leaving 菊池 and coming to 宇土

It's been a while since I've written...that's not because I haven't had anything to write about. Just gotten lazy. But Dad sent me an email and he wrote he was going to check my blog so I decided I better get on it.

I've left Yamaai Mura and am now in Uto. My last week and half or so at the farm was a little tough for me...I think leaving there anytime would be leaving too soon. The weather held up for me - so the place dazzled in sunlight and beauty of spring. Muto-san took me to see a giant sakura tree in Aso area, some of the large branches held up by stilts to keep stirdy. Hiro told me before that a large branch of the tree fell during a hurricane...it used to be a lot larger. The tree when I went with Muto-san was basically all little golden green leaves rather than flowers - but still beautiful with the mountain background, yellow flowers in the foreground and blue sky. After we had seen that Muto-san said, "Well, since we have come all this way we might as well go to the crater!" So we did and the gas wasn't strong like it had been the other times I'd gone so I could see in and enjoy the view. Aso is such a gorgeous area...maybe one day I can explore there more thoroughly. Hiro went to college there and tells me about cool little shops and restaraunts - I guess you might really need those 4 years to see everything there is to see.

Before I knew it, it was Firday. My last full day. We were having a party that night that was supposed to be a Birthday party for Hiro and Ayumi and partially a last night for me. In the morning Muto-san went to pick up pigs, Katsu fed pigs, Hitomi and Hiro collected takenoko (bamboo shoots) and I cleaned out the grill room for in case it rained that night. In the afternoon it was basically party prepping. I made "tiramisu" (improvised in some areas) and cut veggies and things. There was a TON of meat for the grill. Muto-san prepped the pizza oven. Then Hitomi brought "loose sushi rice" (chirashizushi), an apple pie, these mini chocolate biscuit cakes. Ayumi's children were there, and soon Hana came with Hiroko. A previous WWOOFer and her 3 year old son were also there - tons of children - the best:) Makoto came later, and Dai-san (the owner of the cows next to us) came, after their work Ayumi and her husband came as well. Pizza, veggies, meat, home made apple pie, cakes, chirashizushi - it was all delicious. They even gave me gifts...which caught me off gaurd...but I was really touched and very grateful. They feel like family...they really do.

After it got dark I played soccer with Yuto, Fuma and Aina then afterwards the kids challenged adults to different body contortions that come naturally at a young age. So I got to see Hiro and Ayumi do hand stands and hand walking and Makoto attempt a handstand and Katsu the bridge and the adults acting as obstacles as the kids leapt over them...they will seem so grown up in 4 years! But they are such good kids, maybe they will still play a little soccer with me next time...

I packed that night and exchanged photos with Muto-san. It still hadn't really hit me that I was leaving. It never does until I'm gone.

So the next morning I got up early and washed the dishes and collected the eggs because I wanted to...as if I weren't leaving. Put my things in the car. Ate leftover pizza, fruit and yogurt with Muto-san while watching NHK like usual. Hiro washed the eggs while I dried. Then it was time to go...so Katsu came back from pig feeding and we took a group photo at the entrance. I hugged them and thanked them and Muto-san drove me down the road to my great-aunt's house because one of Mom's cousins was going to give me a ride to Uto. Muto-san said, "I think I'm going to have to come to America afterall." I really hope he does. He has been so good to me - they all have been. I'm already looking forward to going back college. I think I've made a second home there... but I don't think I can never thank them enough for what they have done for me.

Sato-san, Mom's cousin, drove me to Uto along with her daughter and grandson. We went to Hashirigata (The cucumber and tomato farm) to see everyone there and eat lunch. Chizuko-san and Obaachan had prepared quite a spread (chicken, bamboo/bacon dish, dango, salad, greens, cucumber salad, miso soup, warabi sticky rice). A little after that, Makito-Ojichan came to pick me up and took me to the house. Everyone was home! I was surprised since it seems rare in this very busy household, but it was Saturday. Everyone is happy and healthy I think. Kazu is working now at the mechanics and Ema is now a senior in high school. She is thinking about taking a year off after graduation to go to an English study school in the Philipines before going to college in the states. That is pretty adventurous! She can definitely do it - it will be fun to have her in America:)

Since Ojichan is busy with teaching, Obachan with working at the day care, Kazu at mechanic and Ema at school, I am going to help at Hashirigata again. On Sunday I didn't go, but spent most of the day relaxing and going shopping. Monday I went. I was really nervous about working in the green houses now that it is warm out because inside the house it was really hot even in the winter time. Also in Japan women cover up every inch of skin so they don't burn. So now I'm wearing long pants, long sleeve shirt, arm covers, towel around my neck and baseball cap, which is definitely the MOST I've ever worn in a 25 degreen celcius situation. Today was hotter than yesterday, but still, what I was expecting was a lot worse...but it's still April. Yesterday I clipped the new sprouts on the tomato plants in the morning then helped sort tomatoes, made boxes, then in the afternoon clipped some more. Then another of Mom's cousins that has a melon and cucumber farm came by. Yoshifumi-san had mentioned that I'd like to see the melon farm to her, but they had just harvested so when I come there wouldn't be any ripe ones so she brought melon for us to taste. And yes, it was amazing:) She had sliced it and even brought little forks for us.

Today it was clipping all day - it becomes medative - and I got better! I helped Obaachan make lunch too - and she made one my favorite sweet mashed tofu dishes - I think I can make it now tooooo!

It's nice to be here with the family in Uto. It feels so relaxed and it's nice to hear about everyone's days and how work and school went and eat dinner together and take turns washing dishes...like home.

I'm one month away from home...which basically means, before I know it, I'll be there.

A beautiful day - winding down...

April 11th

Today was an interesting day - due to the weather. It started out as a kind of miserable rainy day. Grey and dark and with the rain coming down steady and humming... After I did the chickens (there were a lot of eggs this morning, probably because I went later than 8:30 due to watching some NCIS that I rented) I didn't know what work to do. There wasn't even any rice to sort. Muto-san and Hitomi-san had collected some vegetables and herbs- italian parsley, asparagus, long green onions and some more - washed them, and then wrapped them in newspaper for Miyata-san to come and take them away for a restaurant... I'm so cheesy, but I find something really poetic and beautiful in how they go about that...maybe it was just the sound of the rain today that has gotten me a little sappy...Then they left for errands and things. I had the house to myself...on a normal day like that I'd probably do cleaning but I was really unmotivated to do anything productive. I was thinking about trying to bake cookies but there as no butter. So, I grew weak to another disc of NCIS. I started watching NCIS at home during the later seasons, so I've been watching some of the earlier episodes that I'd never seen  before. I really, really love that show! So after that I decided I'd make some lunch - tuna/boiled egg/ cucumber/ tabasco sandwich with leftover miso soup (that was STUFFED with onions, sweet potatoes, fried tofu, normal tofu, chikua, yaakon, burdoc, long green onions, wakame, carrots and more) with apple. The sandwich was kind of lopsided due to my very terrible bread slicing job and therefore basically fell apart and had to eat the thing with chopsticks. More NCIS. Then I made a can of zenzai (sweet bean soup) and some quick make dumplings to put in it...then feeling guilty about being so lazy I decided to go on a walk. The weather had changed considerably - white, fast moving clouds, blue sky, shining golden sunlight everywhere - the world glittered due to the wetness left after the rain. Absolutely gorgeous. However, it was also hot and humid with only an occasional breeze so I got pretty uncomfortable with jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

All of the spring flowers are still out and beautiful. There are these beautiful bright yellow flowers that grow in bunches and sometimes like entire fields - there are still daffodils, purple wild flowers, some remains of sakura, the fallen tsubaki flowers, and a lot of little white flowers and even tinier blue ones. The grass that is growing underneath the black barked, still bare chestnut trees is amazing, literally glowing green and the blades fleshy, the grass is thick and tall and perfect - like green fire - beautiful.

When I came back Hitomi-san and Muto-san were home (and with doughnuts!). I ate soy powder doughnuts - they were chewy and delicious:D

I have only a little more than one month left here in Japan. I leave here in 10 days to go back to Uto. Everyone here has been so wonderful to me... it's going to be hard for me to leave but I know that I'll be back. Hitomi-san said it's going to be lonely around here without me... I told her I'll be lonely without them as well.

Hana-chan (Katsu's 1.5 year old daughter) came yesterday, since her mother works every Tuesday. Last week, we watched Totoro three times in one day. Yesterday, it was a record of four. She is adorable - wanting to play outside then wanting to see totoro, and after she sees totoro, it's back outside, then she wants mama and papa then she wants totoro and so on and so forth. However, she finally knows my name! She went from calling me "Older Brother" (Oneechan) to "Older Sister" (Oneichan) then to "Leah" (my name). It makes me so happy to hear her tiny little child's voice call out my name " ria?" Makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside:)  I get to see her one last time next week. Then probably the next time I'll see her, she will be 5 years old.

Michael leaves for the Pacific Crest Trail in three days. Before when I was skyping with Mom, Michael came and did a harmonica performance for me - he's been practcing. I hadn't heard the sound of a harmonica in so long...it was really, really wonderful. I just think how in a little bit, he will be exactly where he has been dreaming to be for a long time, somewhere in the wild - in nature and beauty - I can see a campfire and him sitting there playing the harmonica in the dark and only orange light from the fire... :) I can even smell it... I hope that David and Michael stay safe and healthy and have an incredible time - they have been looking forward to it, working hard for it and really deserve it.

April is here!

4.1


It's April.
The flowers are stunning all over. Forsythia, daffodils, cherry, plum and peach trees and so many more that I don't know the names of. The sky has been a cloudless blue for nearly a week straight. Sun has been warm and just enough of a breeze to keep things from getting hot. The best weather. I love autumn the best out of the seasons, but spring is pretty amazing too.

We've been going to the mountain almost everyday to work on putting the shiitake mushroom bacteria into the logs we cut in November. I didn't realize what a process it was. For some reason I really thought of needle inserting some liquid into the trees like a flu vaccination. Of course, it's nothing like that. There is a drill with guard on the head to make sure you can only go so far and makes these perfect little holes about the same width as my pinky finger. In one log, they drill about 14 holes (more or less depending on the diameter of the log). After that there are these little cork-like plugs that are the bacteria. They fit into the holes pretty well, but you have to use a hammer to make it go in all the way. In one pack of the shiitake bacteria there about 1,000 pieces. In one afternoon if we are fast we can go through 3,000. Hitomi-san told me the people who are really fast go through 10 packs in one day, that's 10,000 pieces. Wow...

I tried drilling but it didn't work out so well. I have to hold the log up and spin it with one hand and then drill with my other hand. With small logs it's fine, but there a lot of big ones that I can hardly lift so I got tired just after one pile. I'm good with hammering.

The two grandboys, Fuma and Yuto (Muto-san's daughter's sons) came for most of the week. They stayed overnight at the main house and came with us to the mountains to work (and to play as well). They really seem to enjoy working here and are overjoyed when they find the many eggs to be collected and collecting weeds to feed to the goats.

Okay, now it's actuallly April 3rd since I neglected writing this for a little while.

The weather has been incredible, sunny and warm and blue skies for a week or more, then one day of rain, and another beautiful week - my kind of weather!

On Saturday it was Hitomi-san's birthday. I didn't realize it was kind of surprise, but we did a party for her. A "tako yaki" party. Tako  yaki is a cabbage pankcake EXCEPT in ball form, so you have to have a special grill for it. You can put anything in the middle so of course we had tako (octopus) but there was also mochi, weiner and cheese. I spent the afternoon shopping for food items with Muto-san then trying to make deviled eggs and fruit shish kabobs for the party. But when we had gone into town, the sakura trees were blooming all over the park/hill that leads to the city. Muto-san parked and walked me around the path. He said they were only in 80% bloom, and it will become even more beautiful. I'd never seen so many trees like - everything was white and pink and completely stunning against the blue sky. With a sight like that, you feel so at peace and so appreciative - there is such beauty in the world! People were sitting beneath the trees eating a drinking as is custom.

I had never made deviled eggs before, but I figured it was pretty American party food and I'd give it a try. Hiro and I mixed the batter and cut up things for the tako yaki while Hitomi-san made onigiri. Muto-san had bought a cake for her, strawberry cream:) There were two grills, an electric nonstick pan and a cast iron one that we used on a table top stove.  I was sitting near the cast iron one with Katsu and Hiro so worked that one - pouring in the batter so the cups were half full, putting in cabbage and a filling, then pouring more batter over it. Then your had turn the little balls with sticks earlier enough so that the batter was still liquidy enough to create an actual ball when you turned it over and late enough so that you could turn it without ripping it to shreds. Basically, we sucked in the beginning but by the end not only were they pretty but we could do very quickly. Hiro had made enough batter for 200 Tako Yaki:D Which was good because Katsu and his wife and Hana-chan were there, plus of course Hitomi and Muto-san, Hiro, Obaachan and then their daughter, Ayumi, came with two kids, Fuma and Aina-chan. It was really yummy and fun. Hiro said he used to have tako yaki parties with his friends during college - and that I should too! Ayumi gave me a small tako yaki grill, I think I'll mail it home with winter clothes...then I really cane make tako yaki.

We sang happy birthday and distributed cake while Hitomi-san opened presents. Last, she opened a gift from Muto-san. I'd been bugging him before about what he should do for her (flowers, card and a big diamond necklace!). But then he told me he had actually gotten her a necklace. I was really surprised (but really happy) and I told Hiro, who told Katsu and they said that they don't think he's done anything like that before - they thanked me for giving Muto-san advice...  (and I had just been joking around and being annoying!). Katsu told me later that after Hitomi-san opened the pearl necklace, it looked like she was about to cry. I had been watching Hana-chan and Aina-chan so I hadn't seen that...but just hearing Katsu say that made me melt a little inside. I'm glad...happy for her.

On Sunday there was a picnic for just this neighborhood - I think the day for honoring their ancestors. Hitomi-san made an incredible display of obento and we drove up to a hill where the local shrine is and set up a tarp and food. We were the first ones there (they said that that was a first and they were almost always last in previous years) but soon more and more people came. Then there was a little speech, a toast and we started eating and drinking under the blue sky, bright sun and blooming sakura trees. Hitomi-san had made onigiri, inari sushi, karage chicken, fish, shrimp, noodles, seasoned spring vegetables and a lot more. Plus there was sushi, sashimi and basashi (raw horse). Three years ago I tried basashi... but I hadn't really been able to stomach it... but Hiro kept taunting me, "It's really good, you should try it again, I'll even let you use my soy sauce!" So I tried one more time. This time, it tasted pretty good, but those beautiful horse eyes and that soft nose still floated guiltily in my mind. It's not really my kind of food. Many of the men were drinking quite a bit and people started mingling and there was a lot of laughing... Hiro and Katsu told me I can take the afternoon off and they'll do the chickens since it was Sunday anyway. But I said it's fine because I don't really have anything to do...then Hiro reminded me that I can work on my scholarship essay! I told him he sounded like mom:p But now that I had that hanging over my head, I cleared off the tree deck back at the farm and brought tea and some snacks and sat down to write. And, I finished it... just some editing and what not left to do.

Monday was especially warm. T-shirt weather and not too windy so I opened up the windows all over to air out the house and even hung my blankets out on the line. I then decided I would clean out the goat pen... the rice shells (that they used like we use straw) were basically all gone and it was just dirt and poop so I shoveled some out. It stunk like crazy and I remembered when I went to farm school all those years ago... for some reason I always seemed to get the worst jobs (probably because I was too shy to raise my hand for the better jobs or something). One bad job was watering the apple trees. The apple trees were on a hill (which in my memory is more like a steep cliff) and there was a pond down below. We had to fill 5 gallon buckets and carry them up to the trees, one bucket for one tree, and me and some other kids had 4 trees each. One kid took one bucket and split it between the four and declared to be finished. Another kid started freaking out and crying and saying she felt to sick to do the work so she left after one bucket. So then me and this other kid had to make up for them... that was tough. But the real bad job was cleaning out the goat pen. We shoved tons of tissues up our noses, but it didn't block out the smell one bit. So there was...yesterday doing it of my own accord, just because I like how the clean rice shells look and because I thought the goats would appreciate it. It only took me maybe 45 minutes to do it all... but everything stunk.

In the afternoon we went into the mountains and did about 2,500 shiitake corks by 5 PM. After that, since it was Monday - badminton!
Before badminton, Hiro took me to see the night time sakura. The sakura are lit by lamps and a string of lanterns, winding around the walking path all over the hill. It had a completely different feel from the day... a softer, more mystical feel. They glowed in the lantern light, and in the black of the night, it looked like a pink shimmery powder had been sprinkled around in the dark. There were food stands, we got "Sasebo Burgers" so we could eat and walk. I believe Hiro said that Sasebo is a place in Nagasaki famous for this burger - and it was tasty! Tomato, lettuce, onion, egg, meat, salt and pepper, some kind of other sauce and ketchup. It was about as big as my full flexed hand and took me basically the whole time we walked to eat it (mostly because I was busy taking photos and video). Mom had told me I had to see the night time sakura...and ya-ta! I hadn't seen anything like that before...and when the petals fall it is like twinkling little snow fall. So many trees...

Badminton was great like last week. There are the young guys who are really good (and fun to watch) that play, but I am now being included in the "Okay" people. I think they are mostly just being really nice to me. At first Eriguchu-sensei (who runs the open badminton) helps me by teaching/warming me up. My favorite is being close to the net and hitting it back and forth really lightly, it's the most fun. My arm was SO SORE last week, and it seemed that when I started playing yesterday all that pain woke up again, but soon it went away and left only fun behind! They are really nice to me (even though I suck) and everyone seems to have fun so it is quite enjoyable. When I first came, I just watched, but now I am included in the games! I told them I'll practice during college and when I come back I'll be stellar:p We'll see how it goes!

Today is a rainy day...but this morning there were more eggs than usual. 91 just in the morning! And they were also cleaner than normal, so it didn't take too long to wash them. Though it is rainy and windy, it's also pretty warm. Spring.