I wonder what is happening in town. My friends are going to collegw, taking tests and studying and making other friends. My dad is working and taking care of the boys with an occasional meet up with friends. Elijah is going to school, studying, going to soccer...marching band is still going on maybe? I can't remember how high school works!
Today is a start to a very different chapter of my life.
We've spent time at Mom's friends house, Keichan and Hiroko-bachan. Shinchan their son lives there but their daughter Yuka moved to Fukuoka with her husband. They told me come back whenever, you are always welcome. Many people have said that and it is very kind of them, I feel fortunate that mom has such wondeful friends that will open their homes and hearts to me...
I am kind of in a daze. I am going to admit that it STILL hasn't completely sunk in that I am here for seven months. It's been two weeks! Something in my mind is too stubborn to make that connection of new place and long time.
This morning we went to the discount store called " Super Kids" near their house and got some last minute items for the farm. Mouth wash, tooth paste, muck boots (we called and they said that I would need them), chocolate:) and that sort of thing. We went back to their house and Keichan started filling a jar with Umeboshi. I said, no you don't need to! But they all know how much I love umeboshi (sour plum). He said you will go through this in a week and in soon we are going to get more. They drive to Amakusa where his parents live because his mother is the one who makes them. I took them gladly and thanked them.
Then we got into the car and we drove to Kikuchi, the area where the farm is, but we drove to the gorge that is there. It was stunningly beautiful. I couldn't get enough of it. I used to write stories when I was younger, that was my hobby since I didn't have many friends when I was younger, I'd write and when I could use the computer I would type them out. One time I lost one that was almont 200 pages long (at least that is what I remember it being)..I cried for a while.
But they were always but people who lived in the wild, eating berries and bathing in streams. Maybe run away children hiding out in the woods, whatever it was they always took place in the most beautiful places in my mind. Places where the stones were covered in moss and there were ferns and fallen trees. Where there were clear fresh water streams and caves for people to hide in. Well, that is basically all I saw today, but in real life. Gigantic boulders covered in mosses, different ferns and this grass like plant. The river was a clear blue, from the minerals in it apparently. And though we always draw it to be blue, it seldom ever actually is. The trees were tall and mossed covered, some dated back to the Edo period. The trail was fun because it was rocky and scattered, not a clean cut path. It was mystical with the river bank made of rock and the rock covered in a thick bladed grass that all lay the same way and peppered with pink flowers. The sunlight was also perfect and made everything glow. It was so peaceful and we sat in fron of a waterfall on a large boulder and enjoyed a picnic lunch of onigiri and pickles.
These are my last moments with my mom for almost seven months. These are my last moments with Michael for...almost a year since he leaves for the PCT before i return. This is it. I'm about to be alone for the first time, stranded with my pathetic Japanese. But still, seven months is just an imaginary length of time at this point.
Mom bought us grilled corn on a stick at the end of the trail and we knawed on it (so sweet and juicy) before climbing into the car and heading to Yamaimura, my WWOOF farm. When we got there we were surprised by it. We saw pigs, cows, a pony, chickens and goats here and there as we drove up to the house. Soon we met Muto-san, the owner of the farm. He told us he works with his two sons and his wife, one son lives with them and one commutes from Kikuchi. First we had tea in a tree house deck that had a table and even a kichenette. It does not have a cover but I think you can string up a tarp. He chatted with Mom, Keichan and Michael for a while. I wondered a little if since I came with wwoof he disapproved of me having many people drop me off, but he was nice enough and seemed to enjoy their company. Then I worried how boring I would be in contrast, be alone and with "amari jiyozujiyanai" (not very good) Japanese. Mom kept saying please do this and teach her this, I hope he doesn't think I'm a baby still.
We walked together around all the areas where he keeps his pigs. He keeps 15 pigs in each fenced off area and he has 130 pigs total. I've never seen a pig run as fast as I saw them run today! When we walked up to them they got a little frightened and scampered off, like a stampede! It was very impressive. The biggest ones weight 103 kg I think he said...that is crazy! The area is very pretty with all the mountains and flowers. Then we went to the chicken coup, and he said I would be collecting eggs and feeding the chickens, 100 chickens. Sounds good to me. Then he showed us my room, a large enough room for two people, with a carpet, two chairs, a table and sliding doors facing the "natural garden" (overgrown area). I am staying in the guest house, though i thought we would all be in a house together the family including his parents live a kilometer down the road he said. Then I had to say good bye. Mom cried and I really wanted to but knew I needed to stay strong and not frighten Muto-san or make mom worry. Somehow, I don't know how, maybe because I was in shock I managed not cry as I watched them drive away.
So, here I am. He showed me where the bedding was and I made my bed. He told me today I would relax and then he said he would come and get me when either A, dinner was ready or B, when they were done eating. I wasn't sure which one it was but I have some snacks if it was B. So I set up my futon and struggled with sheets a little. Hanging in my room is a work clothes jumpsuit type of thing. It's blue. When he saw me he said oh wow your big! but we have big clothes so that is ok. That must the jumpsuit...it looks huge! Hopefully I am not really that large...
I set out my things and went out to take pictures a moment before coming back to write this.
I washed some dishes that were in the sink, including the tea cups we used earlier...I hope he doesn't mind and I did it right.
Tomorrow he said I start work. I get to do the chickens then work with the vegetables with his wife. He said maybe I could feed the pigs with his sons.
This is going to be very interesting, I hope we get along and that they don't mind me. I really hope so.
10.8.11
Today was my first day at the farm where I had to work. First thing in the morning Keichin and I had breakfast. He is a good cook but he gives me a lot and it is quite rich. This morning was bacon with an egg on top of fresh baked bread along with another piece of garlic bread (and these slices of bread are not like American slices they are about the size of my hand when I stretch out my fingers, even larger!) with salad (that I had to make). I wished I had paid attention watching mom and her friends clice cabbage so it was in tiny little strips, cut so fine! Mine was chunky and so were my carrots that I sliced...bad cook me. I could only eat on the the slices and saved the next for lunch. Then he asked me try on the work clothes that were in my room. It is basically I jumpsuit. I tried it on and it was waaay to big, but eventually he gave me one that fit okay. My books are also a little big for when it gets cold I can put a lot of socks on and it will still fit. Then he took me to the chick coup and I fed them and collected their brown eggs. Some had none, some had one or two and than others had 5 or 6! Then he showed me how to wash them all and after I washed them I had to dry them and place them in a crate with the date taped onto it. After I did that, he showed me to the barn where they keep pregnant pigs and pigs with their babies still needing milk. One just had babies last night and there were so many! Some were already a good size while others were runts and tiny, just skin and bone and little fuzz. He put the smallest one in my hand and it fit in my palm...it made me feel sad though knowing it would soon die. After we set it back in its area with the mama pig it walked very unsurely over near the heatlamp and lay down. It wasn't even trying to eat...
Then there was a mother who was sick so Keishin had to make the milk formula and put it in a dish for the piglets to drink up. There were only 5 left, but they were so cute and excited, like puppies. Soon after that it was already lunch! I told him he didn't have to cook anything fancy, that I don't mind simple and often times at home I like to eat rice and umeboshi. He was surprised I think and we settled for ochazuke (tea rice). But we ate the umeboshi with it as well and of course, my leftover garlic bread. Then we watched tv (Japanese TV is the most crazy...you don't have to know Japanese to be in awe and to be interested). Then at two he showed me to where the carrots are and I did my favorite job ever! Chuck knows:) I weeded! I had a handy dandy little tool but three hours later my back was aching from squatting for so long. I kept thinking, Leah, stay strong and positive (that's what mom told me to be...positive), it's just the first day. This is someone's life, you can do this.
It worked a little but I was glad when he came to tell me I was done, just so I could stand up straight for a while. Tomorrow is a new day.
I am homesick now, though, and very suddenly and very horribly too. I think it is because, of course, Mom and Michael are gone now. And I am alone with people that I don't know so well in a very, very new and interesting place. I hope I can make friends with Keishin's sons and maybe some of the part timers here but everyone is so busy and since they don't live in this house I think it will be difficult. Though Keishin said one of the sons likes badminton, and that maybe sometime we can play. That would be nice I think.
Saturday he said is only a half day and Sunday is no work. I wonder what I will do then, maybe I can go to town and get my fix of being around more people... I don't know.
I'm a little sad but I knew this would happen: stay strong.
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