March 5th
I haven't written anything in a while...not even in my journal. I know I will regret it and I started to feel guilty for wasting such great experiences...so I will try to catch up now. Megumi-san, the WWOOFer (24, from Kagoshima) has been wonderful. I have now known her for four days, but I feel like I've known her for much, much longer. I don't know what it is...perhaps my lonliness from before...but I think it is really that we get along as two people in this world. We feed the chickens, collect and wash the eggs together. We have been making breakfast together, and today we made lunch together. Two days ago Muto-san went to a wedding so Megumi-san and I walked down to "the Water Station" about a 40 minute walk or so and did a little shopping. Konyaku, dango powder, strawberries, sweet potato, deko pon and things like that for our dinner. We took a different road back from the way we came, this one I had ridden my bike on the time before, but this time on foot and with a friend it was a completely different experience. All over the area you see the elderly working on their land. It's the time for preparing shiitake logs. All over there are the fallen and chopped up kunugi trees and their tufts bronze leaves scattered around. Then there are the places that are finished stacking, that are in the process of stacking. At one place we saw an elderly couple together, doing their work, stacking the logs, putting in the nails...the wife was hunched over, then I saw that she had a cane. Barely can stand and walk but out preparing shiitake logs for use two years from now...is it because they have to? Because they love to? Because they don't know anything else but their land and their work? Where are their children? Where are their grandchildren? Those kind of questions come to mind when I see these things. I find it beautiful...but is it really? Because when I see them I want to think they have a passion for their work and their land. I don't know, though. Why has everyone gone to the city? What does the countryside lack so much of? Megumi-san feels the same as me. We want similar futures. Live in a small country town, marry a farmer, have many fresh vegetables and fruit and nut trees (specifically chesnut, persimmon and kin-kan), work on the farm, make handmade pickles and goods...simple, rough, beautiful?
After we got back from our walk we made a pretty fabulous dangojiru (dumpling soup). We stuffed it full of carrots (that I went to the garden and plucked from the ground that night), daikon, onions, long green onions, sweet potatos, freshly picked shiitake mushrooms and of course the dumplings that we made with the dumpling mix and mashed sweet potatoes. We made it with miso soup base. That was March 3rd. When collecting eggs we found a dead chicken. Hitomi came and showed us what to do if that happened again, then she promised us chirashi rice (loose sushi) since it was Girl's Day. After our soup was done she came with a red lacquer box of fresh chirashi rice for us. We gave her some of our soup in thanks. That was a good dinner - dango jiru, chirashi rice and fruit salad. That was our one sunny day.
Yesterday was Sunday, the day off. Megumi-san went with Muto-san to Kikuchi Gorge in the morning before the rain. I did the eggs and helped a few minutes with shiitake boxing. In the afternoon we drove a while to a different town nearer to Kumamoto where there are bigger stores. On Saturday morning we had started two projects: making a new sign and making a flower bed at the driveway entrance. Megumi-san did the sign after helping me bring a log to be one of the borders for the garden. The other two sides I made of rocks. I ripped up all the weeds and roots then filled it in with other dirt. I pruned a bush that hung over a little far and ripped up the baby bamboo and vines. On Sunday we went to a giant garden center to buy plants. Megumi-san meandered around before deciding. We bought some spring flowers for now to plant and then some bulbs that would bloom in the summer. Once the sign is finished, it will look a lot better... I think. After the garden center we went to eat okinomiyaki (cabbage pancake). There was a hot plate built into the table and we odred which one we wanted and it was brought out raw in a bowl, and you cooked it yourself. I ordered three small ones with different flavors. Egg, flour, cabbage, meat, seafood, cheese, corn, greens...then topped with special okinomiyaki sauce, mayo, nori and bonito flakes. I don't normally get too excited about okinomiyaki, but when it comes to eating time, I was pretty happy. Afterwards we got ice cream - I got vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of matcha syrup and some sweet bean paste. Love. We came back to the house and Megumi-san and I made muffins. Well, they didn't really turn out like muffins. Why don't normal Japanese homes have ovens?? Using a microwave oven just isn't the same. Nothing turns out right. They flavor was alright, orange, dried fig, walnut and cinnamon...but they came out little, greasy and dense - with a gummy texture... ざんねん。
Talking with Megumi-san has been wodnerful. We clicked. Clicked.
It was rainy last night. It was rainy all afternoon and early morning today. There was such a thick fog for the entire day, I didn't see anything else but what was 300 feet in any direction... a grey day when you can't see the world around you. In the monring while the rain wasn't coming down we planted the garden. I'm afraid it might drown now, though. Muto-san went to a meeting so we started lunch a little early. I asked Megumi-san if I could experiment on a stir fry and she said sure. Chopped up vegetables, added a seafood mix and then chopped pecans. The sauce I tried honey, garlic and ginger and dashi. After that we had to add some salt, but it wasn't so bad. I also made her try apple and cheese on a thin slice of bread. I don't know if she liked it, but she seemed to enjoy trying new things. It's fun having the kitchen to ourselves. She has lived by herself for two years now and she said that is definitely one of the perks - cooking. I am looking forward to having some fun myself. Now that I have a grasp on some of the basics of Japanese cooking, I'm excited to experiment.
I watched a Miyazaki film that Megumi-san reccomended for me - it was so adorable. I don't remember the name "Mimi wo sumaseba". I hadn't ever heard about it before...but it was such a wonderful little love story. I just ended up feeling a little sad and jealous at the end, though...but that's only because I can be terribly pathetic:)
In the afternoon we finished sorting rice (which didn't take long since there was only a little left) and then Megumi-san went to work on the sign and I asked Katsu if he wanted help feeding the pigs today since it was rainy. He said OK so I went along with him. He let me fill the buckets with feed from the mixer, which I hadn't done before. I had to pull a small plate out from the bottom of the giant mixer so that the feed would rush out into the bucket, then close it again when it was full. I didn't get it quit right at first, but eventually it got better. While the feed mixed he showed me what was in the chicken feed - seaweed, dried greens, soy beans, shells, ground tree bark (or something), ground fish bones...calcium...and more. I never would have thought that was all in there. Apparently the tree bark powder makes the poop smell less, it is for the pigs as well. We also talked about food and how Hiroko-san's (his wife) brother went to America only for ten days and came back fatter. Then we talked about work and the generation gap and the two different views on life and work... How he wants to take two days off and go to an aquarium in either Fukuoka or Kagoshima with his wife and daughter after Hiro can walk properly again. Before I knew it the pigs were fed and the rain was thicker... Megumi-san had a carved the hiraga "ya' and "ma" into the sign for "yamai mura". It's the 5th, we both leave for our places on the 10th. She goes home to take a test to see if she can get a teaching job on a small island near Kagoshima. I hope she gets it...and finds her farmer to marry and plants many amazing trees. I told her if she does that, I will definitely come and see her so I can eat all the chestnuts and persimmons, pears and plums....:)
I talked with Hitomi-san for a while today after work was over...we talk about kimonos and family and television shows. She was at the hospital today taking care of Muto-san's father who is now in rehabilitation. She said for the first time, he told her "thank you". She smiled just in light of the memory.
This time coming here, I feel everyone has opened up to me in some way. Maybe they got used to me coming and going like I have been...like this is my home. Whatever it is, I'm so grateful for it. In November I never would have imagined having long, theoretical conversations with Katsu. Chatting about kimonos, food and good looking actors with Hitomi-san. Talking to Hiro about music, family and his future. Muto-san sharing his concerns about work and family...the future of Japanese farming and still his dreams.
And now I have Megumi-san, who I think is the kind of person who even if we do not keep in solid contact with over the next four years, if I show up one day and ask to see her, we can pick up right where we left off. Singing "Country Road" in English- Japanese mix with crappy guitar playing (by me), cooking experimental food and watching beautiful Japanese movies until late at night.
Despite the endless rain, I have not fallen into my hole of sadness. Even in the mist, with friends I can be happy.
ちょっと日本語でなにか書きましょうか。。。
たぶんこの後で、いつでも日本に来る時、私はやまあい村にもどらなくちゃいけません。五ヶ月前、この所しりませんでした。この人が生きているの事しりませんでした。
私ぜったいにかわってないけど、ちょっと私の見方がかわったかなと思います。この前、日本に来た時よく町しかにいきませんでした。もちろん、日本のけしきは今と同じです。まだそのたけとすぎとくぬぎとひのきの森とちさい田んぼとおばあさんとおじいさんたち働いているんでした。まだ、同じ。でも前に、その木の名前は 'クヌギ’ と ’すぎ’ ぜんぜんしらなかった。その木はしいたけ作るのためにいる事もしらなかった。そのおじいさんとおばあちゃんたちの子供はみんな町に行ってしまいましたの事もしらなかった。
この田舎すごく好きになりました。この国も好きになりました。
たぶん、私の日本語はもうちょっと上手になりましたからと思います。私の心は本当に日本人のきがします。。。もちろん、私はアメリカ人です。それはいつまでも。よくわかりません。ちょっとわかられません。まず、アメリカに帰らなくちゃいけません。その後で、大学にいかなくちゃいけません。その後で、どうになるんまだしらない。それは楽しみです。
でも、今しってる日本をわすれられません。今の生活も。今の好きの事。きらいな事も。全部大事にしなくちゃいけない。
その時まで。。。
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