Greating from our Second Farm

We are now at our second WWOOF host (world wide opportunities on organic farms in case you were wondering) and have really been enjoying it so far. Since Hiroshima we have spenttwo more nights in Kyoto, two nights in Osaka and a night in Kobe before heading to our host family fourty minutes outside of kobe. All in all our travel through Japan has been relatively easy, although quite expensive.

We arrived at our second host Tuesday afternoon after a little confusion about what train station to arrive at. Our host mom ended up driving to the station where we were, which ended up being the wrong one. The host family consists of eight people: mother and father in their late fifties, two children in their thirties, spouses and grandchildren. All of the family members live in the main house where we are staying or in an ajoining house. every night we have dinner with all the family members. The two grandchildren (i wont attempt to spell their names) are six and four and absolutely adorable. The host mother is who we spend most of our time with as the other family members are busy with the family-owned grocery store and other jobs. The mother is involved in a myriad of different things. For example, today (Saturday) a pottery class was held at the house. we were allowed to participate along with ten or so other family members/ friends that came over. Tomorrow morning the mother hosts a yoga class, and we also helped out with an English class that is taught by the daughter, Ayako. It was really fun to help out and the women in the class really enjoyed everything that we said about where we are from/what we are doing-they sounded like they found our lives way more interesting than they actually are.
Our day to day tasks involve weeding, planting vegetables, cleaning, and generally helping our host mother with whatever she needs. Also, everytime a WWOOFer comes, she has them build something for the garden and to remember each WWOOFer by. We have chosen to construct a bench that will be placed in the fruit garden that is underway. Yesterday we built the base of the bench (pictures to follow i promise) which took a lot of compromise between the three of us but it was a lot of fun and turned out really well. We still have to build the back and paint it but hopefully it will turn out really neat.

The food here is incredible- everyday the host mother makes us a delicious hot lunch- I had the best tempura of my life two days ago. Evening meals our delicous as well, and it is a great opportunity to try traditional japanese dishes. Overall, everything here is great and the family is very inviting and giving. The host mother is also very skilled at traditional japanese caligraphy and has given each of us an original caligraphy work of hers. We are here until Friday the 11th, when we will head back to Tokyo before our departure to Seoul.

In the past three weeks that i have been in Japan, I have noticed many things that are differet from home. 1) Everyone is thin. I can actually count on my hands and feet the number of overweight Japanese people I have seen (I think Im up to 17-they stick out like sore thumbs). 2) Everything is more efficient-from appliances to cars to cooking. 3) We have not run into a rude or unhelpful Japanese person in our entire time here. It is unlikely that we will. Everyone is so polite and courteous and quiet- the subways are almost silent even at rush hour, and I havent heard anyone yell or raise their voice in the entire time I have been here.

In other ways, I dont feel very far from home. Japan has any modern convience you could ever need- include a seven 11 on basically every corner, although they are much fancier in Japan. We were so curious as to why there were so many Seven 11s in Japan that we googled it. Turns out that it has the most branches of any chain in the world, surpassing even McDonalds. Also, it feels so safe here and everyone is nice whether or not they speak English. Overall, I have concluded that Japan is a great place.