Totoro-baths under the milkyway

For my two previous trips I took to Japan I spent a good portion of my trip as a volunteer working at organic farms and eco-tourism places. This was via the WWOOF-network whose aim is to provide opportunities for cultural exchange at all kinds of eco-friendly places such as farms and guesthouses.

You basically volunteer to work at lets 6 hours a day for example at a farm and you get free food and a place to sleep. And the farmer gets an extra pair of hands for what ever needs to be done at that time: harvesting apples, weeding, more weeding, washing the dishes, digging holes with a huge excavator! And you both get a chance to learn about each other's culture and language. The exchange program is open to everyone. The network helps you to make the arrangement with the farmer-host you would like to visit.

Daikon radish

For me this was the perfect way to get beyond the role of 'The Tourist' - which I didn't like. I wanted to see the real Japan - the real / mundane / exotic everyday life - as well as any secretive things hidden from view.

As a volunteer you get to enter a Japanese home and live as part of a Japanese family - an experience a tourist could never get even if honored with an invite for tee at someones place. As a guest you are always treated a certain way - and don't see beyond the surface. But after a few weeks working at a family you start to get to know people as their true personas.

On my first trip I took it easy and just picked one place in Hokkaido - a biodynamic garden and dairy farm. And then went to join my friend all the way down south near Kumamoto, Kyushu to work at at Buddhist temple's garden.

Working at a Japanese farm for me was easy. I was physically fit and eager and already knew and accepted a lot of the cultural differences and quirks you need to know for not getting into to trouble. The work itself is easy and simple. For example stripping weeds or thinning apple buds are mundane boring tasks that even a child could do. But you need a certain kind of attitude and a state of mind to keep doing it for several hours at a time.

It helps if you glance up and see the snow capped Japanese Alps and see eagles circling overhead - and think about the delicious home cooked Japanese meal you are about to have for lunch, dinner, breakfast xP And the fact that you are there, in person, somewhere in real Japan living the Japanese life - even for a few days or weeks. I was so 'Zen' meditating all this I could have endured any hardship.

You rarely work alone. Farms are always big and there are other volunteers from all over the world, as well as family members, even neighbors helping to get a field or a garden patch done. I particularly recall when I was 'lent-out' to a local neighbor who was about to start building a new house - and I was there just as a pair of extra hands to move large logs and other building material around. There's a shortage of healthy strong men in the countryside so my help was very much appreciated and even though we were working together for only half-a-day we become good friends.

At this point I must mention that I don't know Japanese language. My level of Japanese is very basic: a few words and phrases that tourists need. I can kind of recognize a few words here and there when someone speaks to me. So lifting logs 'up' 'down' 'left' 'right' was confusing at first when I didn't even remember those words. It was good practice. And that is how you learn for real.

My strategy with my poor Japanese has always been to try to say something, ANYTHING in the language xP - and then just try to listen to any words that sound familiar. Then even if you don't have any idea what the other person said you just repeat what they said and they usually get that you are confused and repeat it more clearly or using simpler words. I've been pretty lucky I guess - I've never had any 'language problems' as such with everyday communications. However it would be nice to be able to have an actual conversation in Japanese. I would so love that :3

Hokkaido was my first wwoofing-place and also the strangest. It was a farm run by a US army veteran and his Japanese wife - so not exactly the genuine Japanese experience. But I picked it because I was interested to see the Biodynamic and CSI-model (Community Supported Agriculture) in action. I guess it was my 'culture-shock' moment but nothing too dramatic. After a few days there I just got sick with fever from getting wet at night sleeping in a tent because they had no other accommodation to offer at the time and I just felt miserable not being able to do any actual work. However before that I managed to fix a tractor, chop a whole load of logs and milk a cow which was a first!

So I was happy with it. A visitor from Sapporo gave me a lift back to civilization and I immediately felt better. Went to ask for a map of the city from Sapporo Station Tourist Information and noticed that one of the advisers had a Finnish-flag pin on her shirt. Asked her if she knew any Finnish and she replied - in Finnish! Apparently she had never visited Finland but spoke the language amazingly well having studied at evening courses arranged by Hokkaido Finland Society! So long story short I got their contact details, called them and asked if I could visit their classes in the evening and got permission. It was much more organized and bigger then the small language school at Osaka I was used to visiting - with over a dozen students per class (the teacher was called Aki if someone know's him from Oulu University where he had studied Finnish). Went boozing that night with the teacher. He knew how the Finnish drunk so I had a bit of a headache next morning.

After all this I went on a well earned 'vacation' in the south of Hokkaido where there were some active volcanoes. Got a traditional Japanese room with a tatami at a lakeside bath house with its own onsen. The lake had an all most a tropical island in the middle. I was surprised how hot it was but then I remembered that this was the hottest month in Hokkaido and therefore very similar to the hot but brief summer in Finland. The tourist only followed the tourist path and went away on the boat and left me alone with a whole island for myself. Ended up walking some 3km along the beach around the island - just wild nature everywhere - dipping myself in the warm shallow volcanic lake from time to time. Fortunately by this time I had learned to carry a couple of liters of water/tea with me - otherwise I would've been in trouble. The actual volcano I visited next day was all too crowded and touristy for my taste.

I finally took a plane south all the way to Kyushu which is the southern most of the main islands. Beyond that is the island chain of Okinawa. Kumamoto being the regional capital was easy to reach by train. I didn't take the Shinkansen because this time I was island-hopping with internal flights and didn't have the Japan Rail Pass.

I had thought Hokkaido had been hot for this time of the year but here was tropical heat I had only experienced in Singapore - scorching hot and humid. At midday people stopped working because it was uncomfortable and even dangerous to toil outside. By this time I had fortunately learned that I don't tan in the sun - just burn. So the first thing in town I went to a local superstore I got myself some long loose working clothing that had long sleeves and collar - and a large brimmed hat. It was strange to be this far south of Tokyo - everywhere we went had a real exotic relaxed countryside-feel to it. Very different feel to mainstream central Japan.

Furo = bathtub 'Totoro-style' - there's a wood fire underneath <:3

We woke up early every morning around 6:00 did some cleaning and washing and had breakfast at 7:00 and worked till 11:00 when lunch was ready. After lunch you slept through the hottest hours of the day and woke up to work again at two in the afternoon and then worked till six in the afternoon when we had dinner. And yes, that was way more then 6 hours of work per day but this was not the usual WWOOF-host but a special one that followed the Buddhist-temple life-cycle. They only took guests there who were committed to stay through the whole harvest - at least several months but preferably half a year or more. My friend had been there all spring and was about to be there with his Japanese wife all through that year. So as their friend and guest I was given special exception from this rule. But I was still required to do everything they did and the workdays there were quite intensive. After a days work I would have a shower or a bath in our traditional 'totoro' furo and just doze off to sleep. But I felt very at peace there :3

Typical lunch with lots of different things to eat like vegetable tempura xP

We tended a garden of various vegetables: Japanese cucumbers, egg plants, peas, salads etc. Well, I guess they were all 'Japanese' varieties because some of them were just unrecognizable to a westerner. Especially the cucumbers were really weird looking. But they all tasted great! The meals were 'vegetarian' due to the Buddhist nature of the host but for some reason sometimes seafood such as shrimp and dried fish flakes were part of the dishes so I'm not sure what their exact criteria was. The meals were always plentiful and you had lots of different things to try and eat. A steamed sweet potato was my favorite - it was like eating soft candy xP The Japanese rice-cooker is an excellent invention as it keeps rice fresh, moist and warm for a whole day - sometimes until the next day >:3 And when you have more than a few people in the house a large cooker is constantly on with timer set for making a fresh batch of new rice during the night :3

In the evening you had a moment to relax before exhaustion took over. The summer nights were magical (as sunset was around eight even during midsummer) and in the countryside you have no light pollution so you can see all the starts and the milkyway. Our Japanese friend would set his poi aflame and we've sit at the veranda just drinking and taking in the amazing air full of insect and bird sounds.

In part two: Bikers, Kittens and Smoking Volcanoes ^^'/

~ Tinka :3

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Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWOOF
http://www.wwoofjapan.com/main/index.php?lang=en

For those interested the wwoofjapan website has so clear and throughout instructions on every aspect that I won't repeat them here. I just urge you to read them and then re-read them all. That way you won't get confused and end up making mistakes.

It is important to carefully read all instructions you are given. The Japanese assume that all instructions are read carefully and followed to the point. I guess they learn already this at school. In comparison western culture is much more relaxed and understanding about such things - we don't read manuals. But for the Japanese this kind of behavior just seems sloppy or lazy ;3