So we arrived Saturday and were picked up by two really great but unexpected people.
Sunday:
On Sunday, we went to help at a small market outside a shop. Everyone was really nice. One person gave up some bamboo sake cups he makes. The shopkeeper also took a liking to us. He asked if we could go with him to his english conversational class after lunch. So of course, after an onigiri lunch, we went over with him. We picked up the teacher on the way. The teacher was American and his spelling pretty bad. Guess it was a good job that the class was a conversational one. We talked about many odd things ranging from holidays on boats to dead dogs. It was a lot of fun. One of the class members even got me and Ed a drink from the vending machine. In the evening, we went back and stayed up late chatting about food and anime. Su-chan gave us a foodmap of Japan and the regional dishes that we had to eat.
Monday:
Monday was strange. We were moved to the original host, Tabuchi and Kenchan in their not so nice house. We got there, and then were ignored a bit, and then they said they had an emergency and had to go so they left us with a new friend who was also really nice. We planted spinach. When it started to get dark, we were told we were being collected....but it wasnt by Tabuchi....we had been offloaded again. We were collected by a guy called Mashisan, he was a lot of fun. He was fairly old and he took us to an Udon restaurant and bought us set menus. We chatted in Japanese and had a good dinner. He then said he would take us back to the farm and wait for Tabuchi and Kenchan to come home, as he was going to stay overnight. So we sat up with him and drank sake. Each glass, his English worsened. It was very funny. Eventually they came home and we went to bed.
Tuesday to Wednesday:
We were pretty much ignored these days. We were told to get up at 8 and then when we did nobody would be around. I wasnt so impressed. One night, we were given a ready meal to eat alone while they entertained their girlfriends. At this point, I started considering ditching the hosts and to head to Nara city.
Thursday:
Today was one of the best days of the week. Everyone came over; Su-chan, Soryo and Mashisan and more to do some work in the area. It was quite tough work but it was fun working together and at the end we had ice cream and played Frisbee. We had curry for dinner. The dinners they were preparing were made out of only things they grew. There is only a limited amount of things you can do with just 3 vegetables. So something to disguise the taste of eggplant was welcome.
Friday:
Today we helped Tabuchi with his farm. He grew soy beans. Tabuchi and Kenchan were pretty lazy farmers. Their fields were overgrown with weeds to the point parts had rotten away. However, it was good to fix what we could and Tabuchi was more talkative so we got on well. It was good to leave with a good impression on the last day. Even if their toilet was maggot infested. *shudder*.
