suggested we try to visit a fire department. We took the subway and bus to where his apartment and the took his car to the fire department. We were served coffee and shown to the trucks. It was a big station and it was the first time that I had seen a truck that is used just to transport firefighters, like a rescue bus!
It was getting close to the time that I said I would be home, so Chris drove me across the city to the apartment. I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Christina and her family. We ate some Korean food and her mom made us ice breakers covered with lots of fruit! What a busy and delicous day in the city!

KOREA!!!

WOOT!!! I made it to Korea!!!
On the 24th, the host family dropped me off at Asahikawa Station (I admit I cried a bit saying goodbye to them) for the 3.5-hour train ride to Chitose Airport. During my 3-hour flight that afternoon, I chatted with the Japanese lady beside me who was leaving Japan for the first time in her life to visit relatives whose family moved to Brazil 90 years ago. Actually many Japanese people moved there during that time.
At Incheon Airport, I was met by Sue, Sarah and Sam. Sue and Sam's oldest daughter (Christina) lived with my family in Nelson for 5 months, 6 years ago when she was just 10 years old. Her parents and younger sister visited my family for about a week, but I was on an exchange in Quebec when they came. The city traffic was heavy and Christina had extra academies after school that day, so the 4 of us went for dinner together at a beautiful, almost Greek-style restaurant on a slope over-looking a little lake. They ordered a several-course Korean meal. In the Korean style, we all served ourselves with our own spoons and chopsticks out of the shared dishes. Boy was it delicious!! And I learned that in Korean, there are at least 4 different words for "delicious".
On the rest of the drive back to their apartment, I learned a few Korean expressions while gazing at the huge rows of numbered apartment buildings and as it got dark, the bright lights of the city streets. On a building with random English words written on the side, I noticed the word "ubiquitous" which I think is very suitable for my situation at the moment - present in many places at once.
We finally arrived at the apartment (on the 20th floor - yikes!) and I met Christina again, who has obviously changed, but is still recognizable. I am so glad I could finally visit her here in Korea even though she is so busy with high school, academies and various other activities.

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...

Chimure Gloria Farm

When I arrived at Chimure Gloria Farm (in Kami Furano), I was welcomed with a big family BBQ. After the BBQ, we all loaded into Muto-san's van and bumped along a windy road up the mountain to a very beautiful natural hot spring. I had a great conversation with the aunt as we relaxed in the outdoor pools.
The Muto family (with one 14-year-old son) runs the farm. The mom's sister and husband helped out around the farm while visiting the grandmother who lives in a seperate house. As for WWOOFers, the two 18-year old Taiwan friends and the 20-year-old guy from Hong Kong shared the boys cabin and I had the girls cabin all to myself. The kitchen, bath and toilet we shared were in separate buildings.
My first day on the farm, we spent the whole day weeding between rows of onions. It was tough work and bothered my back a bit. My whole body was quite sore the next day, but I kept it up. That evening we met up with another WWOOF host at an elementary school Bon Festival dance and it happened to be the host from Docomo Farms, the place we went to pick berries at that the girls from Taiwan had volunteered at! What a coincidence. I met up with a nice WWOOFer from New York. She is also studying Japanese here. Back at the farm we let off some little fire works and lit hand-held sparkler-type ones.
I volunteered 3 more days on the Chimure Gloria farm during which time I weeded more onions, pulled and sorted carrots and made a carrot soup! One day I got to drive the small van from the field down to the house, he he, right-hand-drive and stick shift, fun! But possibly the greatest accomplishment was that I was able to walk under a huge spider in its web every day in order to go to the out house... I am no longer aracnaphobic!!! WOOT!! Now I am volunteering at another farm nearby and there are 3 big spiders in the entrance way of the WWOOFer house... no problem! I have also come to love natto (fermented soy beans) so much that eat it every morning for breakfast!

Wonderful Countryside Wanderings

To finish off our 5 days together, Lizzie and I wandered around the small countryside town of Bibaushi and what a fabulous time we had indeed!! Truely unforgettable! I had found a disposible camera in the free box of stuff at residence, so we documented our wanderings by taking random pictures along the way. Bibaushi is in the Furano area, which is famous for flower fields among the patchwork crop fields and rolling hills, with the mountains in the distance. Despite the rain, we trekked around all morning and into the afternoon, snacking at little shops along the way.
The first major destination was the gallery of trick art in Kami Furano where we took pictures of each other with the random paintings that looked very real. Next we followed a sign to a glass-blowing place that took us a ways down a road called "roller coaster" road as it is very long and rolls over the hills. It inspired us to ponder the ups and downs of life, while settling on the conclusion that the ride is all around pretty sweet!
By the time we got to the glass blowing place we were really exhausted so thought we would try our luck at hitch hiking back (as if! right?). Well, the 3rd car along the very deserted road picked us up!! Fabulous! It was a nice elementary school teacher in a big van. He took us right to the flower field we were headed for. The flower fields are simply beautiful, with flowers of all different colours. This area is especially famous for the lavender.
When we got back to the guest house, we found out that the trains here are so infrequent that there wasn't a train to the station in time for Lizzie to catch the bus back to the airport, oops! Luckily the owner's friend offered to give us a ride to the next town over, phew! Lizzie caught the bus safely and I made it onto the train that took me 2 stations down to Kami Furano where I am now volunteering on an organic vegetable farm.

The Mountain (Asahidake)

On Aug. 12th (my 5-month and Lizzie's 5-day anniversary of being in Japan), we got up at 6:30 as we had every other morning since the kids got up early, I was in a dairy farm rythm and Lizzie was still experiencing jet lag. Makoto drove us the Asahikawa Station where we caught a bus up to the tallest mountain on Hokkaido (Asahidake).
Our first stop was at the Youth Hostel where my friend Kei had worked for 2 years. They gave us some recommendations of where to go for lunch and a hike. We decided not to take the gondola up the mountain because it was quite expensive and we really just wanted to wander the little town. I hope to go up it some day though because at the top you can see the steam rising out of the volcano craters.
We wandered down the hill from the youth hostel to one of the two restaurants in town. We had a beautiful lunch of a variety of Japanese foods, complete with a cafe latte pudding for dessert that was served in such a cute bottle, I bought one at the front desk after.
From there we took an hour or so hike through the forest to a lookout. The trail was really pretty and reminded me of the mountains back home, but sometimes of the Amazon too. We ended up at the base of the gondola where we took a peek in the visitor's centre. From there, we went back down to the youth hostel just as it started to rain. We found a little camp shelter near by where we waited out the rain while eating blueberries and chocolate.
Lastly, we went in the hostel's hot spring, oh my, simply marvelous! Lizzie and I stipped down to our birthday suits (very suitable for birth budies, eh?) and relaxed in the indoor pool and the outdoor one that was surrounded by natural greenery. Just as we were about to leave, we noticed that it had started to pour again so we went for one last dip outside. What a fabulous feeling of freedom, being naked in a pool of hot water, out side at a mountain, surrounded by trees and having the rain pour down on top of us.
Back in Asahikawa, our lovely host family met us at the station once more to bring us our bags and insisted on treating us to a delicious dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant nearby before we caught the train to Bibaushi where we stayed the night in a hostel there.

Asahikawa

One post is not enough to describe what a wonderful time Lizzie and I spent with the host family in Asahikawa, but with limited internet and many things to do, I will try to give a good overview at least.
Keiko, Makoto, their son Ryosuke (8) and daughter Yu (5) all came to meet me off the bus from Monbetsu on Monday at noon and we went straight to the airport to pick Lizzie up. I have known Lizie since I was born however, we moved away from Vancouver when I was just 2. In fact, exactly 22 years ago we were bouncing around in our moms' tummies while they were at prenatal jazzercise classes together. We later became penpals and met up occasional when our parents would visit each other. I was thrilled when she said she would come visit me in Japan.
In the 3 days that we stayed with the host family in Asahikawa, we managed to fit in so much, it was incredible! On the first day, Keiko taught us the basics of tea ceremony, we all went to a sake brewery together and danced at the elementary school Bon Festival in the evening before sitting down to a delicious home-cooked meal!
Day 2 saw us swetting it out at the zoo, watching enviously and penguins and polar bears swam in the refreshing pools. We also got to see lots of monkeys! For lunch we went to a sushi bar and I have finally found someone who shares my passion for strange foods! Lizzie and I ate several kinds of raw fish, raw squid, raw sea urchin, fish eggs, crab brains and cow toungue! And it didn't cost us a fortune either, just $12.00 each!
In the afternoon the 2 of us sang our hearts out at karaoke while sipping on some refreshing plum and apricot wine. We wandered Asahikawa before making our way home. Along the way, we bought a bottle of plum wine to share with everyone at dinner. Keiko made chilled soba noodles and Lizzie practiced her gradually improving chopsticks skills!
On our 3rd day, we had natto (fermented soy beans) with raw egg yolk for breakfast. Lizzie gave it a try, but like me, couldn't stomach it the first time. I am proud to say that I have done a full 360 and now like it so much I have it for breakfast every morning (minus the raw egg though). Before heading out, we went to the temple across the road to take some pictures.
For the rest of the day, we went to little cafe in Naka Furano which coincidently is the same place that the 2 girls from Taiwan WWOOFed before coming to Monbetsu!! There we ate a delicious organic lunch and picked berries in the afternoon with Keiko's friend and her kids. Since it was in the same area, we stopped by my next 2 WWOOF placements in Kami Furano on the way home. They both seemed like beautiful places!
Before returning home, we went shopping and Lizzie and I did DDR (Dance Dance Revoluntion) at the archade... oh my, so fun! Keiko and Ryosuke tried the Taiko Dumming one. For dinner, we ate Tonkatsu and had blueberries on ice cream.

Mwah ha ha! Adventures!!

Well, this adventurous life has me run off my feet! I will try to write in detail (hopefully tomorrow) about all that's happened lately. I spent 5 awesome adventurous days with my friend Lizzie and am now at my next volunteer placement at a vegetable farm in central Hokkaido. But now it's off to a festival at a neighbouring farm!!

Mountain Climbing

Now I wouldn't usually use the expression "mountain climbing" unless it's a real trek that involves some scrambling - anything on a set trail is hiking. Well today, we went mountain climbing! We started up the creek behind the farm, scrambling up a steep slope and making our way through the trees and brush. The girls from Taiwan didn't have much experience hiking, so from the beginning they struggled a bit. Then we got to the bare ridge of loose rocks and I wondered if we were going to be able to go any further. But they kept it up at eventually we reached the peak of the little mountain where we enjoyed a splendid view of the valley and ate cookies.
Today is our last day on the farm as I am off to Asahikawa tomorrow morning to visit with Lizzie and the girls from Taiwan are going to their next WWOOF placement in Southern Hokkaido. It is my turn to make dinner tonight, so I am going to make pizza for everyone.

And the sun is shining...

Lately I've enjoyed a couple sunny days here on the farm. On August 1st, 2 girls from Taiwan who are the same age as me and are also studying Japanese joined us. The afternoon they arrived, I trained them on the milking process (in Japanese as best I could). The next day I had a much needed day off and slept in until 7:30! It was a rainy day, so I didn't go anywhere except to show Shuu and Kaku which pasture to take the cows to. I got caught up on some things and started studying Japanese. My goal is one chapter a day (takes 2-3 hours) for the next 2 weeks, until I leave to Korea. That way I can finish the books and send them home.
Today, yesterday and the day before, we have been sharing the work and meal-making between the 3 of us which means I've had time to study. We continue to eat huge meals of delicious food! The other day we made raspberry frozen yogourt and butter, today it was buttermilk fudge ice cream.
Yesterday afternoon between work, Katsunori took us to a seaside hotsprings about 45 minutes from here. What a beautiful drive and a beautiful place. It was so relaxing and refreshing to sit in the various hot pools, the cold pool and the sauna. On the way back, we stopped in town to pick up some supplies, including safety goggles to guard against whipping tails and splashing substances while milking.
Well, I'd better attach some photos and then start prepping dinner as Maki and I are making gyoza tonight!

Katsunori-san

The main reason I chose a dairy farm was because my mom grew up on one in Kelowna and I wanted to experience part of our family history. I know that each farm is different, the times have changed and I'm in another country, but it sure has opened my eyes to the reality of farm work. I really appreciate how hard my grandfather worked to give his children and now grandchildren a good future.
Lately I've had some good conversations with Katsunori-san in the evenings. The other day I explained that I cut my hair in January to donate 30cm to the cancer society. I talked about my instructor who is battling breast cancer and he told me that his wife died of breast cancer 15 years ago, when their 4 children were still in their teens. It must have been very hard for him to bring them up while managing such a huge farm.
He was born on this farm, so he really doesn't want to sell it, but neither of his sons have an interest in taking it over, so he's not sure what he'll do. He realizes that he is 60 years old and he doesn't know how much longer his body can handle this work, but he's also worried about having enough money to retire. Ideally he would like to find an assistant who he could eventually turn the operation over to while continuing to live here. Otherwise, he is considering downsizing and trying to make a small business selling ice cream, cheese, yogourt, caramel, etc. I know that he was also studying to be a nature guide, but how he was finding the time to do that, I have absolutely no idea!
Meanwhile, he has welcomed 15 WWOOFers into his home in the past year and a bit, so that reduces his work a bit. And despite the long hours, he still finds time to show the WWOOFers around. He took me to the local fire department the other day when I explained that I liked to visit fire departments when I'm in other countries. He also said he would take us mountain climbing and to the nearby hotsprings when the Taiwanese students are here (they arrive this afternoon).