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!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)