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!