I think I'm basically settled in. Wow, that was fast. I've decided I will try to stay a month, unless it will be more convenient for me to go back earlier to Hiroko and Keichan's house before Yuka's wedding. However, I think it will be fine...
Today was an eventful and feel-good day! I have an internal clock that seems to be working to wake me up a little before 8 in the morning. Last night though, I think I heard wild boar run by my window! I was a tad nervous at first, but I just fell asleep afterwards and was fine.
This morning, I finally finished my entire meal! Usually there is a part of the meal I can't finish, there is always so much food. And it isn't " light food" like normal Japanese meals...but thick slices of home made bread with garlic spread, melted cheese or eggs on it. Thick, strong country food! :) But I finished my entire breakfast and my entire dinner today! (Mom will be a little freaked if she reads this, but I'm eating around...3 or 4 eggs a day...oh no cholesterol!) So after breakfast I hurried into my work jumper and rubber boots. I got the bucket of chicken feed from the barn and the basket for eggs. Walked to the coup and tried not to crush any of the chickens as I came in, they are all so excited, breakfast! There were a lot of eggs today it seemed, maybe because a few of the cubbies had 6 or 7 eggs in them. There are actually two coups, one for the young chickens and one for the old gals. The poor roosters have a lot of their feathers on their chest pecked off...abuse.
I walked to the building where they store the eggs, some vegetables, milk formula and what not. There are two sinks inside, I wash all the eggs using a little scrubby- one by one- and an egg if it's really yucky can take me a few minutes. Then dried each one with a towel and set them in the crate with a slip paper that has the date on it. Tomorrow I'll count them, I have no idea right now how many there are. After that I finished weeding the half row of carrots I didn't get to yesterday then waited for Muto-san. I kind of helped (he basically did it all...) load the rice combine onto the Japanese "big" truck. Let's just say it is double the size of a normal truck here, and a normal truck is the size of the little trucks that the Oberlin College grounds crew uses (it might be the same exact thing). The combine is small too (in comparison to US combines you see in the fields, wow!) so it works out. Then we drove down the little mountain road, crossed the main road and back on to the mountain road (yama michi?). It was so windy and narrow and he was going so fast I wondered a few times how come we didn't tip over! There were a lot more little farms and gardens and also a nice bamboo grove surrounding a boulder littered stream that looked really beautiful...maybe I'll take a walk there on the weekend. But there were a lot of "kuri" trees (chestnut) and it looked like they had already shelled them and left the prickly outer coat in piles to burn. There were also other rice fields (tanbo) around. It is all mountainous so all of it is terraced and sectioned off into these patches of rice fields or other vegetables, and it almost looks like a gigantic quilt...finally we reached his rice field. Hiro (Muto-san's son), Hitomi (his wife) and his eldest sister and grandson were there already, waiting for us to come so they could go get lunch. They had already started cutting the rice down by hand, leaving it in nice little piles. It looks so beautiful and natural, it makes me feel peaceful seeing it... but we brought the combine in so that it would be faster. I had never really seen any combine work before, I assume they are all similar, but it is quite incredible how it cuts it then uses a conveyor belt thing to bring it up into somewhere I couldn't exactly see and BAM there are the grains- magic. It spit out the rice into large sacks that we had to carry away when they were full. He did the first few times around the rice field (it is not very large, maybe...20 meters by 15 or something? I'm horrible at estimating but you get the idea...). I watched, picked mini flowers and made mini bouquets, and brought the full bags to where I was sitting. Then eventually he let me try! The front of the combine has three points about 10 inches apart. You can cut down two rows of rice at a time, and the points go between the rows as a guide so you can stay straight. I guess it wasn't that hard, but I can see how it might be tiring. It was fun though and I couldn't help smiling a little. Now when I see the many farmers busy at their harvesting rice I can say, hey, I did that! Then Hiro, Hitomi, grandson and older sister came back from lunch and we went to ours. I wasn't hungry yet, just thirsty. Everyone thinks I drink so much water, but I feel dehydrated! :( I wonder how they manage!
Instead of making lunch we drove to a convenient store, bought obentos and went to sit by the river. It is the same river that runs through Kikuchi gorge and for a moment I grew sad thinking about how I had been there just before with Mom, Michael and Keichan...but I pushed it out of my mind and enjoyed the cold water and lunch. There was a family at the same spot enjoying a barbecue lunch themselves. The three children were wading in the water and laughing...
Last night there was a girl at the farm with her mom looking around. She was very cute and when I was trying to pet the goat she came up to me and asked what I was doing. I tried to tell her, but I ended up just saying my Japanese is very bad so I don't what I'm doing! She seemed amused by that and soon her mother came. I was holding two eggs, one I had cracked a little on accident and the other was a mini egg, without a yolk... Her mother knew a little English and apparently the little girl did as well and her mother said if you speak English with this American you can tell your teacher and she will be very proud! But she was too shy:) We talked a little bit more and then her mother saw I was holding eggs, "a! mi-te, tamago!" (oh, look, eggs!) I showed the girl the small one and said she could have it, explaining though that it had no yolk. Her mother said that's perfect because she doesn't like the yolk! I was happy then and glad she had come over to me and asked me what I was doing...I feel bad that I didn't even ask her name though...maybe she will come again.
During lunch Muto-san asked if there is bamboo in Ohio and we went on from there to talk about trees, though it was difficult since I don't know many tree names (though I should...!). Then he asked a question that I found quite amusing, are there any mountains in Ohio? Thinking of Oberlin, I said no, because it is very flat...very very flat. But I told him there were large hills in Southern Ohio.
I'm fortunate to have had the opportunities to travel to so many places...Netherlands, England, Italy, Scotland, Mexico, Japan...Muto-san watches the TV channel that has a show of visiting different areas around the world and has a DVD of different famous cities around the world. He says his dream is to travel all around the world. I hope he gets to do that someday, at least visit Spain, because he really wants to... I can't really imagine being in Ohio and not knowing what it is like anywhere else... I think that's really why he started being a WWOOF host, because it was a way to bring the rest of the world to him.
After lunch we came back to the farm and he asked me to weed some more. I thought...oh...no...
We walked up the terrace that had lettuce and at the end I could see asparagus. He was impressed I knew that is was asparagus (Thank you Locke's!!!!) and so I was happy but I wasn't happy after I got a good look at how many weeds there were. Totally overgrown. There were two rows, so between the rows it was weedy and the outside too. I had my cool little tool with me (I don't know what it is called and I haven't seen it in America but it is kind of like a mini hoe but the blade looks more like leaf and it is set perpendicular to the handle and then bent a little away...I will just take a photo and post it later...ha) so once I started I was on a mission and it felt great. It was actually a lot easier than the carrots because the weeds were bigger and they came out easier (minus the bamboo which I struggled with a little). And soon...I was done! I felt so accomplished (and hot and sweaty and covered in dirt and bits of plants...) and carrying the weeds to the weed pile and watching it grow I was very happy. Alright, I'm good...:) Then I looked at where the sun was behind the mountain (it had just disappeared behind the mountain) so I knew it was almost 5 so since I was done I went to feed the chickens again and collected about 10 more eggs. While I was washing them Hiro and Katsu (the two sons, Katsu is 30, Hiro must be a little younger) came back from somewhere with the big truck full of pigs, maybe seven. I asked where the pigs were going...though I kind of guessed...and I was right. Tomorrow they will die...
It must be a sad business, especially since this is free range and you can watch the pigs grow and feed them everyday and see them running around being happy and cute in the mud. Some are born here, so you can watch them grow since they day they are born and one day you know they are going to butcher and that's that...
There is a cat here, Katsu said her name is Miki. She is very cute but not exactly loving (not like Taka, Neko and Kitty...I miss my babies!). I was trying to get her to let me pet her by making those silly kissy noises and making my voice high and friendly so she will not feel threatened...but it didn't work. Hiro saw me struggling and I think he told me to move my finger in a circle towards her face (but I don't know if he knows my Japanese is not good because he said a bunch of stuff I didn't know and quickly too) I just did what his body language told me to do. For a moment it worked and Miki seemed to come closer than she realized I was truly a stranger and she would not be fooled!
After that Katsu was leaving and he said "thank you for working on the farm" and I was a little confused because they are giving me shelter and food and experience in return, all of which are very valuable and I said "Thank you for letting me live here!" I hope they don't look at me pitifully because I'm being "worked hard" or something. I'd much rather they just be comfortable with me being there and think of me as just another worker, not the poor foreigner... maybe when we get a chance to talk more they will change the idea a little. Everyntime I see Hiro he says "otsukaresamadesu!" which is like"thank you for your help" or "acknowledging someone's efforts" (I just looked it up...I'd heard mom say it but didn't know exactly what it meant...) but I'd rather he just say hi! That would be nice...
I wonder what I will do tomorrow!
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