Wow, Its like a transformation has occurred. The dull grey concrete Osaka is splashed with pink!! The beauty is astounding. It gives you an indescribable feeling. When I see a really beautiful tree overflowing with blossoms, I just want to devour it. I imagine it would taste like baby angels. ; )
Yesterday I walked to Tennoji Park. I was planning to go to the Museum since it had been raining, but when I reached there, it wasn't raining, the museum was closed, and the park surrounding was sprinkled with Cherry trees. So I just walked. And sat. And gazed. And take pictures. But my gosh, they don't do it justice. I liked this camera up until now. Having draped it several times, and smashed it plenty, it has survived much, so I had become quite fond of it. But today I was taking pictures of some Cherry and plum trees in a park. They were both a darker variety, but on the camera the color is really weak! I almost purposely dropped it. That being said, there is only so many pictures you can take of Sakura with a crummy camera. I mean, after a while it all looks the same. But you still want to take pictures. That's where the love part comes in!!!! Normally Japanese people are not physically touchy in public. You do see people holding hands, but you don't more often then not. But, when the Sakura blooms, love is in the air!!! Cute couples sitting under Sakura trees or just walking suddenly appear. I still haven't seen anyone kiss though. Which reminds me, when I get back, no kissing in front of me or I will get really embarrassed and have to cover my face with my hands. Haha! I'm joking-kiss away!! But, I have seen more couples holding hands, even when sitting, hugging, arms around each other, one guy rubbing his pregnant wives belly, drinking together and picnicking, a father and 6 year old daughter doing photography together and cuddling, and many taking pictures together with the Sakura behind them. When I got back to Namba I walked down the street to one of those "lame" parks that mom and I saw all over our first time in Japan, which was surrounded with Sakura trees. There were a few couples there, and groups of people. i sat and watched one couple for awhile. They were cute, but clearly getting a little drunk (by this time it was 6). Their joking was slowly getting more dramatic and loud. I also saw a guy using pastels to draw the Sakura. After church I took the train to Kyoto and went to the Imperial Palace. There is a park around it. The Palace grounds were open too, so I walked around there too. (you can't go in the building though)
Well, thats all for now!
Since I'm heading home tomorrow, I probably won't blog again. JYA, MATA NE!!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Yesterday was Friday today is Saturday, Tomorow is Sunday and Monday comes After...wards
You may think that`s just some really boring title I wrote up there, but incase you haven`t listended to it yet, that is a clip from the Lyrics of the oh so infamous song Friday. If you decide you want to blow your brains out (Jenny Downer that was a misquoted paraphrase), please just look it up on Youtube. I think it has 72,733,709 views now. Why don`t you be number 72,733,7 and 10?
See, even though I`m in Japan, I`m still aware of the rest of the world out there. I always keep up to date on important things like this.
On Friday morning another WHOOFer came. This is his 3rd time here. He is 40 years old, but I think he only looks like 28-30. Anyways, since he totally doesn`t seem forty, I was kinda irked to think that he is almost my mom`s age- oops!! I mean he is older than my mom! Hahaha, slip of the tongue.
He is from Korea. His Japanese is really good and his English is so-so. Now everyone is speaking Jpaanese, so I think I am going to pick up more Japanese on my last week here than the whole trip!
He raises cattle in Korea for beef. In Korea if you are a guy you have to serve in the National Service for 3 years I think. So when he served from 20-23. Then he reasearched on the computer how to raise cows and then started a cow farm! So, yes you can start litteraly from scratch like that. You think he had ANY previous knowledge of cows? He hasn`t ever even ridden a horse!!! On that note: Go Cheyanne Go!!
We did a lot of weeding and cleared a huge area. Also we had to plow up two little patches of land.
The Ito family sets up farms in different areas and then lets people garden 5 meter plots of land. They are opening another one on land owned by a Sake factory that is right next to it. The Sake factory is a really big communal building too that is used for community events such as celebrations and selling hand made goods on the weekends.
Ayako had made a brochure in the past for the farm next to there house, and they are making another one for this new place. A whhoofer had drawn the picture of the farm inside the brochure for the first one. They were just going to do pictures for the new one, but when they showed the lady at the Sake factory the original one, she said that she wanted a hand drawn picture. It kinda makes it more appealing since its all hand grown food and stuff that they are offering. Michikosan (Ayako`s mom) was like, `yah, that`s great and all, but who`s gunna draw the picture?` So they scratched their heads over it, and then when they got home started flipping throught the Whoofer`s memo book (the book where whhofers write and draw pictures for them). Well, you probably already guessed it, Yes, I drew a picture. And yes, they were like `oh my gosh Haven can draw it!!` And yes, when I arrived and they showed it to me I said, `sure yah, that`s easy enough`
Actually I was pretty excited. The creative spirit in me has been awakened this past week. Yesterday I even wove a whole scarf!!! They also have many machines and give weaving classes.
Today we picked a whole bunch of veggies in the morning for the vegtable cart. We set that all up and then I cleaned `the office`, which is a building outside the house, not the TV show, bwaaahahaha. basically I swept the floor and wiped off some surfaces. After lunch we went down to the sake factory place. I took my note book and scribbled some sketches. Unfortunaly I didn`t get to try any sake. Boohoo.
Bhongsan and I sat in on the caligraphy class and pariticipated for a while. It was his first time doing Caligraphy. He`s lucky I was too preocuppied with watching all the 8 year old skids scream `Sensei` every 5 seconds, swing there brushes everywhere, hit eachother on the head and precariously tipping their chairs backwards, and I was trying to do caligraphy at the same time, to joke about his caligraphy skills. I almost had a nervous break down. I don`t know how Machikosan does it! So much for relaxation, feel the energy as you run through your hand and into the brush. Well, she did tell us a story about how she head locked one of the kids who was gong crazy and held him there while she walked around and checked on everyone elses work. One of the whoofers ran and got their camera becuase they thought it looked so funny.
Hmm... what else. Random fact: you know how the fruit and vegtables here are crazy expensive? Well I guess mangos are out of season because I saw a few for sell at one grocery store and they were about $7 a peice. But the thing you have to remeber is the way that Japanese cook. Unlike me they don`t buy 10 mangos and just gobble one down every couple hours. They rarely even do that with any fruit, even apples.
They always use a little bit of ingrediants when cooking except for the main ones like rice and noodles. They would probably take that one manga and make a dessert out of it for four people. Something like a glob of icecream with a few cubes of chopped mango, wipped cream, azuki bean mochi all in a bowl with jello cubes and ice at the bottom. Ok, I`m sorry I can`t help it! I`m starving!
Alright! That`s all for now!
See, even though I`m in Japan, I`m still aware of the rest of the world out there. I always keep up to date on important things like this.
On Friday morning another WHOOFer came. This is his 3rd time here. He is 40 years old, but I think he only looks like 28-30. Anyways, since he totally doesn`t seem forty, I was kinda irked to think that he is almost my mom`s age- oops!! I mean he is older than my mom! Hahaha, slip of the tongue.
He is from Korea. His Japanese is really good and his English is so-so. Now everyone is speaking Jpaanese, so I think I am going to pick up more Japanese on my last week here than the whole trip!
He raises cattle in Korea for beef. In Korea if you are a guy you have to serve in the National Service for 3 years I think. So when he served from 20-23. Then he reasearched on the computer how to raise cows and then started a cow farm! So, yes you can start litteraly from scratch like that. You think he had ANY previous knowledge of cows? He hasn`t ever even ridden a horse!!! On that note: Go Cheyanne Go!!
We did a lot of weeding and cleared a huge area. Also we had to plow up two little patches of land.
The Ito family sets up farms in different areas and then lets people garden 5 meter plots of land. They are opening another one on land owned by a Sake factory that is right next to it. The Sake factory is a really big communal building too that is used for community events such as celebrations and selling hand made goods on the weekends.
Ayako had made a brochure in the past for the farm next to there house, and they are making another one for this new place. A whhoofer had drawn the picture of the farm inside the brochure for the first one. They were just going to do pictures for the new one, but when they showed the lady at the Sake factory the original one, she said that she wanted a hand drawn picture. It kinda makes it more appealing since its all hand grown food and stuff that they are offering. Michikosan (Ayako`s mom) was like, `yah, that`s great and all, but who`s gunna draw the picture?` So they scratched their heads over it, and then when they got home started flipping throught the Whoofer`s memo book (the book where whhofers write and draw pictures for them). Well, you probably already guessed it, Yes, I drew a picture. And yes, they were like `oh my gosh Haven can draw it!!` And yes, when I arrived and they showed it to me I said, `sure yah, that`s easy enough`
Actually I was pretty excited. The creative spirit in me has been awakened this past week. Yesterday I even wove a whole scarf!!! They also have many machines and give weaving classes.
Today we picked a whole bunch of veggies in the morning for the vegtable cart. We set that all up and then I cleaned `the office`, which is a building outside the house, not the TV show, bwaaahahaha. basically I swept the floor and wiped off some surfaces. After lunch we went down to the sake factory place. I took my note book and scribbled some sketches. Unfortunaly I didn`t get to try any sake. Boohoo.
Bhongsan and I sat in on the caligraphy class and pariticipated for a while. It was his first time doing Caligraphy. He`s lucky I was too preocuppied with watching all the 8 year old skids scream `Sensei` every 5 seconds, swing there brushes everywhere, hit eachother on the head and precariously tipping their chairs backwards, and I was trying to do caligraphy at the same time, to joke about his caligraphy skills. I almost had a nervous break down. I don`t know how Machikosan does it! So much for relaxation, feel the energy as you run through your hand and into the brush. Well, she did tell us a story about how she head locked one of the kids who was gong crazy and held him there while she walked around and checked on everyone elses work. One of the whoofers ran and got their camera becuase they thought it looked so funny.
Hmm... what else. Random fact: you know how the fruit and vegtables here are crazy expensive? Well I guess mangos are out of season because I saw a few for sell at one grocery store and they were about $7 a peice. But the thing you have to remeber is the way that Japanese cook. Unlike me they don`t buy 10 mangos and just gobble one down every couple hours. They rarely even do that with any fruit, even apples.
They always use a little bit of ingrediants when cooking except for the main ones like rice and noodles. They would probably take that one manga and make a dessert out of it for four people. Something like a glob of icecream with a few cubes of chopped mango, wipped cream, azuki bean mochi all in a bowl with jello cubes and ice at the bottom. Ok, I`m sorry I can`t help it! I`m starving!
Alright! That`s all for now!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
I did it, I actually really did it!!! Did what? (March 30th)
Somehow, one way or another, Tomoko ended up strangling me into doing Kareoke. On Tuesday night she was like, `so...what would you like to do tomorrow?` `I dunno, whatever you wanna do.` `Kareoke?!` me choking.....`um, well, oh ok..I guess` `Nani?` `Kareoke wa kowaii!!!` `kowaii?! nande?` `becuase I don`t like singing in front of people!` `Demo, kareoke wa daijyobu!` me shaking and starting to pull my hair out, `daijyobu jya nai!!!!` But the next day we went anyways. Turns out riding a bike down the street is more scarier than kareoke. I was plum terrified. We left at around 11:30 and met her freind Shaori on one of the street corners. Then we all biked down to the kareoke place. I haven`t ridden a bike and quite some time, and I have never riddena bike on a side walk with lots of people walking and on bikes and next to cars on the street. They kept laughing at me the whole time because I was so clumsy riding. So, we got to the Kareoke room and ended up reserving 3 hours. Wow, three hours goes way too fast. It was fun, and not so scary, but I still don`t like singing in front of people so don`t ask me any questions, like what did you sing Haven? I`ll get embarrased.
After that we walked down the street and guess what we did? No really guess, its easy, I always to it with Tomochan. Purikura!!! That was actually one of the funnest times, becuase I managed to add fake eyelashes to all of us in one piture and do my hair with a blond bob. It was kinda cute actually. I should go blond.
Then we walked in and out of show shops. Shoes in Japan are amazing....ly expensive! No, they are amazing. So cute! I just want to buy everything in sight! Also, I`ve been trying to take pictures of people walking down the street wearing cute or cool clothes or something like that, but I have also been taking pictures of girls shoes. So any Japanese girls out there wearing cute choes, watch out! If you go in a shop there might be an American girl in there taking pictures of your feet!
After this, what we did next was TONS of fun! They took me to see their high school. They have both just graduated, so that`s why I was able to go stay at Tomochan`s house. It was kinda scary becuase it was really quiet and empty. It was about 5:00. We took off our shoes and started climbing thye stairs to the first row hallway of classrooms. Then we heard something. `oh my gosh, what`s that?` Peaking around the corner, `eek! its so and so sensei!!!` We ended up playing a game of hide and go seek from any of the teachers we ran into. Tomochan was hilarious. Here is the senerio. So, your walking down the hall way and you see a teahcer standing there, he has probably noticed you, but you don:t want to talk to him or him to see who you are, do you 1.) run to the nearest wall and hide up against it, even though you`ve already been spotted. or 2.) turn around and start walking quickly the other way like you never noticed them and your on an important mission. Tomoko did 1.) and me and Shiori did 2. It was pretty funny. We saw the teacher and then Tomoko just flattened her self against the wall. After running around like this for awhile, we finally mannaged to get out of the building, which was a LOT harder than getting in. We walked past the tennis court were there was an extra curicular game of tennis going on that lots of boys were playing. There was about 6 tennis courts and about 40 or more boys in tennis uniforms. We didn`t exactly blend in. SO while walking innocently past on of the teachers there spotted us. But since we were just going for a walk around the mountain (the schoool is right up against a mountain. There is a trail that goes up the mountain around the school that the kids run three times a week) he said that was Ok.
After that we cycled back home. That night the whole family actually ate together, because her dad came home early from work. His english was actually quite good. She says that her practices his english every night, but she doesn`t know why. We had sushi! It was SOOOOOO good!!! I mean like mouth watering I think I`m in heaven when I`m eating good! Tearah, you wouldn`t have liked it.
Right now I am at my first host families house. I took a train here this morning at around 10:00. I`ll probably stay here till next Friday or Saturday.
Oh ya, Tomochan can also play the piano. I asked her to play it last night, I even said Onegaishimasu!, but I forgot that in Japanese houses you can hear everything inside and out, and since it was 11:00 at night she didn`t want to bother the neighbors. But she played it in the morning and it was really beutiful. She was considering getting her degree in music but now she is going to get one in English and hopefully become a translator.
After that we walked down the street and guess what we did? No really guess, its easy, I always to it with Tomochan. Purikura!!! That was actually one of the funnest times, becuase I managed to add fake eyelashes to all of us in one piture and do my hair with a blond bob. It was kinda cute actually. I should go blond.
Then we walked in and out of show shops. Shoes in Japan are amazing....ly expensive! No, they are amazing. So cute! I just want to buy everything in sight! Also, I`ve been trying to take pictures of people walking down the street wearing cute or cool clothes or something like that, but I have also been taking pictures of girls shoes. So any Japanese girls out there wearing cute choes, watch out! If you go in a shop there might be an American girl in there taking pictures of your feet!
After this, what we did next was TONS of fun! They took me to see their high school. They have both just graduated, so that`s why I was able to go stay at Tomochan`s house. It was kinda scary becuase it was really quiet and empty. It was about 5:00. We took off our shoes and started climbing thye stairs to the first row hallway of classrooms. Then we heard something. `oh my gosh, what`s that?` Peaking around the corner, `eek! its so and so sensei!!!` We ended up playing a game of hide and go seek from any of the teachers we ran into. Tomochan was hilarious. Here is the senerio. So, your walking down the hall way and you see a teahcer standing there, he has probably noticed you, but you don:t want to talk to him or him to see who you are, do you 1.) run to the nearest wall and hide up against it, even though you`ve already been spotted. or 2.) turn around and start walking quickly the other way like you never noticed them and your on an important mission. Tomoko did 1.) and me and Shiori did 2. It was pretty funny. We saw the teacher and then Tomoko just flattened her self against the wall. After running around like this for awhile, we finally mannaged to get out of the building, which was a LOT harder than getting in. We walked past the tennis court were there was an extra curicular game of tennis going on that lots of boys were playing. There was about 6 tennis courts and about 40 or more boys in tennis uniforms. We didn`t exactly blend in. SO while walking innocently past on of the teachers there spotted us. But since we were just going for a walk around the mountain (the schoool is right up against a mountain. There is a trail that goes up the mountain around the school that the kids run three times a week) he said that was Ok.
After that we cycled back home. That night the whole family actually ate together, because her dad came home early from work. His english was actually quite good. She says that her practices his english every night, but she doesn`t know why. We had sushi! It was SOOOOOO good!!! I mean like mouth watering I think I`m in heaven when I`m eating good! Tearah, you wouldn`t have liked it.
Right now I am at my first host families house. I took a train here this morning at around 10:00. I`ll probably stay here till next Friday or Saturday.
Oh ya, Tomochan can also play the piano. I asked her to play it last night, I even said Onegaishimasu!, but I forgot that in Japanese houses you can hear everything inside and out, and since it was 11:00 at night she didn`t want to bother the neighbors. But she played it in the morning and it was really beutiful. She was considering getting her degree in music but now she is going to get one in English and hopefully become a translator.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Hmmm... From Saturday till Tuesday
So, what did I do on Saturday?
Oh ya, so realizing this was my last day in Osaka, I decided to head to a different part of Namba. In this area there is a big long street with lots of electronic and appliance shops. There are also a lot of manga anime shops. Unfotunatly there were also a lot of `I don`t want to go in there shops.` So I didn`t go in many. Somehow I ended up in the Tanoij area of town. That is where Osaka tower is. There were a LOT of sushi bars, which were extremely crowded. I finally managed ot find one that had an open seat and ate some sushi that had tons of wasabi. i had to sit there and scrape of most of it, but the sushi was so good anyways! Before I had left the lady at the hostel had told me that there are a lot of homeless people in that area, she was right! I hadn`t seen that many homeless people my whole time in Japan. I planned on taking lots of pictures of people when I walked but my camera died.
On Sunday it was pretty usual. I went to church. I was a little late though becuase i took the wrong subway. There is only one platform and there are two trains running either direction. I`ve come ot realize that I have a terrible sense of direction, so unless I double check the sign saying which train to take, I will end up on the wrong one. Bothe were about to leave ao I ran and jumped on the one that was nearest barely making it in because the doors were closing. Hm, it was just like in the movies, except that I hopped on the wrong one.
Aftere church I ate lunch at the park and then took a train back to the hostel.
On Monday I was planning to go to my first host families house, but then I noticed that had asked if I wanted to stay at hr house for a few days. So I said yes and changed my plans. Not wantingh to haul my super duper heavy suitcase around, I sent it in the mail to My host families house and just took a day bag.
Today we went back to Namba beuase she wanted to meet a friend who lives on the other side of Japan. Her friend was really funny.
Thats it for now!
Oh ya, so realizing this was my last day in Osaka, I decided to head to a different part of Namba. In this area there is a big long street with lots of electronic and appliance shops. There are also a lot of manga anime shops. Unfotunatly there were also a lot of `I don`t want to go in there shops.` So I didn`t go in many. Somehow I ended up in the Tanoij area of town. That is where Osaka tower is. There were a LOT of sushi bars, which were extremely crowded. I finally managed ot find one that had an open seat and ate some sushi that had tons of wasabi. i had to sit there and scrape of most of it, but the sushi was so good anyways! Before I had left the lady at the hostel had told me that there are a lot of homeless people in that area, she was right! I hadn`t seen that many homeless people my whole time in Japan. I planned on taking lots of pictures of people when I walked but my camera died.
On Sunday it was pretty usual. I went to church. I was a little late though becuase i took the wrong subway. There is only one platform and there are two trains running either direction. I`ve come ot realize that I have a terrible sense of direction, so unless I double check the sign saying which train to take, I will end up on the wrong one. Bothe were about to leave ao I ran and jumped on the one that was nearest barely making it in because the doors were closing. Hm, it was just like in the movies, except that I hopped on the wrong one.
Aftere church I ate lunch at the park and then took a train back to the hostel.
On Monday I was planning to go to my first host families house, but then I noticed that had asked if I wanted to stay at hr house for a few days. So I said yes and changed my plans. Not wantingh to haul my super duper heavy suitcase around, I sent it in the mail to My host families house and just took a day bag.
Today we went back to Namba beuase she wanted to meet a friend who lives on the other side of Japan. Her friend was really funny.
Thats it for now!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Today was SO much fun!!!!
Well, I am looking forward to a pretty miserable night though. My legs are going to be killing me. I don't even know if I will be able to walk tomorrow! That's what happens when you jump up and down for almost 2 hours straight!!! You may be wondering what the heck was Haven doing in Japan jumping for 2 hours straight? Well, its a long story, but a good one!!
This morning I took my time getting out of the hostel. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. But I talked with the girl who runs the hostel and she told me about this huge park place that has museums and Japanese gardens and stuff. So at 12:00ish I headed out on the subway. After a few train changes I ended up there, bought my ticket and walked into the park. Well, there were lots of groups of people doing different things. 2 boys and 2 girls where playing bad mitten, a group of Junior High girls in uniform playing volley ball on the grass, another group of girls jump roping, and families picnicking. So I sat down on a bench and watched for a while. I was contemplating interrupting the girls volley ball and asking to play. That was actually a pretty good plan, but I waiting too long, and anyways what happened later was way funner! A group of people showed up and set a tarp on the ground. One of the guys in the group walked over to the girls and so they all headed over to the tarp. I couldn't tell what they were doing, but it looked like some of them were writing on the tarp. Having missed my opportunity I just decided to walk on past them and kinda peek. Well, while I was walking past and kinda peeking the same guy came running over. Next thing I know I'm kneeling over the tarp on which they had taped a huge cloth poster, people are clapping and I'm suppose to be writing a message to the Tsunami victims!! embarrassed.....talk about pressure! As soon as I walked over they all moved off the tarp handed me a marker. eh, heh heh... I did manage after a while to write something and then put my name in Japanese. Mine was the only English one on there. Then they told me I had to draw a leaf where my name was. At everyone's name there was drawn a green leaf. Apparently my leaf was cute, because when I drew it they were all like, "kawaii!" After I finished, I decided not to just run off and to make the most of this opportunity!!! So I started talking to one of the guys there. None of them could speak good English, but his was the best. They are all college students around 22, except him, he was 28. They all work at the same restaurant and they are going to put the poster up in the restaurant I guess. And then guess what?! I wanted to take a picture so they all sat around the poster and made me sit in the middle at the top... embarrassed again. And whats with all the clapping? every time I did basically anything or said anything they thought it was great and would clap. So, I was pretty happy about that. It was fun, but you may be thinking, "yah, that sounded fun, but not like SO much fun, so why was your day so great?" Well, I'm getting to it!!!
So, I headed off, in some random direction.About ten minutes later I passed a paved area kinda like a basket ball court only there was nothing in it ans it was about twice the size. I saw a group of people doing the big long jump rope. Like maybe 15 people. So, since I was kinda far I didn't feel embarrassed to video. One of them waved and then I noticed that it was the same group of people!! They started waving at me to come over so I put the camera away and next thing I know, I'm jumping with them!! It was a lot of fun! Forget gardens, this was way cooler!! We did the long jump rope everyone together for about 45 minutes, with kyuke's in between. Every once in a while they would do just one person, and the other people would join in. I actually did it one time by myself. Then they changed it. Everyone would stand in a line and then while two people swung the rope you would have to run in jump over it and run out the other side. I was terrible at it, and yes it is on video, but no you can't see it. After a whole I just stopped and watched since I almost never made it and they were trying to see how high they could go without anyone messing up, but after while joined back in and sorta got it down. We actually got to 90 jumps one time! And for once it wasn't me who messed up!! There were 9 guys and 4 girls.The funny thing about I think Asian people in general, is that in comparison to American's they are really not competitive. They play games and stuff, but it never really becomes a competition. If it were up to me, I would have totally turned it into an elimination game to see who stayed in the longest, regardless of the fact that I would probably be one of the first four people out. Its just way more exciting that way.
So I think I hung out with them from 2 till 4:30. But my watch broke at 3:45 so I don't really know. So then I decide to actually explore some of the park. I only ended up going to the Plum tree garden, which was beautiful!! So, after that I took the train back. I stopped at a station ate dinner and then like I have been doing for the past few nights, walk to the nearest Family Mart and also small grocery store and buy some fruit and pastries for breakfast!! A bag of four oranges is about $4. That's not that bad!!
This is a story form a few nights ago. One of the guys (30yrs) staying at the hostel is from Cal. but he lives in Tokyo. He left yesterday, which was too bad, because he was one of the few actually cool non-Japanese guys that I have talked too. So, I was talking to him and a not so cool guy about my family and they were like "wow, that's a big family" The one guy asked, "So why did they have so many kids?" "well, they had my oldest sister and then they were like.." The other guy (Brian) finished my sentence, " hey this is fun, lets have another!!" I practically jumped out of my skin! "Hey, that's almost exactly what I was going to say!!! Stop reading my mind!!!" Its kinda funny because he was also Home schooled. Anywho, he was really funny.
Yesterday I went to see a Japanese movie with my Pen pal and her friend. When I came back he asked what the movie was about. It was SO stereotypical of Japanese movies. I basically said, " there was a dessert cafe, a random girl shows up, is really persistent so she gets a job there, and then there is this other guy who use to be a chef but he quit when his daughter got killed but in the end he gets back into it because somehow she helps him recover." You can basically just change the occupation and you have the plot for about 75 percent of Japanese movies. Oh, yah and really long scenes of peoples faces or them just standing there, or the flower outside the door. But hey, I've been to a Japanese movie theater!!
Well, that's all for now!
Please comment!
This morning I took my time getting out of the hostel. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. But I talked with the girl who runs the hostel and she told me about this huge park place that has museums and Japanese gardens and stuff. So at 12:00ish I headed out on the subway. After a few train changes I ended up there, bought my ticket and walked into the park. Well, there were lots of groups of people doing different things. 2 boys and 2 girls where playing bad mitten, a group of Junior High girls in uniform playing volley ball on the grass, another group of girls jump roping, and families picnicking. So I sat down on a bench and watched for a while. I was contemplating interrupting the girls volley ball and asking to play. That was actually a pretty good plan, but I waiting too long, and anyways what happened later was way funner! A group of people showed up and set a tarp on the ground. One of the guys in the group walked over to the girls and so they all headed over to the tarp. I couldn't tell what they were doing, but it looked like some of them were writing on the tarp. Having missed my opportunity I just decided to walk on past them and kinda peek. Well, while I was walking past and kinda peeking the same guy came running over. Next thing I know I'm kneeling over the tarp on which they had taped a huge cloth poster, people are clapping and I'm suppose to be writing a message to the Tsunami victims!! embarrassed.....talk about pressure! As soon as I walked over they all moved off the tarp handed me a marker. eh, heh heh... I did manage after a while to write something and then put my name in Japanese. Mine was the only English one on there. Then they told me I had to draw a leaf where my name was. At everyone's name there was drawn a green leaf. Apparently my leaf was cute, because when I drew it they were all like, "kawaii!" After I finished, I decided not to just run off and to make the most of this opportunity!!! So I started talking to one of the guys there. None of them could speak good English, but his was the best. They are all college students around 22, except him, he was 28. They all work at the same restaurant and they are going to put the poster up in the restaurant I guess. And then guess what?! I wanted to take a picture so they all sat around the poster and made me sit in the middle at the top... embarrassed again. And whats with all the clapping? every time I did basically anything or said anything they thought it was great and would clap. So, I was pretty happy about that. It was fun, but you may be thinking, "yah, that sounded fun, but not like SO much fun, so why was your day so great?" Well, I'm getting to it!!!
So, I headed off, in some random direction.About ten minutes later I passed a paved area kinda like a basket ball court only there was nothing in it ans it was about twice the size. I saw a group of people doing the big long jump rope. Like maybe 15 people. So, since I was kinda far I didn't feel embarrassed to video. One of them waved and then I noticed that it was the same group of people!! They started waving at me to come over so I put the camera away and next thing I know, I'm jumping with them!! It was a lot of fun! Forget gardens, this was way cooler!! We did the long jump rope everyone together for about 45 minutes, with kyuke's in between. Every once in a while they would do just one person, and the other people would join in. I actually did it one time by myself. Then they changed it. Everyone would stand in a line and then while two people swung the rope you would have to run in jump over it and run out the other side. I was terrible at it, and yes it is on video, but no you can't see it. After a whole I just stopped and watched since I almost never made it and they were trying to see how high they could go without anyone messing up, but after while joined back in and sorta got it down. We actually got to 90 jumps one time! And for once it wasn't me who messed up!! There were 9 guys and 4 girls.The funny thing about I think Asian people in general, is that in comparison to American's they are really not competitive. They play games and stuff, but it never really becomes a competition. If it were up to me, I would have totally turned it into an elimination game to see who stayed in the longest, regardless of the fact that I would probably be one of the first four people out. Its just way more exciting that way.
So I think I hung out with them from 2 till 4:30. But my watch broke at 3:45 so I don't really know. So then I decide to actually explore some of the park. I only ended up going to the Plum tree garden, which was beautiful!! So, after that I took the train back. I stopped at a station ate dinner and then like I have been doing for the past few nights, walk to the nearest Family Mart and also small grocery store and buy some fruit and pastries for breakfast!! A bag of four oranges is about $4. That's not that bad!!
This is a story form a few nights ago. One of the guys (30yrs) staying at the hostel is from Cal. but he lives in Tokyo. He left yesterday, which was too bad, because he was one of the few actually cool non-Japanese guys that I have talked too. So, I was talking to him and a not so cool guy about my family and they were like "wow, that's a big family" The one guy asked, "So why did they have so many kids?" "well, they had my oldest sister and then they were like.." The other guy (Brian) finished my sentence, " hey this is fun, lets have another!!" I practically jumped out of my skin! "Hey, that's almost exactly what I was going to say!!! Stop reading my mind!!!" Its kinda funny because he was also Home schooled. Anywho, he was really funny.
Yesterday I went to see a Japanese movie with my Pen pal and her friend. When I came back he asked what the movie was about. It was SO stereotypical of Japanese movies. I basically said, " there was a dessert cafe, a random girl shows up, is really persistent so she gets a job there, and then there is this other guy who use to be a chef but he quit when his daughter got killed but in the end he gets back into it because somehow she helps him recover." You can basically just change the occupation and you have the plot for about 75 percent of Japanese movies. Oh, yah and really long scenes of peoples faces or them just standing there, or the flower outside the door. But hey, I've been to a Japanese movie theater!!
Well, that's all for now!
Please comment!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday in Namba and Tenma
So, yesterday I walked to Tenma at around 12:00. I ate at a pretty nice resturant, and the sashimi was amazing!!! It was my first time eating sashimi this tip. OISHII!!!! Then I walked to the Salvation Army office, but it doesn't seem like there is much I could do...So I decided ot go to Namba. Namba is like the Harajuku of Tokyo. Lots of teens, weird clothes and lots of shops. When got out of the station there was this courtyard area with mirrirs and there were kids dancing! Ok, whats with that? I wanted to watch but since there was no one else standing and watching I just kinda walked on.
There is an under ground passage called Namba Walk. Basically it is a mall underground, and you can walk from on section of the city to another, all underground. I got lost a lot but managed with some help to get to the area of town called America Mura, because it has a lot of American clothes shops. I think that Namba is kind of like down town Phoenix. A lot of really neat places, but just be careful you don't walk down the wrong street. So, I basically just walked around, got lost and ended up walking the opposite direction! On my way back into the station, I finally got my courage up and videoed the people dancing. But since nothing terribly exciting had happened that day I forced myself to go one step more and after 5 minutes of mental agony rushed up to three of the boys and practically shouted, "sumimasen! konnichiwa! nande dansu wa koko desuka? " Not exactly proper Japanese, so it took awhile for them to figure out what I was asking. Basically the reason they are dancing there is bacause there is space. they can't dance at home so where else? They said they just taught themselves, by watching videos and stuff. they were 16, 17 and 16. We talked some more and yen they went back to their thing. Oh yah, and I did get their picture!!
Thats about it. I got lost at Osaka station again and my feet are KILLING me!!
There is an under ground passage called Namba Walk. Basically it is a mall underground, and you can walk from on section of the city to another, all underground. I got lost a lot but managed with some help to get to the area of town called America Mura, because it has a lot of American clothes shops. I think that Namba is kind of like down town Phoenix. A lot of really neat places, but just be careful you don't walk down the wrong street. So, I basically just walked around, got lost and ended up walking the opposite direction! On my way back into the station, I finally got my courage up and videoed the people dancing. But since nothing terribly exciting had happened that day I forced myself to go one step more and after 5 minutes of mental agony rushed up to three of the boys and practically shouted, "sumimasen! konnichiwa! nande dansu wa koko desuka? " Not exactly proper Japanese, so it took awhile for them to figure out what I was asking. Basically the reason they are dancing there is bacause there is space. they can't dance at home so where else? They said they just taught themselves, by watching videos and stuff. they were 16, 17 and 16. We talked some more and yen they went back to their thing. Oh yah, and I did get their picture!!
Thats about it. I got lost at Osaka station again and my feet are KILLING me!!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Hi all! Right now I'm at a hostel in Osaka.
Hi again!
So, On Saturday I left Hotani Nature farm and took a train into Osaka. There are many reasons why I left, but I think the main one is that I felt cooped up. Having a schedule means I could only do so much and so I decided to finally be off, and head into the big city. I love the city!
Getting to my hostel was like a nightmare. Literally, one of those dreams where your trying to get somewhere but it just keeps going and going and going, another train, another transfer- only your dragging a 60 pound bag behind you.
First off Nagao station, which I left from doesn't have an elevator. But thankfully, as I stood waiting for a flood of people to finish coming up the stairs from the train, contemplating lifting my bag, one of the guys who works there came over and took it down and then up the next flight of stairs and set it on the platform. Thank you!!! I had to transfer at Kyobashi station, but for some reason they kicked everyone off of the train and put us on another one stop before Kyobashi. Ok, that's weird.
At Kyobashi another random guy showed me where to go and then after I finally got on the right train (this station had elevators) it was off to Osaka station. I hate Osaka station. I
ts like the airport. It is HUGE and really confusing. Even asking people where to go, I still got lost and by the time I got to the Subway entrance I was soaking with sweat. The terrible thing about subways is that many of them, don't have elevators. So I had to haul my bag down one flight of stairs, but thankfully, yes you guessed it, a guy carried it down the next one. Once I got out of the Subway I had to find a phone to call the hostel. So I asked an old lady standing there, and she let me use her cellphone!!! instead of the pay phone, which was right there too turns out.
Then the girl from the hostel met me outside and I hauled my bag a little further to the hostel. But once we got to the hostel, we had to carry it up a flight of really narrow steep Japanese stairs. No one in Arizona is allowed to complain about steep stairs. The Japanese have the steepest stairs ever, there called "japanese stairs" You could probably look it up on youtube. That's where i first heard about them. Someone was videoing a traditional house and at the bottom of the stairs there were three holes in the wall (the wall is paper), because people had fell! So on Saturday night I went to a really beautiful cafe.It was Indian food. You walked down some stairs from the street and it had a courtyard with lots of plants. Inside had lots of Indian looking items and decorations. It was beautiful and a lot of the girls working there were wearing pretty clothes. Only problem, which is the case in most cafes, was that smoking is allowed. The girl at the hostel recommended it. Before i left I decided to ask the girls working there were a book store was. I had a map, but they went and got another one and then some how, they ended having a guy from another table come and help explain- because he just happened to know English!! Well, later I learned that he goes there frequently when he comes to Osaka, so that's why they asked him. He ended up just walking me there- which I'm really glad he did, because the bookstore, which was really big, was inside Osaka station- which I now hate. I probably could have made it to the station (I made it back!) but inside and around it is like a maze. After the bookstore I walked back to the hostel (its about 10 minutes). There are so many people. I mean it- its just like people everywhere! Think ants around their hole and that's what it looks like around Osaka station.
On Sunday I went to Church. I also attended the Philipino and Friends bible study afterwords. Then I headed back.
Today is Monday. I slept in. First time on the trip! 9 o clock!!!
I'm still so tired. I didn't know what to do. There was suppose to be a church picnic at Osaka-jo-koen, but since it was raining it was canceled. I decided to walk to Tenma station. Tenma, I have been to before. Is the longest shopping street in Osaka and I think in all of Japan. It goes on forever, and ever, and ever....I bought a lunch, went to the park anyways. Ate it in the rain under my umbrella, all alone. and took the train back to Osaka station and got lost again. I like to got to bookstores. I found one bookstore but it didn't have what I wanted. So I decided to head back to the one in Osaka station that I had been to before. Good luck with that. I found a map and asked the lady standing next to it where the bookstore was. That didn't really work. She snagged one of the many businessmen (and there are many, probably half the people around the station are businessmen- I think because it is a mager transfer point) and asked him where the bookstore was. Because he was heading that way and happened to speak perfect English, he just took me there. What are the odds (that he knew english)! He lived in Canada for a while and had been to Sanfransisco and stuff, so that's how he knows English. He said that yes One piece is one of his favorite manga (its the most popular one in Japan right now) and when I asked why (this is a mystery I have been trying to solve for over a year without reading the book), he said something to the extent of, "its really interesting and the main character Luffy is just really cool and strong you know." Uh-huh. I'll have to keep asking. oh, and guess what? He was 21! He doesn't have a job, he was going to interviews and stuff. So far he is the first person I have talked to on this whole trip who is closest to my age. That's right I've been hanging out with old people or people a least above 25. Except Alice she was 22.
Anyways, in Starbucks they have 4 sizes for drinks. Its crazy expensive, so I got a small. Well the small is like half the size of our small, so it was like really really small.
Oh, and one more thing, the comment that Anastasia wrote- take note , that is how you write comment!!! Its the perfect example!!! Thank you Anastasia!!
Right now I am about to go to sleep.
talk to you all later!
So, On Saturday I left Hotani Nature farm and took a train into Osaka. There are many reasons why I left, but I think the main one is that I felt cooped up. Having a schedule means I could only do so much and so I decided to finally be off, and head into the big city. I love the city!
Getting to my hostel was like a nightmare. Literally, one of those dreams where your trying to get somewhere but it just keeps going and going and going, another train, another transfer- only your dragging a 60 pound bag behind you.
First off Nagao station, which I left from doesn't have an elevator. But thankfully, as I stood waiting for a flood of people to finish coming up the stairs from the train, contemplating lifting my bag, one of the guys who works there came over and took it down and then up the next flight of stairs and set it on the platform. Thank you!!! I had to transfer at Kyobashi station, but for some reason they kicked everyone off of the train and put us on another one stop before Kyobashi. Ok, that's weird.
At Kyobashi another random guy showed me where to go and then after I finally got on the right train (this station had elevators) it was off to Osaka station. I hate Osaka station. I
ts like the airport. It is HUGE and really confusing. Even asking people where to go, I still got lost and by the time I got to the Subway entrance I was soaking with sweat. The terrible thing about subways is that many of them, don't have elevators. So I had to haul my bag down one flight of stairs, but thankfully, yes you guessed it, a guy carried it down the next one. Once I got out of the Subway I had to find a phone to call the hostel. So I asked an old lady standing there, and she let me use her cellphone!!! instead of the pay phone, which was right there too turns out.
Then the girl from the hostel met me outside and I hauled my bag a little further to the hostel. But once we got to the hostel, we had to carry it up a flight of really narrow steep Japanese stairs. No one in Arizona is allowed to complain about steep stairs. The Japanese have the steepest stairs ever, there called "japanese stairs" You could probably look it up on youtube. That's where i first heard about them. Someone was videoing a traditional house and at the bottom of the stairs there were three holes in the wall (the wall is paper), because people had fell! So on Saturday night I went to a really beautiful cafe.It was Indian food. You walked down some stairs from the street and it had a courtyard with lots of plants. Inside had lots of Indian looking items and decorations. It was beautiful and a lot of the girls working there were wearing pretty clothes. Only problem, which is the case in most cafes, was that smoking is allowed. The girl at the hostel recommended it. Before i left I decided to ask the girls working there were a book store was. I had a map, but they went and got another one and then some how, they ended having a guy from another table come and help explain- because he just happened to know English!! Well, later I learned that he goes there frequently when he comes to Osaka, so that's why they asked him. He ended up just walking me there- which I'm really glad he did, because the bookstore, which was really big, was inside Osaka station- which I now hate. I probably could have made it to the station (I made it back!) but inside and around it is like a maze. After the bookstore I walked back to the hostel (its about 10 minutes). There are so many people. I mean it- its just like people everywhere! Think ants around their hole and that's what it looks like around Osaka station.
On Sunday I went to Church. I also attended the Philipino and Friends bible study afterwords. Then I headed back.
Today is Monday. I slept in. First time on the trip! 9 o clock!!!
I'm still so tired. I didn't know what to do. There was suppose to be a church picnic at Osaka-jo-koen, but since it was raining it was canceled. I decided to walk to Tenma station. Tenma, I have been to before. Is the longest shopping street in Osaka and I think in all of Japan. It goes on forever, and ever, and ever....I bought a lunch, went to the park anyways. Ate it in the rain under my umbrella, all alone. and took the train back to Osaka station and got lost again. I like to got to bookstores. I found one bookstore but it didn't have what I wanted. So I decided to head back to the one in Osaka station that I had been to before. Good luck with that. I found a map and asked the lady standing next to it where the bookstore was. That didn't really work. She snagged one of the many businessmen (and there are many, probably half the people around the station are businessmen- I think because it is a mager transfer point) and asked him where the bookstore was. Because he was heading that way and happened to speak perfect English, he just took me there. What are the odds (that he knew english)! He lived in Canada for a while and had been to Sanfransisco and stuff, so that's how he knows English. He said that yes One piece is one of his favorite manga (its the most popular one in Japan right now) and when I asked why (this is a mystery I have been trying to solve for over a year without reading the book), he said something to the extent of, "its really interesting and the main character Luffy is just really cool and strong you know." Uh-huh. I'll have to keep asking. oh, and guess what? He was 21! He doesn't have a job, he was going to interviews and stuff. So far he is the first person I have talked to on this whole trip who is closest to my age. That's right I've been hanging out with old people or people a least above 25. Except Alice she was 22.
Anyways, in Starbucks they have 4 sizes for drinks. Its crazy expensive, so I got a small. Well the small is like half the size of our small, so it was like really really small.
Oh, and one more thing, the comment that Anastasia wrote- take note , that is how you write comment!!! Its the perfect example!!! Thank you Anastasia!!
Right now I am about to go to sleep.
talk to you all later!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Another Day
Your right! I love writing! Thank you family for all of your loverly comments! Thay always make me so happy!
About 2 hours ago, I was sitting here at the lap top and i had recently just finsished my fifth bowl of brown rice for the day. I had a coughing attact and a peice of rice came flying out and landed in one of the cracks in the keyboard! I tried to get it out with my chopsticks, but that only smoshed it down further. Finally I managed to get it out with a q-tip. Why do these things happen to me?!
I'm still recovering from my fever, so I get tired really fast and I'm still weak too. Its really frusterating, especially if I get a competitive spaz, "hahahaha!! I'm totally going to carry two buckets of manure farther and faster than you!!!!....Ok, never mind, just one!.....have pity on me, I have a fever!I don't usually drag the bucket like this!!!"
And do you know what's interesting? Now we have 6 WWHOOFers, but it feels like we have been getting less work done then usual. Well, Gizan also has a cough and had a fever, so she's out, but since I'm standing around more I couldn't help but notice that the other girls sort of stand around more too.....hmmm... that's a very common senerio though. Its probably partly because I'm kinda like team captin, if that's what you'd call it. "common girls lets get go-en!!! I couldn't understand, what did he say to do? Your taking too long explaining, just hand me the shovel...oops I just killed the plant...but hey, it was one in a thousand!at least we got the job done, a-hahaha!"
Todd, is Todd... he works steadily (he's been here since January). And the new guy Liu-san, well...hmmm....I've only worked with him two days. Girls are much easier to figure out. I think he's pretty avarage, so when you think 28 year old guy, you can think him.
Minami-san, who is the only hired worker, was doing other stuff today not on the farm, so instead of spreading taihi, YAY!!!!, we got to pull weeds for 3 and a half hours in an onion feild!!!! I don't mind, its better than spreading taihi. As I informed the others yesterday, "the word taihi is infoumous around here." "What is infamous?" What is taihi? Figure it out!!!! I hate the word so much now I can't even say it in english!!!! I abhor it!!! Detest it! Loath it!!!! Revile it!!!GAR!!!!
Anywhoo, after that we had lunch which was very delicious, since once again, my hands didn't touch it. I think I''m starting to develope some vey strange habbits...does that happen to you when you go away from home? "i'm losing my self identity! No one understands me! I must delevope strange habbits to distinguish who I am!!!!" Well, i'll only tell you one of my strange habits, and that is my sitting behavior at the kitchen table. I've been sitting in really weird postions lately and I just noticed that. Hanging half off the chair, one lag up the other out. I even did the L positon the other day!!! i didn't know I could even do that!!! No. it is not me sitting in the shape of an L. L is a charcter in a story. I was sitting with both of my legs up in front of me, like un upsidown v. eating lunch... I don't even care more. I decided I'm just gonna sit like a freak for the rest of my life. I've always sat wierd in church, even though I kinda felt self contious about it, but now I really don't care what people think if it as apart of revealing of my self identity!!! But, please don't start checking to see how I'm sitting a church, that would be embarrassing....a-heh, heh...
On another note, this moring I found a centipede on the kitchen counter. I decided I was too scared to kill it. (why?!) and when I yelled to Momosan there was a centipede, and she didn't seem flustered, asked that she kill it. Well she got a klenix and picked it up- but that's the problem, she picked it up. She didn't squish it!!!! So it kept wiggling out and falling on the counter again. She wanted to drop it outside. I freaked. "WHAT?! Those are poisoneous!!! You need to kill it!!!!" ...."Oh, they are?" So we ended up shoving it down the sink (which has a really wierd drain) with the klenix). Later on, during lunch when I was washing dishes (this is my main way I contribute to the meals), the sink got backed up, but when I went to to start pulling junk up I go ttoo scared to stick my hand down there. (what the heck is wrong with me?) it was just creeping me out. So I started hollering for Todd, who was sitting at the kitchen table, so there really was no need to hollor, and he came and tried to fix it. (turns out- that wasn't the problem) I'm starting to really feel sorry for Todd. I feel like I'm terrorizing him all the time. He was probably happy about getting a break when I had a fever, haha!!! Among other things, I have been trying to convince him to play his violin. Yes, he brought one form America. Of course I'm really nice about it. "Hey Todd, can you play your Violin tonight?" "Uh, no, no tonight sorry. I'm cooking." "Oh. Tomorrow night?" "Um, heh heh, maybe." Later. "Somehow the movie Whisper of the Heart gets mentioned, "Hey! you know another great thing about that movie is that it has violins in it." "Oh, really?" "Uh. huh, yah its really nice, I think you'd like it, cuz you play the violin."
I don't know if I'll be able to do it though.... It might be a lost cause........oh, well.....But never mind that!!!!I won't give up!! I must see him play the violin!!! He didn't bring it all the way from America to just have it sit there!! I must, I must, I must!!!!!!!!!! Don't waiste your talents you need to show it off, you need to practice, do you want a pep talk? I'm good at those!
.....Huh?Wait! oh, my goh, I just thought of how to get him to play!!A-hahaha! I'm such a schemer. I really did just come up with it though. I'll just ccok dinner and damand that he play. Everone loves it when I cook- becuase its so exciting, you never know what will come out. Hmm... that should do it. So, yah, that's my project around here. Get Todd to play the Violin.
Well, its actually really really late. I stayed up since I'll just cough forever if I'm not so tierd I drop as soon as I hit the pillow.
Well, good night! Oyasumi!
About 2 hours ago, I was sitting here at the lap top and i had recently just finsished my fifth bowl of brown rice for the day. I had a coughing attact and a peice of rice came flying out and landed in one of the cracks in the keyboard! I tried to get it out with my chopsticks, but that only smoshed it down further. Finally I managed to get it out with a q-tip. Why do these things happen to me?!
I'm still recovering from my fever, so I get tired really fast and I'm still weak too. Its really frusterating, especially if I get a competitive spaz, "hahahaha!! I'm totally going to carry two buckets of manure farther and faster than you!!!!....Ok, never mind, just one!.....have pity on me, I have a fever!I don't usually drag the bucket like this!!!"
And do you know what's interesting? Now we have 6 WWHOOFers, but it feels like we have been getting less work done then usual. Well, Gizan also has a cough and had a fever, so she's out, but since I'm standing around more I couldn't help but notice that the other girls sort of stand around more too.....hmmm... that's a very common senerio though. Its probably partly because I'm kinda like team captin, if that's what you'd call it. "common girls lets get go-en!!! I couldn't understand, what did he say to do? Your taking too long explaining, just hand me the shovel...oops I just killed the plant...but hey, it was one in a thousand!at least we got the job done, a-hahaha!"
Todd, is Todd... he works steadily (he's been here since January). And the new guy Liu-san, well...hmmm....I've only worked with him two days. Girls are much easier to figure out. I think he's pretty avarage, so when you think 28 year old guy, you can think him.
Minami-san, who is the only hired worker, was doing other stuff today not on the farm, so instead of spreading taihi, YAY!!!!, we got to pull weeds for 3 and a half hours in an onion feild!!!! I don't mind, its better than spreading taihi. As I informed the others yesterday, "the word taihi is infoumous around here." "What is infamous?" What is taihi? Figure it out!!!! I hate the word so much now I can't even say it in english!!!! I abhor it!!! Detest it! Loath it!!!! Revile it!!!GAR!!!!
Anywhoo, after that we had lunch which was very delicious, since once again, my hands didn't touch it. I think I''m starting to develope some vey strange habbits...does that happen to you when you go away from home? "i'm losing my self identity! No one understands me! I must delevope strange habbits to distinguish who I am!!!!" Well, i'll only tell you one of my strange habits, and that is my sitting behavior at the kitchen table. I've been sitting in really weird postions lately and I just noticed that. Hanging half off the chair, one lag up the other out. I even did the L positon the other day!!! i didn't know I could even do that!!! No. it is not me sitting in the shape of an L. L is a charcter in a story. I was sitting with both of my legs up in front of me, like un upsidown v. eating lunch... I don't even care more. I decided I'm just gonna sit like a freak for the rest of my life. I've always sat wierd in church, even though I kinda felt self contious about it, but now I really don't care what people think if it as apart of revealing of my self identity!!! But, please don't start checking to see how I'm sitting a church, that would be embarrassing....a-heh, heh...
On another note, this moring I found a centipede on the kitchen counter. I decided I was too scared to kill it. (why?!) and when I yelled to Momosan there was a centipede, and she didn't seem flustered, asked that she kill it. Well she got a klenix and picked it up- but that's the problem, she picked it up. She didn't squish it!!!! So it kept wiggling out and falling on the counter again. She wanted to drop it outside. I freaked. "WHAT?! Those are poisoneous!!! You need to kill it!!!!" ...."Oh, they are?" So we ended up shoving it down the sink (which has a really wierd drain) with the klenix). Later on, during lunch when I was washing dishes (this is my main way I contribute to the meals), the sink got backed up, but when I went to to start pulling junk up I go ttoo scared to stick my hand down there. (what the heck is wrong with me?) it was just creeping me out. So I started hollering for Todd, who was sitting at the kitchen table, so there really was no need to hollor, and he came and tried to fix it. (turns out- that wasn't the problem) I'm starting to really feel sorry for Todd. I feel like I'm terrorizing him all the time. He was probably happy about getting a break when I had a fever, haha!!! Among other things, I have been trying to convince him to play his violin. Yes, he brought one form America. Of course I'm really nice about it. "Hey Todd, can you play your Violin tonight?" "Uh, no, no tonight sorry. I'm cooking." "Oh. Tomorrow night?" "Um, heh heh, maybe." Later. "Somehow the movie Whisper of the Heart gets mentioned, "Hey! you know another great thing about that movie is that it has violins in it." "Oh, really?" "Uh. huh, yah its really nice, I think you'd like it, cuz you play the violin."
I don't know if I'll be able to do it though.... It might be a lost cause........oh, well.....But never mind that!!!!I won't give up!! I must see him play the violin!!! He didn't bring it all the way from America to just have it sit there!! I must, I must, I must!!!!!!!!!! Don't waiste your talents you need to show it off, you need to practice, do you want a pep talk? I'm good at those!
.....Huh?Wait! oh, my goh, I just thought of how to get him to play!!A-hahaha! I'm such a schemer. I really did just come up with it though. I'll just ccok dinner and damand that he play. Everone loves it when I cook- becuase its so exciting, you never know what will come out. Hmm... that should do it. So, yah, that's my project around here. Get Todd to play the Violin.
Well, its actually really really late. I stayed up since I'll just cough forever if I'm not so tierd I drop as soon as I hit the pillow.
Well, good night! Oyasumi!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Alright all ready! I'll write!!!
Hi! I'm back! How have you all been? Actually, I'm not as preppy as I sound. In fact, I'm sitting here coughing every two minutes and feeling miserable. But who cares! My parents want to know whats going on so I have to write, whether or not it drains my energy and only makes me sicker. After all its only my duty as their daughter concidering all the love and support they have given me!! : ) So, if it kills me, So what?! It was done for a good cause.
Ok, that may have sounded a little strange, but the fact of the matter is I'm losing my mind. I've had a fever for the past three days, and I've been barely able to move aside from my eyes and the tips of my fingers- which I had to use for eating and not typing unfortunataly. Being a very epressive person this is very difficult and that is why I am taking it out on this blog. Also, everytime I hear about more disasters on the news I get all excited, waving my arms, jumping around, and then I remember I'm sick when I start coughing a racket, my face starts burning up and then I have take aother three hour nap, which really turns into a four hour nap, becuase I cough for one hour of it.
So this is my update since Friday the 11th:
Friday I started my fever. I baked french taost for dinner and I actually managed not to burn anything!!!!!Yay! Sachico-san who usually comes on Friday's for english practice wasn't there bacuase she was sick. As we sat eating Todd said, " wow, its really sad that Sachicosan coul,dn't be here for this, she would have liked it." And I said, "Ah! Sachicosan! Don't talk about it, or I'll start crying!" That really did happen.
Saturday......work.....fever.....not good. That night a wwhoofer from Hong Kong came, Lu-san. He is 28. But by then I was in bed burning up. I did manage to shoot Chey an email saying I wouldn't go to church the next day.
Sunday: fever... a girl from Tiawan came that night. Sayorisan. She is 27 and really pretty! I was awake, but all I could muster for hello, was a growl.
Monday I took off. I went to the post office and sent some packages home of stuff from China. I did it the cheepest way, so I really don't know how long unil it arrives-BUT if it does arrive before i get home, DO NOT OPEN THEM! I repeat, DO NOT OPEN THEM, Dad, Mom, Serene, Simeon, Thatcher Blair or even Glory! I expressly forbid it!!!! (although it must be fun knowing i am all though way across the world with no way to prevent it. I have no power!!!)
Today, Tuesday the 22nd, I worked. But, I was kinda slow. Nothing much happened. Gr...
If your wondering why I haven't mentioned anything about the disatster, that is becuase I am still thinking about it. I don't write about stuff when I'm contimplating. Sometimes when I'm sitting atthe computer reading news I will starts messing up my hair and making wierd noises. Momosan always ask, "what are you doing?" And I always reply one of the few words I actually know in Japanese, "omoiteimasu!!!" I'm thinking!!!!!!!!
That's about it..yep..time for another dinner that will be absolutaly faboulous since I didn't cook it!!!!!
Ok, that may have sounded a little strange, but the fact of the matter is I'm losing my mind. I've had a fever for the past three days, and I've been barely able to move aside from my eyes and the tips of my fingers- which I had to use for eating and not typing unfortunataly. Being a very epressive person this is very difficult and that is why I am taking it out on this blog. Also, everytime I hear about more disasters on the news I get all excited, waving my arms, jumping around, and then I remember I'm sick when I start coughing a racket, my face starts burning up and then I have take aother three hour nap, which really turns into a four hour nap, becuase I cough for one hour of it.
So this is my update since Friday the 11th:
Friday I started my fever. I baked french taost for dinner and I actually managed not to burn anything!!!!!Yay! Sachico-san who usually comes on Friday's for english practice wasn't there bacuase she was sick. As we sat eating Todd said, " wow, its really sad that Sachicosan coul,dn't be here for this, she would have liked it." And I said, "Ah! Sachicosan! Don't talk about it, or I'll start crying!" That really did happen.
Saturday......work.....fever.....not good. That night a wwhoofer from Hong Kong came, Lu-san. He is 28. But by then I was in bed burning up. I did manage to shoot Chey an email saying I wouldn't go to church the next day.
Sunday: fever... a girl from Tiawan came that night. Sayorisan. She is 27 and really pretty! I was awake, but all I could muster for hello, was a growl.
Monday I took off. I went to the post office and sent some packages home of stuff from China. I did it the cheepest way, so I really don't know how long unil it arrives-BUT if it does arrive before i get home, DO NOT OPEN THEM! I repeat, DO NOT OPEN THEM, Dad, Mom, Serene, Simeon, Thatcher Blair or even Glory! I expressly forbid it!!!! (although it must be fun knowing i am all though way across the world with no way to prevent it. I have no power!!!)
Today, Tuesday the 22nd, I worked. But, I was kinda slow. Nothing much happened. Gr...
If your wondering why I haven't mentioned anything about the disatster, that is becuase I am still thinking about it. I don't write about stuff when I'm contimplating. Sometimes when I'm sitting atthe computer reading news I will starts messing up my hair and making wierd noises. Momosan always ask, "what are you doing?" And I always reply one of the few words I actually know in Japanese, "omoiteimasu!!!" I'm thinking!!!!!!!!
That's about it..yep..time for another dinner that will be absolutaly faboulous since I didn't cook it!!!!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
SUNDAY March 6th
Hi all! I am going to write about Sunday.
First I take the bus at 8:04. to Nagao station. It takes 15 minutes. Then at Nagao station I buy a ticket for Tamatsukuri station.
If you are wandering about the details of trains in Japan, I will try to explain a little.
1.) You walk into the train station, there is usually an area alonga wall, with ticket vendors for different train lines. I usually use JR.
2.) You look at a map that is almost all in kanji, ask the person next to you which one is Tamatsukuri station, hope they give you the right answer, and on the screen you push the price. On the map under each station is the price. Usually three stations next to each other will have the same price. To get to Tamatsukuri cost 450 yen, about 4 dollars and 50 cents. and takes 35 minutes.
3.) You put your money in, your ticket comes out and your extra change.
4.) You go through a gate. You put your ticket in one side the gate opens and your ticket comes out the other side.
5.) There is a screen up above saying which train lines are at each track. This station is small, so it only has 2 tracks. I go to track number 2 becuase to get where I am going I need to talke the ..something line....
6.) On the screen it says what trains are leaving for where and at what time. Problem is, it doesn't give exact station names. It will say the the train is bound for Nara, but your stop is on the way to Nara, so you have to know that. If you don't know the where the final stop is, you'll need to ask someone becuase youll never figure it out on your own. Also, you can either take the rapid service or the local. The local stops at every station along the way and the rapid stops only at the mager ones. If you accidently take the rapid, you will miss your stop and then you will have to get off wait another ten minutes or so and take a train back. I know.
7.) You go down some stairs or just outside to the baording platform. Read the sign (they have another electric sign saying where all the trains are bound for) for the 5th or 6th time to make sure you are in the right place. Ask someone just in case, end up freeking out becuase they tl you somthing totally different. Calm down when you realize you were just saying the wrong word and then stand there and occasionally look at the clock as you wait for the train. Then you hear this sound, ding, ding, ding. And then awomans voice starts saying that there is a train arrive and what kind and such in Japanese of course.
Then you board the train. Depending on what station and what time, you may wither have to squeeze yourself on, or all the seats will be taken and yourll just stand by th door, or you can rush to beat the few other people to sit in one of the empty seats. If you have a very short ride, maybe just one or two stations, please do not sit, let others who might have to rise for 30 mintes or more.
8.) I ride the rapid train to Kyobashi station. I have to switch trains here, becuase it is a different line0 the Osaka loop line. Transfers are fun, becuase you usually have about 4 minutes to get on the next train unless you want to wait another ten minutes, becuase you missed it. I get on a local train that is orange. This one is usually a little more crowded since it is just past 9 in the morning now.
9.) I get off at Tamatsukuri station. Walk the bathroom, and then go out the ticket gate. I put my ticket in , but it never comes out. Its kinda sad.
Then i walk for about ten minutes to get to church.
Churh service starts with music the whole band and everything. they have announcements and then about 5 minutes hwer eyou greet the people around you or whoever. It is really neat, becuase Amy, my new freind, one of her friends wasn't there, so she set her laptop up on the side of the isle and she watched the sevice through skpe.
Actually the pastor isn't there, not sure exactly what he is doing right now, so they have been having the assistant pastors do preaching. Amy's husband preached today. It was pretty good. He is going through 1 john and talking about Christ covering our sins, what taht means we have to do and about having the truth of God in us. More worship, communion, which is abou the same as here, and then thats it. After is I talked to some more people and then went to a womans meeting. What are the odds, tha they are all older Japanese woman and I am the youngest one there. i'm getting use to it now. Its kinda wierd to come to Japan and make friends with and talk to old people the most.
Couple of interesting facts I learned. One of the ladies is from Korea. She said that in Korea it is a law that you have to be cremated when you die, they don't do barial. When they asked me about America I said that hes, most people are buried. They were like, "wow! you must have lot of room in America!" Guess so.
After that I someohow got pushed into the room where the Philapino people were finsishing up a bible study. I felt like I was in a whole new world! People hugging me, shakingmy hand, tyin to force to eat foo, and talking way to loud. Yep!
After that I walked to a park were I planned to read my bible and eat my lunch that I had bought the night before. Well, it was raining slightly, so I just ate my lunch under my umbrella and watched two boys play airsoft. Oh, ya and I fed a pigeon that wouldn't leave me alone.
Then I took the train and bus home. I got back at about 7. All he other WWHOOFers had gone shopping in Sannomiya, so I was alone! Yay! Or so I thought. Turns out Oshimasan (he's really serious) was there and he was taking soil samples in the kitchen. I tried to look as serious as possible and asked him about it. Basically different colors show how much minerals and accids and such are in the soil.
He also said he was leaing that night. When I asked why not in the morning, he said becuase it is cheeper on Saturday and Sunday to drive on the Highway. Cheeper? Well in Japan you have to pay to use the Highway. And on the weekends it is cheeper. He said they charge you becuase they need to use the money to biuld the bridges and stuff. I guess it makes sense considering that in Japan only about haf the population uses
cars.
Well, thas it!
Oh, wait- one more thing.
For those of you wondering I think I got the answer for why you can take a name like Tomoko and change it to Tomo when you add Chan. -Tomochan. Basically it is like taking Samual and calling him Sam. Or Christina and calling her Chris. Same thing. It isn't done as much when you are adding san to the end of a name just bacuase most people you use san with aren't people you would nick name. Unless they introduce themselves as such. That's about it!
Also, chickens here don't make the noise,"cluck cluck, or bauk bauk." the y make the noise, "Ko-kekoko." So instead of calling chickens their real name- "tori" they call them "kokochan"!
First I take the bus at 8:04. to Nagao station. It takes 15 minutes. Then at Nagao station I buy a ticket for Tamatsukuri station.
If you are wandering about the details of trains in Japan, I will try to explain a little.
1.) You walk into the train station, there is usually an area alonga wall, with ticket vendors for different train lines. I usually use JR.
2.) You look at a map that is almost all in kanji, ask the person next to you which one is Tamatsukuri station, hope they give you the right answer, and on the screen you push the price. On the map under each station is the price. Usually three stations next to each other will have the same price. To get to Tamatsukuri cost 450 yen, about 4 dollars and 50 cents. and takes 35 minutes.
3.) You put your money in, your ticket comes out and your extra change.
4.) You go through a gate. You put your ticket in one side the gate opens and your ticket comes out the other side.
5.) There is a screen up above saying which train lines are at each track. This station is small, so it only has 2 tracks. I go to track number 2 becuase to get where I am going I need to talke the ..something line....
6.) On the screen it says what trains are leaving for where and at what time. Problem is, it doesn't give exact station names. It will say the the train is bound for Nara, but your stop is on the way to Nara, so you have to know that. If you don't know the where the final stop is, you'll need to ask someone becuase youll never figure it out on your own. Also, you can either take the rapid service or the local. The local stops at every station along the way and the rapid stops only at the mager ones. If you accidently take the rapid, you will miss your stop and then you will have to get off wait another ten minutes or so and take a train back. I know.
7.) You go down some stairs or just outside to the baording platform. Read the sign (they have another electric sign saying where all the trains are bound for) for the 5th or 6th time to make sure you are in the right place. Ask someone just in case, end up freeking out becuase they tl you somthing totally different. Calm down when you realize you were just saying the wrong word and then stand there and occasionally look at the clock as you wait for the train. Then you hear this sound, ding, ding, ding. And then awomans voice starts saying that there is a train arrive and what kind and such in Japanese of course.
Then you board the train. Depending on what station and what time, you may wither have to squeeze yourself on, or all the seats will be taken and yourll just stand by th door, or you can rush to beat the few other people to sit in one of the empty seats. If you have a very short ride, maybe just one or two stations, please do not sit, let others who might have to rise for 30 mintes or more.
8.) I ride the rapid train to Kyobashi station. I have to switch trains here, becuase it is a different line0 the Osaka loop line. Transfers are fun, becuase you usually have about 4 minutes to get on the next train unless you want to wait another ten minutes, becuase you missed it. I get on a local train that is orange. This one is usually a little more crowded since it is just past 9 in the morning now.
9.) I get off at Tamatsukuri station. Walk the bathroom, and then go out the ticket gate. I put my ticket in , but it never comes out. Its kinda sad.
Then i walk for about ten minutes to get to church.
Churh service starts with music the whole band and everything. they have announcements and then about 5 minutes hwer eyou greet the people around you or whoever. It is really neat, becuase Amy, my new freind, one of her friends wasn't there, so she set her laptop up on the side of the isle and she watched the sevice through skpe.
Actually the pastor isn't there, not sure exactly what he is doing right now, so they have been having the assistant pastors do preaching. Amy's husband preached today. It was pretty good. He is going through 1 john and talking about Christ covering our sins, what taht means we have to do and about having the truth of God in us. More worship, communion, which is abou the same as here, and then thats it. After is I talked to some more people and then went to a womans meeting. What are the odds, tha they are all older Japanese woman and I am the youngest one there. i'm getting use to it now. Its kinda wierd to come to Japan and make friends with and talk to old people the most.
Couple of interesting facts I learned. One of the ladies is from Korea. She said that in Korea it is a law that you have to be cremated when you die, they don't do barial. When they asked me about America I said that hes, most people are buried. They were like, "wow! you must have lot of room in America!" Guess so.
After that I someohow got pushed into the room where the Philapino people were finsishing up a bible study. I felt like I was in a whole new world! People hugging me, shakingmy hand, tyin to force to eat foo, and talking way to loud. Yep!
After that I walked to a park were I planned to read my bible and eat my lunch that I had bought the night before. Well, it was raining slightly, so I just ate my lunch under my umbrella and watched two boys play airsoft. Oh, ya and I fed a pigeon that wouldn't leave me alone.
Then I took the train and bus home. I got back at about 7. All he other WWHOOFers had gone shopping in Sannomiya, so I was alone! Yay! Or so I thought. Turns out Oshimasan (he's really serious) was there and he was taking soil samples in the kitchen. I tried to look as serious as possible and asked him about it. Basically different colors show how much minerals and accids and such are in the soil.
He also said he was leaing that night. When I asked why not in the morning, he said becuase it is cheeper on Saturday and Sunday to drive on the Highway. Cheeper? Well in Japan you have to pay to use the Highway. And on the weekends it is cheeper. He said they charge you becuase they need to use the money to biuld the bridges and stuff. I guess it makes sense considering that in Japan only about haf the population uses
cars.
Well, thas it!
Oh, wait- one more thing.
For those of you wondering I think I got the answer for why you can take a name like Tomoko and change it to Tomo when you add Chan. -Tomochan. Basically it is like taking Samual and calling him Sam. Or Christina and calling her Chris. Same thing. It isn't done as much when you are adding san to the end of a name just bacuase most people you use san with aren't people you would nick name. Unless they introduce themselves as such. That's about it!
Also, chickens here don't make the noise,"cluck cluck, or bauk bauk." the y make the noise, "Ko-kekoko." So instead of calling chickens their real name- "tori" they call them "kokochan"!
Monday, March 7, 2011
Saturday, March 5th- Oh, what a day.
Saturday was very interesting- to say the least. A lot happened. It was one of those days that are really want to animate in a manga.
The day started off sort of normal-except there was a guy that I had never seen before here. But I didn't think much since, lots of volenteers just show up for a day. So, I discarded the fact that he had a camera and note book.
Our first jo was loading wood into the truck and moving it only a few feet. Then we had to take it out and pile it underneath this really low shed. On the othr side of the shed is the stove that Kamitakesan has to keep going so that we can have hot water. Well, we had a little accident. I was putting down some wood, just as Gizen was standing up, and.... well, it wasn't good. The end of the wood got her in the eye-hard. She lst one of her contacts. So, why does this have to happen on the one day that a new reporter is there?
Then we all got in the trucks and drove off too one of the feilds and greenhouses.
There were people from the neighborhood working in the feild that day. I'm still tryibng to figure out how it works wih people volenteering and stuff.
Anywhoo, I forgototmeti that one of the guys who use to work here had come by. (I forgot his name) He is 30 and he now works on making fields in another area. He is a really serious guy. Its actually kinda intimidating. At one point Gizen and I were pulling weeds from along some rows of onions (yes, we made up fast). She jumped across the onions and I don't know if she stepped on it or no but anyways he comes over and starts lecturing us on how we can't step on them, etc., etc.. and I couldn't help laughin becuase he was so serious. Then he got even more serious about it! He's really nice though, I just have to be careful- and act serious when he's talking. : )
The news reporter guy was really nice and he helped do somethings too.
Well, anyways that night all of us girls wento Tenma, which is an area in Osaka that as lts of shops. I had een thee before and seen a cute coffee resturant that I had wanted to go to.
Anyways, Alice is leaving today actually, so we wanted to do something together. Well, take a wild guess what the first thing we did was? PURIKURA!! Of course you have to get pictures before you leave.
Then we wenta sock shop and I went nuts as usual. So I bought three different kinds. Actually, one of them isn't even socks. It is these really cute lacy things that go around your anle when you wear high heels. Oh ya, and you know those arm bands I bought last time in Japan? There for your ankles too!!
We went to the coffee shop, which like many resturants in Japan doesn't have a reserved smoking area, so it smelt a little. It was really expensive for only a tiny bit. Like $8 for a plate of speggetti that is half the size in America, and a tiny cup of coffee. Oh, well. That's Japan!
Then I bought some really cute belts, and we all bought these really awesome things that keep you warm. I used one in China. you basically stick his thng to your back and it heats up using your body heat. They usually last from 8 to 12 to 24 hours. The weierd ing is hat whatever is in side of it hardens as time goes by and when you take it off it is like a block. and heavy too, becuase it swells up. You can put some on your feet, use some to heat your hands. It works!
We got back at maybe 11:00.
There were a lot more things that happned I'm sure but unfrtunatly I am plagued with memory loss. boohoo.
The day started off sort of normal-except there was a guy that I had never seen before here. But I didn't think much since, lots of volenteers just show up for a day. So, I discarded the fact that he had a camera and note book.
Our first jo was loading wood into the truck and moving it only a few feet. Then we had to take it out and pile it underneath this really low shed. On the othr side of the shed is the stove that Kamitakesan has to keep going so that we can have hot water. Well, we had a little accident. I was putting down some wood, just as Gizen was standing up, and.... well, it wasn't good. The end of the wood got her in the eye-hard. She lst one of her contacts. So, why does this have to happen on the one day that a new reporter is there?
Then we all got in the trucks and drove off too one of the feilds and greenhouses.
There were people from the neighborhood working in the feild that day. I'm still tryibng to figure out how it works wih people volenteering and stuff.
Anywhoo, I forgototmeti that one of the guys who use to work here had come by. (I forgot his name) He is 30 and he now works on making fields in another area. He is a really serious guy. Its actually kinda intimidating. At one point Gizen and I were pulling weeds from along some rows of onions (yes, we made up fast). She jumped across the onions and I don't know if she stepped on it or no but anyways he comes over and starts lecturing us on how we can't step on them, etc., etc.. and I couldn't help laughin becuase he was so serious. Then he got even more serious about it! He's really nice though, I just have to be careful- and act serious when he's talking. : )
The news reporter guy was really nice and he helped do somethings too.
Well, anyways that night all of us girls wento Tenma, which is an area in Osaka that as lts of shops. I had een thee before and seen a cute coffee resturant that I had wanted to go to.
Anyways, Alice is leaving today actually, so we wanted to do something together. Well, take a wild guess what the first thing we did was? PURIKURA!! Of course you have to get pictures before you leave.
Then we wenta sock shop and I went nuts as usual. So I bought three different kinds. Actually, one of them isn't even socks. It is these really cute lacy things that go around your anle when you wear high heels. Oh ya, and you know those arm bands I bought last time in Japan? There for your ankles too!!
We went to the coffee shop, which like many resturants in Japan doesn't have a reserved smoking area, so it smelt a little. It was really expensive for only a tiny bit. Like $8 for a plate of speggetti that is half the size in America, and a tiny cup of coffee. Oh, well. That's Japan!
Then I bought some really cute belts, and we all bought these really awesome things that keep you warm. I used one in China. you basically stick his thng to your back and it heats up using your body heat. They usually last from 8 to 12 to 24 hours. The weierd ing is hat whatever is in side of it hardens as time goes by and when you take it off it is like a block. and heavy too, becuase it swells up. You can put some on your feet, use some to heat your hands. It works!
We got back at maybe 11:00.
There were a lot more things that happned I'm sure but unfrtunatly I am plagued with memory loss. boohoo.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Random Pictures mostly of me, becuase its fun.
This is the night that I got there.
In the manure pile, filling buckets.
Taking a Kyuke, on eof the few words I have learnded so far. We bring tea with us and take two breaks in the morning and two in the evening.
Hauling wood. This is me and Aya.
I like the pose
.I am making the edge of a rice feild more defined.
Putting wood in the truck. I'm still suprised no one has jabbed their eye out.
I knew he was taking my picture so I smiled. No, I do not look this happy when I carry wood!
More wood!
I have got NO clue what is going on in this picture! That's why I think it is so funny! Hahaha!!!
Aya was leaving so we took a group photo.
Putting seeds in planters. Mostly onion seeds.
trying to be interesting...
POTATOE PICTURES (how we plant potatoes)
So, the first step to planting potatoes is that you have ot cut them up. These potatoes come from boxes of specially grown potatoes for planting. We weigh the potatoe and then determine how many peices we should cut it into, making sure there is an eye on each peice. (eye in Japanese is Meyo- an easy one to remember)
I am sitting with two of the girls from Tiawan. Gizen is next to me and you can see the back of Alice's head.
These pictures are taken by Kamitakesan, he takes pictures of everything!
So, I'm getting little sick of smiling or the camera.
Then we soak the potatoes in some water with fungus liquid in it. And then we roal it or sprinkle it in ash.
Then we go and plant them in feilds that we prepared the week or a few days before. We had to spread the manure all over the feild, and plow it with the tractor and then dig the trenches for the potatoes.
Then we planted the potatoes.
Then we have to sprinle more ash on them and then move the dirt back on them.
This is what it looks like finished.
Then we cover it with tarps.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Girls from Tiawan and Sachikosan
Wednesday night two girls from Tiawan arrived. There was a little miscomunication, which happens frequently I might add, that a boy from Tiawan and girl from America were coming, but that wasn't the case.
Sachikosan is a neighbor who is proably in her 60's or 70's. She comes by twice a week and cooks dinner for the WWHOOfers and in exchange gets to practice her english with them. In Japan you can make a lot of money teaching private english classes, even just talking with people in English and helping them, so this is actually a really good deal. Well, she comes around 4 and then goes back to eat dinner with her husband and comes back at 7. She is very funny and knows quite a bit of english. She claims that when she hit 50 she turned back time, so now she is 17. Can someone do the and tell me how old she is?
The two girls from Tiawan arrived at around 7:30. One girl her name is Alice, has been here twice before already. She is 22. Before she came here she was hosting in Kyoto, doing a lot of babysitting I guess. It was too hard, so she came back here.
The other girl we call Gizen. She is 25 and this is her first time WWHOOFing in Japan.
They will be here for 3 weeks I think. Both of them speak a little english, but their Japanese is better. So when we talk it is a mix of Japanese and english, and an ocassional Chinese word since they speak chinese.
On Thurday we did the usual I think- oh my gosh I already forgot!- we harvested a whole bunch of greens and then we hauled a lot of buckets of manure into one of the rice feilds. We had to measure the feild and place the buckest in percise grid and then dump them all over the feild. This is one of my least forvorite jobs. You get the dirt all over you and inside your boots and its just pain overall. AFter this we went and chopped more wood. I think like this job one of the best. Not exactly sure why, becuase You basically are balancing on the side of a really steep hill covered with slippery leaves and vines with thorns, pushing, sawing and hauling logs all over the place. And then once you finally do get it down the hill you have to drag or carry them to the truck and then load them in. Well, I like it the best of the harder jobs. Harvesting of course is tons of fun and very easy.
After we finished working the two girls from tiawan and I wlked down to the local conviniance store at about 6. We literally walked down, and on the way back we walked up. It takes about 30 minutes. There is a 7-11 and a Lawsons. Alice bought a bus pass, and I bought gum. Gum here isn't very good and its really expensive. I also bought a snack that is basically two panacakes with red bean paste in side. I don't know why but I just love that stuff.
On Friday we did more hauling manure and hauling wood. I really can't remeber exactly. All I know is that when driving to go haul wood, Gizen, who was sitting in the back of the truck with the rest of us girls got wacked by a branch in the eye, and Iyasan got a peice of wood thrown on her. It wasn't very big thankfully, if it was it wouldn't have landed on her neck. Big logs only fly about 2 inches when you throw them and then just land and roll another 2 inches. Oh, ya and the day before Richard, another worker who is 40 accidentaly wacked me in the face with a pile of mulch. Wow, that sounds really bad deosn't it? Well, it wasn't that bad. He was tossing it down just as I was standing up, it barely hurt.
During luch time, Kamitakesan showed up with a cake for Minamisan. It was his 49th birthday. Minamisan works here almost every day. He is really nice, but also an extreme perfectionist. So when we measure the feilds and set out the buckets I think it takes a little longer than maybe it should. : )
Actually we finsihed early for the day, so when we got back to the house he had us empty decomposing backs of who-knows-what rock and soil material, from a pile across the street onto the ground. The pile has been sitting there for 20 years. We got about half way through that. If we don't have another chance to work on it, then it will probably sit there for another 20 years. The reason those rocks were there is that Kamitakesan use to be a geologist- someone who studies and does stuff with rock. Apparently whatever his job was he made a lot of money and then bought this place and started farming.
Sachikosan came at 4 and 7. We talked about the earthquake in New Zealand and about what plan to do with my future..i...don't..know..
She also brought chocolate. Oh ya, I forgot to meantion, she also claims that he is my younger sister. Don't I feel special!
Also, I just finished a book. I managed to find a book that was in english after rumaging throuh a pile of them in the kitchen. It is called Gang Leader for a Day. The author is Sudhir Venkatesh. It is atrue story about gangs in Chicago. I really liked it- but then, I love true stories. If you do decide to read just be prepared for a LOT of swearing!
Also, I wash my clothes every other day. In Japan they either don't have or don't use dryers. So you have to hang all your clothes out to dry. I never was the expert when it came to washing machines, and Japanese washing machines are something entirely different. First off you have to run water into it from a faucet. Then you put your clothes in, detergent, and turn it on. You don't have ot use a lid if you don't want too. The clothes just spins around in the water and doesn't go flying out! I could'nt beleive it, so I managed to find the lid and use it the first time. You wash your clothes twice for 15 minutes each time. Once with detergent, once without. Unless your me and you forget the detergent the first time, and the second time you put too much. Aftr each washing you drain it into the bathtub. Ten you place it in a compartment in the washin machine that spins it ruthlessly for about 5 minutes and gets all of the water out. Then you hang it out to dry. I'm still getting it down, but I made a lot more mistakes then I mentioned.
Today is Saturday. Yesterday was really warm, but today I have been freezing! I feel like I've turned into a big baby all of the sudden. Up to this point I've been like, "No complaining Haven!" Someone asks if this is hard, "this? Hard? I'll tell you whats hard, working on a roof in 115 degree heat!" "Am I tired? Of course not! I'm 18 I don't get tired ever!!!- I just went to bed at 9 beacuse I needed by beauty sleep.." Well, today was a little more difficult. I couldn't hide it as easily, not when I'm flapping my arms around to stay warm and pulling the hood of my coat over my whole face. "Daijobu?" They ask which means: are you ok? Me: "Whhat...(teath chattering) I'm freezing to death!"
Ok, so maybe it isn't that extreme, but that's how I feel about cold.
Lunch time break is almost up! Five more minutes! I gotta go!
Ok, I'm back before dinner. First off I wanted to mention something I noticed the first day of my stay here. When I walked in my bedroom it was fairly warm and when I got in bed I was really warm. I couldn't manage to find out how to turn on the heater and I was terrified that I would freeze at night, but I was just fine! Why? Well, turns out there is some kind of heating system under the floor that heats the floor, which is wood by the way. I figured out that the floor is warmest in one particular corner of the room, so I slid my futon over there.
Ok! So, after lunch today we chopped up potatoes that were especailly bought because they sprout eyes and you plant them to grow other potatos. Then we prepared the feild mith mulch and then Kamitakesan mixed that up witht the tractor and made lines and then we came back worked on that for awhile, getting the paths straighter and stuff and then we had to dip the patatoes, which had been sitting in a mixtre of fungus water, into ash from the fire and then we planted them, sprinkled more ash on them and covered them up.
So, that's it for today! Tommorrow I have the day off and I am going to try and get to church..duh,duh,duh... well, I'm a little nervous.
bye!
Sachikosan is a neighbor who is proably in her 60's or 70's. She comes by twice a week and cooks dinner for the WWHOOfers and in exchange gets to practice her english with them. In Japan you can make a lot of money teaching private english classes, even just talking with people in English and helping them, so this is actually a really good deal. Well, she comes around 4 and then goes back to eat dinner with her husband and comes back at 7. She is very funny and knows quite a bit of english. She claims that when she hit 50 she turned back time, so now she is 17. Can someone do the and tell me how old she is?
The two girls from Tiawan arrived at around 7:30. One girl her name is Alice, has been here twice before already. She is 22. Before she came here she was hosting in Kyoto, doing a lot of babysitting I guess. It was too hard, so she came back here.
The other girl we call Gizen. She is 25 and this is her first time WWHOOFing in Japan.
They will be here for 3 weeks I think. Both of them speak a little english, but their Japanese is better. So when we talk it is a mix of Japanese and english, and an ocassional Chinese word since they speak chinese.
On Thurday we did the usual I think- oh my gosh I already forgot!- we harvested a whole bunch of greens and then we hauled a lot of buckets of manure into one of the rice feilds. We had to measure the feild and place the buckest in percise grid and then dump them all over the feild. This is one of my least forvorite jobs. You get the dirt all over you and inside your boots and its just pain overall. AFter this we went and chopped more wood. I think like this job one of the best. Not exactly sure why, becuase You basically are balancing on the side of a really steep hill covered with slippery leaves and vines with thorns, pushing, sawing and hauling logs all over the place. And then once you finally do get it down the hill you have to drag or carry them to the truck and then load them in. Well, I like it the best of the harder jobs. Harvesting of course is tons of fun and very easy.
After we finished working the two girls from tiawan and I wlked down to the local conviniance store at about 6. We literally walked down, and on the way back we walked up. It takes about 30 minutes. There is a 7-11 and a Lawsons. Alice bought a bus pass, and I bought gum. Gum here isn't very good and its really expensive. I also bought a snack that is basically two panacakes with red bean paste in side. I don't know why but I just love that stuff.
On Friday we did more hauling manure and hauling wood. I really can't remeber exactly. All I know is that when driving to go haul wood, Gizen, who was sitting in the back of the truck with the rest of us girls got wacked by a branch in the eye, and Iyasan got a peice of wood thrown on her. It wasn't very big thankfully, if it was it wouldn't have landed on her neck. Big logs only fly about 2 inches when you throw them and then just land and roll another 2 inches. Oh, ya and the day before Richard, another worker who is 40 accidentaly wacked me in the face with a pile of mulch. Wow, that sounds really bad deosn't it? Well, it wasn't that bad. He was tossing it down just as I was standing up, it barely hurt.
During luch time, Kamitakesan showed up with a cake for Minamisan. It was his 49th birthday. Minamisan works here almost every day. He is really nice, but also an extreme perfectionist. So when we measure the feilds and set out the buckets I think it takes a little longer than maybe it should. : )
Actually we finsihed early for the day, so when we got back to the house he had us empty decomposing backs of who-knows-what rock and soil material, from a pile across the street onto the ground. The pile has been sitting there for 20 years. We got about half way through that. If we don't have another chance to work on it, then it will probably sit there for another 20 years. The reason those rocks were there is that Kamitakesan use to be a geologist- someone who studies and does stuff with rock. Apparently whatever his job was he made a lot of money and then bought this place and started farming.
Sachikosan came at 4 and 7. We talked about the earthquake in New Zealand and about what plan to do with my future..i...don't..know..
She also brought chocolate. Oh ya, I forgot to meantion, she also claims that he is my younger sister. Don't I feel special!
Also, I just finished a book. I managed to find a book that was in english after rumaging throuh a pile of them in the kitchen. It is called Gang Leader for a Day. The author is Sudhir Venkatesh. It is atrue story about gangs in Chicago. I really liked it- but then, I love true stories. If you do decide to read just be prepared for a LOT of swearing!
Also, I wash my clothes every other day. In Japan they either don't have or don't use dryers. So you have to hang all your clothes out to dry. I never was the expert when it came to washing machines, and Japanese washing machines are something entirely different. First off you have to run water into it from a faucet. Then you put your clothes in, detergent, and turn it on. You don't have ot use a lid if you don't want too. The clothes just spins around in the water and doesn't go flying out! I could'nt beleive it, so I managed to find the lid and use it the first time. You wash your clothes twice for 15 minutes each time. Once with detergent, once without. Unless your me and you forget the detergent the first time, and the second time you put too much. Aftr each washing you drain it into the bathtub. Ten you place it in a compartment in the washin machine that spins it ruthlessly for about 5 minutes and gets all of the water out. Then you hang it out to dry. I'm still getting it down, but I made a lot more mistakes then I mentioned.
Today is Saturday. Yesterday was really warm, but today I have been freezing! I feel like I've turned into a big baby all of the sudden. Up to this point I've been like, "No complaining Haven!" Someone asks if this is hard, "this? Hard? I'll tell you whats hard, working on a roof in 115 degree heat!" "Am I tired? Of course not! I'm 18 I don't get tired ever!!!- I just went to bed at 9 beacuse I needed by beauty sleep.." Well, today was a little more difficult. I couldn't hide it as easily, not when I'm flapping my arms around to stay warm and pulling the hood of my coat over my whole face. "Daijobu?" They ask which means: are you ok? Me: "Whhat...(teath chattering) I'm freezing to death!"
Ok, so maybe it isn't that extreme, but that's how I feel about cold.
Lunch time break is almost up! Five more minutes! I gotta go!
Ok, I'm back before dinner. First off I wanted to mention something I noticed the first day of my stay here. When I walked in my bedroom it was fairly warm and when I got in bed I was really warm. I couldn't manage to find out how to turn on the heater and I was terrified that I would freeze at night, but I was just fine! Why? Well, turns out there is some kind of heating system under the floor that heats the floor, which is wood by the way. I figured out that the floor is warmest in one particular corner of the room, so I slid my futon over there.
Ok! So, after lunch today we chopped up potatoes that were especailly bought because they sprout eyes and you plant them to grow other potatos. Then we prepared the feild mith mulch and then Kamitakesan mixed that up witht the tractor and made lines and then we came back worked on that for awhile, getting the paths straighter and stuff and then we had to dip the patatoes, which had been sitting in a mixtre of fungus water, into ash from the fire and then we planted them, sprinkled more ash on them and covered them up.
So, that's it for today! Tommorrow I have the day off and I am going to try and get to church..duh,duh,duh... well, I'm a little nervous.
bye!
Pictures From in China.
This is me and Amy's Younger sister Alice. Her parents and Grandparents call her Mei Mei though. Not exactly sure how to spell that, but its pronounced May May.
We are hanging up Chinese New Year decorations all over the back yard. These are hung up all over the city. Almost every house or buisness has somethng like htis hung up around their place.
This is me bowling in China. I went with Amy and 3 of her guy frinds. Unfortunately I was just getting a fever that morning, so about half way through I starting getting weaker and weaker and my stomach wass killing me, so the ball strating rollin slower and slower and more lopsided. Eventually Ihad ak Ay if we could be done and her parents could pick us up. When we heaed outside my stomach was killing me and thn I threw upin a bush. I was better after that!
The bowling was pretty boring anyways, they were completely uncompetitive, were way too quite and didn't get all excited about strikes and spares like we do. Also, they didn't even know how to keep score or put their names in the screen! And they had played bowling many times befrore.
These are apartment complexes in Chengdu City. These were every where!
Going out to eat with Amy's Godmother and her family. Amy's dad is on the left and Alice is in frnt of him.
Amy is sitting next to me. This is where I ate rabbit stew and it was SO good!
At the fair tgtht had all the blown up sun gods that light up at night. Me, Amy. Alice and their mother are in this picture.
This is me licking a bamboo at the bamboo garden. I just wanted to do it.
Wuth some more of her family friends at the Bamboo garden.
At the bamboo garden. An old Pavillion.
Me doing chinese painting at the house.
\throghout the ciy their ere many structures made out of flowers. These are in little pots stuk all around the structure. This is above the free way.
Noice the sky? It was liket hat the whole time!
Pictures at my First Host Family in Japan
This is me, Ayako, and Michikosan, her mother. We are sitting at the dining table.the livin room is behind us.
This is me with Ayako's Dad and Mom.
This is me helping to teach engish cass!
The lady in the background is Ayako's sister in law. She is SO pretty! And the two boys are her son his friend, Shuma, who is in the yellow shirt. They are 7 and 8 I think. Any ways, Shuma is a really cute kid.
This is another really cute kid! Her reminded me a lot of Thatcher. Anyways, he was just really cute, so I kept taking his picture during caligraphy class.
This is me wth Yokotasan and her pastor after church. As you can see I am holding my bible. Yokotasan is one of the nicest people I ever met!
These are all picturesof the host family that I am at now. The first picture is of the night that I arrived. I got thre about 8 p.m. Okamisan, Kamiakesan's wife, picked me up. I am sitting next to Kamitakesan, and next to him are two girls who are from Tiawan. They left the next day. The other guy next to them, I don't know his name. He is a worker and he will only be around once a month I think. Then there is Okamisan, and then Todd fAmerica. This is in the kitchen that the WWHOOfers use.
The next picture is of some of the workers making mulch to put in bags. They put a mixture in it that has fungus spores in it, and they will grow in the bags for about 4 months. Eventually it will be use for fertelizer.
The last picture is outside the front gate of the house. They have flags of all the WWHOOfers that have been there. When you leave, you get your picture taken with your flag.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Wednesday: More mulch, rice feild slush and log throwing
I'm afraid to admit that starting fairly soon here, my blog is going to get a little boring. It seems tht we will be doing very similar things every day, wih only slight variations, and there i only so mch interesting things I can write about tossing logs down a hill.
However, I won't give up! I will try to keep writing entertaining things as long as possible.
So, last night Kmaitakesan gave me an alarm clock, but it didn't work this morning, so I am still trying to figure it out. I woke up at 7 again thankfully.
I ate taost for breakfast. Interetig fact: I haven't eatin a single peice of heathy whole wheat bread since I got to japan, and I'm starting to question if they even have any in Japan. But the interesting fact is this: although bred can be bought in bags of about 10 slices,but most of the time it sold in bags of four. Four slices of big white bread. It doesn't last very long.
I keep forgetting that everthing in Japan is smaller and that includes the packages of bread I guess.
We headed out to a rice feild that doen't have any rice in it. There is a tiny trough made from dirt that runs along the side of the feild. We had to make it deeper by removing a lot of the gunky muddy stuff. We used these things that are kind of like a hoe only a little different, longer and more slanted that you scoop the suff out with. We also had to make the edges of the feild more defined. so we scraped the sides with shovels.
After this we headed back to that manure pile that we had to move off of the road yesteray. We scooped it up with these dustpan like things and then dunped it along the edges of each row of onions in the feild.
After lunch we had to take these bags of leftover grains form a beer factory, out of the truck and then dump them into the main manure pile. Kamitakesan thn goes over it with a tractor and mixes it together. He also gets leftovers from Japan airlines. all of the leftovers of food and things like toothpicks and cups get smashed together and then he goes down there about once a week I think and picks it up tp mix in his mulch.
After this we headed back to the spot where we had cut wood the other day and rolled more logs down a really steep hill. Then we brought them back and stacked them. Now the neighbor Sachikosan is over. She is going to cook dinner and practice her english with us
However, I won't give up! I will try to keep writing entertaining things as long as possible.
So, last night Kmaitakesan gave me an alarm clock, but it didn't work this morning, so I am still trying to figure it out. I woke up at 7 again thankfully.
I ate taost for breakfast. Interetig fact: I haven't eatin a single peice of heathy whole wheat bread since I got to japan, and I'm starting to question if they even have any in Japan. But the interesting fact is this: although bred can be bought in bags of about 10 slices,but most of the time it sold in bags of four. Four slices of big white bread. It doesn't last very long.
I keep forgetting that everthing in Japan is smaller and that includes the packages of bread I guess.
We headed out to a rice feild that doen't have any rice in it. There is a tiny trough made from dirt that runs along the side of the feild. We had to make it deeper by removing a lot of the gunky muddy stuff. We used these things that are kind of like a hoe only a little different, longer and more slanted that you scoop the suff out with. We also had to make the edges of the feild more defined. so we scraped the sides with shovels.
After this we headed back to that manure pile that we had to move off of the road yesteray. We scooped it up with these dustpan like things and then dunped it along the edges of each row of onions in the feild.
After lunch we had to take these bags of leftover grains form a beer factory, out of the truck and then dump them into the main manure pile. Kamitakesan thn goes over it with a tractor and mixes it together. He also gets leftovers from Japan airlines. all of the leftovers of food and things like toothpicks and cups get smashed together and then he goes down there about once a week I think and picks it up tp mix in his mulch.
After this we headed back to the spot where we had cut wood the other day and rolled more logs down a really steep hill. Then we brought them back and stacked them. Now the neighbor Sachikosan is over. She is going to cook dinner and practice her english with us
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tuesday: Making compost and Harvesting
Today I got up at 7. Read my bible, struggled to get out of my nice warm futon. Carefully walked down the sttep stairs, charged for the bathroom, that unfortunately does not have a heated toilet. And then Went into the kitchen to have breakfast. I had cereal, coffee, and a bowl of rice... kinda wierd.
At 8:30 we started work. Todd, another worker and I took one truck to go harvest spinach, and some other kinds of lettuces. We have to go back and fortha few times to drop itoff, bacuase Kamitakesan's wife Okamisan, takes it somewhere, and I'm still notexactly sure where-to sell it I think. Iya went with anther worker to harvest onions. I am still working on getting names down, so I refer to them as workers, but eventually they will have names since most of them work every day here. : )
After this we all went down and moved part of a pile of manure out of the road that had been dumped there to be put in the feilds for fertelizer.
Lunch was at 12:00 and then at 1:30 we headed back out to the chicken coop, manure pile area, and made mulch. The two workers would put rice bran in a machine that stirs it up. They would pour some liquid stuff in it that has mushroom spores or something in it. Tehn we would bag it up so that there was no air in the bag and then put that in a paper bag and then it will be sored for about 4 months until the fungus grows inside. Supposedly it is really good for the soil. We also worked on sifting some piles of coal.
That about sums it up! The two girls from Tiawan left and tomorrow there will be one guy from Tiawan coming and one girl fom America coming. Exciting, exciting!
Now, I am going to go work on organizing my room.
At 8:30 we started work. Todd, another worker and I took one truck to go harvest spinach, and some other kinds of lettuces. We have to go back and fortha few times to drop itoff, bacuase Kamitakesan's wife Okamisan, takes it somewhere, and I'm still notexactly sure where-to sell it I think. Iya went with anther worker to harvest onions. I am still working on getting names down, so I refer to them as workers, but eventually they will have names since most of them work every day here. : )
After this we all went down and moved part of a pile of manure out of the road that had been dumped there to be put in the feilds for fertelizer.
Lunch was at 12:00 and then at 1:30 we headed back out to the chicken coop, manure pile area, and made mulch. The two workers would put rice bran in a machine that stirs it up. They would pour some liquid stuff in it that has mushroom spores or something in it. Tehn we would bag it up so that there was no air in the bag and then put that in a paper bag and then it will be sored for about 4 months until the fungus grows inside. Supposedly it is really good for the soil. We also worked on sifting some piles of coal.
That about sums it up! The two girls from Tiawan left and tomorrow there will be one guy from Tiawan coming and one girl fom America coming. Exciting, exciting!
Now, I am going to go work on organizing my room.
Sunday and Monday 20th and 21st- getting to my next host family
Hi all! Sunday was a very interesting day.
Yokotasan, the lady who had taken me out to sushi, picked me up at 9:15 in the morning to go to her church. I have been having a slight prolem i my baggge. Besides the act hat it is way heavy, becuase it was left in the heat, and made in china, all of the plastic in the indside fell out I didn't think it was that big of a proble until, becuaseit was lacking support, the wheels got jacked up, and now I couldn't pull it. Try carrying a 50 pund bag, and a 25 pound backpack around. Not fun, especailly up all those stairs at the station. I did drag it some, but then it started whereing out the suitcase and making holes. So my suitcase was falling apart.
Back to where we were before, she picked me up and some other women from a nursing home and we went to church. The congragation is about 30 people. All old people except for maybe like 2 people in their 30's or 40's. It was in Japanese, so I didn't understand much, but she wrote sticky notes about what he was saying. It was about Jesus multiplying the loaves. After the service she took me to her house. She is probably one of thenicest people I have ever met. First off, unlike in America it is not as common in Japan to take people to your house. Main reason for this is that their houses are usually super crammed apartments. Hers wasn't, but still. Then she called my next host family and got their address, so that she could ship my bag to their house. Otherwise I would have had to take i with me tHimeji and then to my host families house from there , and all this during rush hour, when the trains are very full. In Japan there is a service thatdoes that, you can ship your bags to prety much anywhere. It is not the mail, it is something diffrent. I had considered using it when mom and I were in Japan, but I didn't becuase our bags werent that big. On top of that she paid for it and fed me lunch. But I think the nicest thing that she did, was give me a new suitcase! She has traveled a lot in the past, so she had a big suitcase. She doesn't travel anymore, so She gave it to me. Then she dropped me off at the station that heads to Himeji. She was very very kind.
On the way to Himeji I got off at the wrong station. Himeji-bassho, not Himeji. Dumb mistake. Then i had to wait forever for the next train, becuase it was a very small station. I met Tomoko, and we hung out for about 3 hours.
Then at 5 I took a train to the town of Hirakata. I got there at about 7:15. I had to call the family and ask them to pick me up. Their english isn't the greatest, so that was fun. Wen I got here they were having dinner. They have 4 WWHOOFers right now. 2 girls from Tiawan who will be leaving in a few days, a lady who is Japanese, and an American guy in his 30's. They also have a lot of workers who come in off and on, so two of them there that night. Hopefully I will actually end up taking pictures when i am here, becuase Kamitakesan takes pictures of everything!!!
Today, Monday we started work at 8:30. Iya from Japan, Todd from America, Kamitakesan, two workers and myself. Frist we went and picked spinach and some other lettuces and stuff at one plot of land. Then we went to another spot and fed the chickens and collected eggs.There is also a huge pile of decomposing horse manure there, and we had to scoop whole bunch of that into buckets.
Todd cooked lunch. Then we headed back to work. We went to the forest in another spot and we packed wood into the back of the truck. Some of it was smaller wood and others big chunks of logs. We brought that back and then returned. We climbed up the side of this mountain and cut down some of the trees and threw the pieces of wood down the mountain. We did this in different spots maybe three times. Then we would bring it back and Kamitakesan would cut it smaller and we would stack it all up.
My favorite part of the day? Riding in the bad of the truck. The truck only has two seats inside. And beleive me there is NOT room for another person in there!
So, us extra people had to ride in the back. I would stand up and hold onto the back of the cab. The roads in this area are TINY! They are smaller then one of our lanes in America, and there are NOT one way streets, they are both way. And they drive crazy.
I was comparing this experince to our church camping trip, wehn Dave drove us down to the river. Well, I totally undertand his driving habits now.aka: driving really fast around curves, no slowing down. So all you people who got to have fun ont that trip, imagine that only on a tiny raod with LOTS of curves and hills. So I don't wanna hear any complaining from any of yu! thats from P90X.
Well, I loved it!
Now it is 5 in the evening. I will write a little bit about what the place is like: First off all of the bedrooms for WWHOOFers are seperate from the house. You have to walk up these REALLY steep metal stairs to get to them. Mom, they are like the stairs at our first hostel, only steeper. Ther are four bedrooms, no shoes allowed, that each have a different picture of a flower on the door. I'm in the sunflower room! I sleep on a futon on the ground. The bathroom is down stairs, outside. It doesn't have any running water. You have to fill a bucket froma sink outside put some disinfectint stuff in it, and then pour it in the back of the toilet. You don't have to do this every time though, just about evry 5 or 6 times. And then you have to wash your hands in a sink outside.
There is a kitchen and, shower and laundry room adjesant the house that all of the workers and WWHOOFers use.
Um... I think that's it for today!
Yokotasan, the lady who had taken me out to sushi, picked me up at 9:15 in the morning to go to her church. I have been having a slight prolem i my baggge. Besides the act hat it is way heavy, becuase it was left in the heat, and made in china, all of the plastic in the indside fell out I didn't think it was that big of a proble until, becuaseit was lacking support, the wheels got jacked up, and now I couldn't pull it. Try carrying a 50 pund bag, and a 25 pound backpack around. Not fun, especailly up all those stairs at the station. I did drag it some, but then it started whereing out the suitcase and making holes. So my suitcase was falling apart.
Back to where we were before, she picked me up and some other women from a nursing home and we went to church. The congragation is about 30 people. All old people except for maybe like 2 people in their 30's or 40's. It was in Japanese, so I didn't understand much, but she wrote sticky notes about what he was saying. It was about Jesus multiplying the loaves. After the service she took me to her house. She is probably one of thenicest people I have ever met. First off, unlike in America it is not as common in Japan to take people to your house. Main reason for this is that their houses are usually super crammed apartments. Hers wasn't, but still. Then she called my next host family and got their address, so that she could ship my bag to their house. Otherwise I would have had to take i with me tHimeji and then to my host families house from there , and all this during rush hour, when the trains are very full. In Japan there is a service thatdoes that, you can ship your bags to prety much anywhere. It is not the mail, it is something diffrent. I had considered using it when mom and I were in Japan, but I didn't becuase our bags werent that big. On top of that she paid for it and fed me lunch. But I think the nicest thing that she did, was give me a new suitcase! She has traveled a lot in the past, so she had a big suitcase. She doesn't travel anymore, so She gave it to me. Then she dropped me off at the station that heads to Himeji. She was very very kind.
On the way to Himeji I got off at the wrong station. Himeji-bassho, not Himeji. Dumb mistake. Then i had to wait forever for the next train, becuase it was a very small station. I met Tomoko, and we hung out for about 3 hours.
Then at 5 I took a train to the town of Hirakata. I got there at about 7:15. I had to call the family and ask them to pick me up. Their english isn't the greatest, so that was fun. Wen I got here they were having dinner. They have 4 WWHOOFers right now. 2 girls from Tiawan who will be leaving in a few days, a lady who is Japanese, and an American guy in his 30's. They also have a lot of workers who come in off and on, so two of them there that night. Hopefully I will actually end up taking pictures when i am here, becuase Kamitakesan takes pictures of everything!!!
Today, Monday we started work at 8:30. Iya from Japan, Todd from America, Kamitakesan, two workers and myself. Frist we went and picked spinach and some other lettuces and stuff at one plot of land. Then we went to another spot and fed the chickens and collected eggs.There is also a huge pile of decomposing horse manure there, and we had to scoop whole bunch of that into buckets.
Todd cooked lunch. Then we headed back to work. We went to the forest in another spot and we packed wood into the back of the truck. Some of it was smaller wood and others big chunks of logs. We brought that back and then returned. We climbed up the side of this mountain and cut down some of the trees and threw the pieces of wood down the mountain. We did this in different spots maybe three times. Then we would bring it back and Kamitakesan would cut it smaller and we would stack it all up.
My favorite part of the day? Riding in the bad of the truck. The truck only has two seats inside. And beleive me there is NOT room for another person in there!
So, us extra people had to ride in the back. I would stand up and hold onto the back of the cab. The roads in this area are TINY! They are smaller then one of our lanes in America, and there are NOT one way streets, they are both way. And they drive crazy.
I was comparing this experince to our church camping trip, wehn Dave drove us down to the river. Well, I totally undertand his driving habits now.aka: driving really fast around curves, no slowing down. So all you people who got to have fun ont that trip, imagine that only on a tiny raod with LOTS of curves and hills. So I don't wanna hear any complaining from any of yu! thats from P90X.
Well, I loved it!
Now it is 5 in the evening. I will write a little bit about what the place is like: First off all of the bedrooms for WWHOOFers are seperate from the house. You have to walk up these REALLY steep metal stairs to get to them. Mom, they are like the stairs at our first hostel, only steeper. Ther are four bedrooms, no shoes allowed, that each have a different picture of a flower on the door. I'm in the sunflower room! I sleep on a futon on the ground. The bathroom is down stairs, outside. It doesn't have any running water. You have to fill a bucket froma sink outside put some disinfectint stuff in it, and then pour it in the back of the toilet. You don't have to do this every time though, just about evry 5 or 6 times. And then you have to wash your hands in a sink outside.
There is a kitchen and, shower and laundry room adjesant the house that all of the workers and WWHOOFers use.
Um... I think that's it for today!
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