Friday, Oct 31st
Today we went straight to our WWOOF host in Mie. The host, Taizousan, picked us up from the station in Kameyama and drove us to his farm where he grows and processes green tea. It was a really nice place, and we seem to have been designated half of his parent's house which is an old style tatami-mat place. Our room is really nice. After a short rest, we went with him to the factory to collect his processed tea, tons of it. Then back at the house, his daughter Nonochan and her friend came over to play. They helped us set up our futons (although they didt get it quite right) and we played Othello. They won.
After, we went to their house for dinner. They have a really nice house with a GIANT HDTV so its nice to not be back to basics for a while.
In the evening, Taizousan invited us to come to the public bath with him. It seems odd that within hours he invited us to come have a naked bath with him and others but its not so much of a big deal here. Though, when we got there, the other Japanese were not too pleased that foreigners had come to their public bath. Its not being naked thats embarrassing, its that they were all staring at us, not so happily.
So I am pretty happy to be here, the family is really nice, and tomorrow we are going to their son Toyakun's school to see him sing in his school's music fair.
Saturday, Nov 1st
After our breakfast of cornflakes and toast (not rice, fish and miso soup), we headed with Nonochan and Taizousan's wife to the school. It was really strange, because as soon as the parents saw their child do their bit, they just left. And some even came in halfway through, watched 5 minutes and left. We werent an exception though, which was good because they were having a competition with every class singing the same song (a long one) to see who was best, which is a little harsh maybe.
In the afternoon, we went to help move fertiliser from a pig farm to Taizousan's green tea field. The bags were heavy and he insisted we wore the provided overalls instead of our own old clothes which was nice, apart from they were hot and the bags of fertilisers just slid down them making them very hard to carry. But we got to have a vending machine drink for our break and I had a drink apparently made from 50 lemons. Im not so sure about that one.
Then, we went to the public bath again. Taizousan seems to really enjoy it, I think he likes having somebody to go with. After the bath, we went to his cousin's organic cafe and had a drink. It was more of a hippy-cafe than an organic one but it was really cool.
In the evening, we headed over for dinner again and afterwards we played Super Smash Brother's on the Wii with Toyakun and Nonochan. Toyakun was way too good though.
Sunday, Nov 2nd
Today we were given a day off to go to the festival in the town of Seki. We started off walking with Taizousan's wife and Nonochan but they decided to leave after a while and let us explore. It was really fun. It wasn't like crappy Kurama Fire Festival, everyone was actually happy and enjoying watching the parades. The floats (omikoshi) were HUGE and they looked heavy as the people holding them had to take breaks a lot. There was also dancing, drumming and singing. We went to have a look at a shrine and the priest came out, who happened to speak English as he was a sailor. He talked to us for about 45 minutes and even invited us inside to look around and what was in the shrine which was really cool. He even offered us sake. Shame on him drinking in the daytime. After my Okonomiyaki lunch, we walked around some more and then phoned Taizousan to come and pick us up. After, we walked the dog and took some photos, Nonochan came over to see us and do her kanji homework. I showed her the Japanese I had been studying and she corrected the kanji I got wrong for me. She really likes to help and she has made us cookies a few times now as she wants to work as a cakemaker.
Taizousan made us dinner again this evening and gave us copies of the photo she took. Tomorrow, we have a long day of fertilising. My arms still ache from yesterday!
Monday, Nov 3rd.
We had a full day of work today but it was a lot easier than yesterday. I guess my arms got used to it. Taizousan seems to have learnt the word 'pissing', I guess from his previous American WWOOFers. He often told us he was off for a piss, which was strange because he doesn't seem to swear otherwise. We had an instant ramen lunch which was good and then carried on working til about 3. After work, Nonochan came over to see us and she managed to link our DS's so we could play Taiko no Tastujin together which was pretty fun. Afterwards, we went to a Kaiten (revolving) sushi restaurant. It was really fun, stealing sushi from the belt. It was also really busy because today is a National Holiday. I think Toyakun ate his weight in revolving melon. We also went bowling afterwards and I came 3rd (out of 5) so I didnt do too badly. Taizousan was really good at bowling, he took it very seriously changing his ball about 3 times and practicing his bowl motion. It was pretty funny.
Tuesday, Nov 4th
This was our last full day of work, and our last full day. After work, we headed to a fancy Onsen where we tried out the outside baths which were good. After the onsen, Nonochan came over to play DS. Its her birthday and she made us both cushions as presents which was sweet. We then had a birthday dinner with the family and a friend's family. Dinner was followed by some games of cards (I didnt win) and then we played some Super Smash Brothers again on the Wii (I did win sometimes). I think Im getting the hang of Super Smash Brothers now.
