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Hello all
In this blog entry im gonna tell you all about our first woofing experience., which we have done for the past two weeks. For those who don't know, "wwoof" stands for world wide organisation for organic farming, so we spent the last two weeks in the country living on a small farm. The farm had a few fields around growing daikon, onions, and the like and they tried to be as organic as possible, which was a great learning experience for us. Not just in the growing of produce, but in cooking, eating and general living. All the food we ate was cooked from fresh and mostly home grown food was used, plus the idea was to produce as little waste as possible.
We wernt to sure what to expect from this experience, as all we knew is that we would be working during the day in exchange for free food and a bed. On our arrival late on Saturday night we were greeted by Gen an Midori, who were our hosts. Gen was half Japanese/American and would be the one organising us for the next 2 weeks, and Midori was his mum. At the house there were also 2 other English wwoofers there, zoe and mike, who had been there a week already so they could show us the ropes and help us settle in.
Our day started at 8.30 (ish) as the jobs we had to do were varied depending on the day. We did things like build a bamboo fence, chop fire wood, take the dog for a walk, bake fresh bread, work the fields etc etc. It was great spending the time with zoe and mike cus we had a chance to speak really bad English again, which was kinda nice after months of "speakin proper" for people to understand us. Unfortunatley it rained quiet a lot our first week so that's when we found a boxset of "24" which took up most of the day, but when it was sunny it was nice to be out in the country air, tending to the chickens and chopping wood and stuff. Gen and midori also ran a nearby English school and had recently bought a new building, which we also helped get ready for the new school year in April. In general the work wasn't too hard, and the amount of food we got in exchange was awesome. We learned a lot of proper Japanese home cooking which cant wait to show everyone when we get home. Gen also went hunting some days, so we got to eat deer and wild bore all the time. Yummy.
In the second week Mike and Zoe left and were replaced by a Japanese guy called Akira. He was really sound, and the house turned more Japanese on his arrival and we learned a lot of usefull phrases, and taught him a lot of English slang. That week we went to onsen, did meditation, and even got a chance to do tea ceremony. We also cut down some bamboo from a nearby foerest, and made some chopsticks.
In the whole the two weeks were amazing. We got to see what proper Japanese country living is like, and meet some amazing people. Gen was inspirational and very generous. He cycled round Europe for 18 months, and his stories from then, and their way him and Midori lived now, made me and holly realise just how varied different peoples lives can be. We certainly learned a lot.
So now were back in Kyoto, and both of our parents are here to visit!!! Im sure were gonna have a fun two weeks so weel let you all know whats goin in the next blog
Bye for now, and don't forgete to check the pics.
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