Sunday, September 30, 2012

Yamanashi 2012 (Revision 2)

Ok, since this is entry has so many pictures, and since I seem to want to write rather a lot, I'm going to write this entry over several days. I've typed up the first bit, but its nearing midnight and I have an appointment, class, and work tomorrow, so I'm going to call it a night and get some rest. Enjoy part 1!

P.S. Formatting seems to be a bit funky. At least when viewed from my computer. Sorry if my captions are showing up weird and out of line.


So to start my Journey I woke up rather early and hoofed it to the train station so that I could catch a bus to Oita Airport. Thanks to the glory of being an exchange student, the Airporter only cost me about $18 round trip (As in including my bus ride back two weeks later). I packed all my stuff in my trusty Chrome bag, and it wasn't even let out to max capacity, so I was able to just take it as carry on. Though due to the variety of electronics and my steel toed boots, it took me quite a few security trays in order to get all my stuff through the check point. As is normal, I arrived at the airport 2 hours early. However, it seems that Japan has not adopted that recommendation, nor the need to accommodate it. Actually when I looked at my ticket, it said that I should take care to arrive 15 minutes early to ensure I made it through security on time. 30 minutes for international flights. Everybody who went through security with me was on the next flight, and in 45 minutes I had the airport to myself. Turns out Oita is a rather small airport. Just 3 gates. So I chilled out for an hour and a half while I waited for my plane. 

The flight to Tokyo was pretty uneventful. I drank Apple Juice. There were a surprising amount of babies on the plane. The changes in cabin pressure were not appreciated by the little ones, and they made sure that everybody knew about it. Since I didn't have any checked baggage, getting out of the airport was a snap. Found the train station and after a bit of confusion regarding what train my reserved ticket was for, I got myself a ticket to Shinjuku station. From Shinjuku I took the express train to Kofu in Yamanashi Prefecture. I had received a message from Kazu earlier informing me that due to the large amount of customers he wouldn't be able to pick me up at the station, and that I should take one of the local buses. Unfortunately all of the bus information was in Kanji. Being unable to get any kind of usefull information out of the kanji, I asked the bus station people, who directed me to the proper spot to wait for my bus. This was my first time riding a local bus by myself in Japan (I always just ride my bike or take a train in Oita). Aside from the fact that the recordings saying which stop was next was so quite I couldn't make out what it was saying, the bus ride was fine. Fortunately I have a good memory and was able to recognize my stop. I then walked to Kazu's place (Just a few minutes walk, but apparently he expected me to call for a ride). Kazu's nephew Kenichi gave me a lift to out to the farm with my bag, so I could meet up with Kazu, who was busy with customers.

(This is Reception. It was usually pretty busy.)
(Kazu was always in a good mood, and always goofy)

Since by the time I got there it was basically the end of the work day, I didn't actually work. Although I did take Taro, Kazu's dog, for a walk. (For whatever reason I don't think I actually got a picture of Taro.) After Reception had been closed up, Kazu gave me a ride to the WWOOFer house. Which is the house he bought last year so that he could house more volunteers. It's a pretty good set up for him. It still needs a bit of work. But it's come a long way from when he purchased it I guess. After I dropped of my stuff He drove me back to Obaasan's house (The main house where Kazu lives, and where I stayed last time). Ate dinner with the family and got to talk to everybody who I hadn't seen in 2 years. It was really cool. Also got to meet the other WWOOFer who was there. A Japanese guy named Yu. Turns out Yu is about to do some study abroad type stuff in America. He's going to be working at some places on the west coast, and will eventually wind up at UC Davis for some kind of agricultural classes. I'm hoping to meet up with him while he's there. He was a cool guy, and his English was great. However, he realized that I was working on my Japanese and opted to speak to me in Japanese unless I needed an English explanation. For me, this was amazing. Normally when you meet Japanese people who can speak English, they want to practice English with you. Yu had no such compulsion, and thanks to that, I was able to learn a TON from him in the three or four days we were there together.

(This is Yu, He is awesome)

Yu and I did a lot of grass cutting together. While were doing all this grass cutting, I realized how much I actually learned while working at Marin County Open Space for the past 7 summers. One of my main jobs in Marin was doing grass cutting for fire prevention (Also cosmetic stuff on some of the high profile trails in Marin like Big Rock). Basically, after 7 years of working there, I've become pretty handy with a weed whacker, and pretty fast as well. For Yu, being on the orchard was his first experience with a weed whacker. Kazu had shown him the basics, and he was operating it safely, and in my opinion, quite well for somebody who'd only been doing it for a few days. However due to my prior experience, I was about 7 times faster then he was. I didn't really notice it until we were working on a square plot in close proximity to one another. But After a few minutes I looked over to check in and see how he was doing and I noticed how much grass he had cut. And then I looked behind me and I realized I'd already done about a third of the plot. I was actually pretty surprised about that. I later heard Yu talking to Kazu about how fast I was. Apparently Kazu (And the rest of the family) remembered how well I did grass cutting and told them it was because I was a professional. And although I don't really consider myself a professional anything, I can't deny that I've got a lot of experience. Actually since grass cutting has comprised so much of my summers for the past 7 years, visiting the orchard and doing grass cutting there gave me this feeling of "Ah.... At last..... Summer has started!" Even though Summer was practically over by the time I arrived (in mid September).

At any rate, I enjoyed doing grass cutting. Despite the labor, it was actually pretty relaxing and very fulfilling for me. I was also pleased to find that it wasn't bothering my back either. (Yes I'm still having problems with it.) In addition to enjoying my work, I was also enjoying the scenery. There were a couple days where Kazu just had me do watering. Apparently it had not rained in Yamanashi for quite a while and the trees were in need of some attention. Most of the fields are not irrigated in a way appropriate for fruit trees. Since basically all the land was converted from rice paddies, the irrigation system consists stopping up the canal that runs by your field so that it overflows into your field. (Ok, it's a bit more sophisticated then that, but suffice to say it's unfit for watering trees.) So Kazu would drive over a gas powered pump, and we'd hook hoses up to it. I would drag the hose from tree to tree making sure each one got enough water. This left me with plenty of time to look around and enjoy my environment  (As an added bonus, I could spray my self with water when I got too hot.) Here are some pictures of what I was looking at.







So yeah, at any rate, It was pretty nice to be working out there. I much prefer looking at that when I work compared to a city sky line.

Two days after I arrived We got another WWOOFer. A Taiwanese girl who went by the name of Ko. We didn't actually talk very much at first. She was a bit intimidated by English, and communicated minimally in Japanese. Her vocabulary was definitely bigger then mine, but her grammar seemed a bit strange to me. I expect she learned most of what she knew of Japanese straight from a text book and hadn't had a whole lot of practice with the language yet. She warmed up after a couple days though. Our communication got smoother, and it turned out she even knew a smattering of English. Unfortunately Ko and I didn't get to work together very much outside of setting up reception every morning. Since she spoke more Japanese then I did, she worked at reception and guided guests around. 

On the weekend our work changed a bit to accommodate the influx of customers. Though the morning of the first day was a bit slower, so Yu and I continued our grass cutting. But later in the afternoon Yu took up guiding duties (Being native Japanese he was the best suited for this), and took customers into some of the more distant areas of the farm. (Kazu's plots of land are not all centrally located.) Ko worked the parking lot, and I became the gofer. Because I have my International licence I was able to drive around between the various areas of activity when needed. Most of my job was hauling around water containers. All around the orchard we had these water containers set up so that people could wash their hands and fruit. My job was to make sure nobody ran out of water. So I would drive around the orchard, taking empty containers, consolidating half empty ones, and then taking them to the main house to fill them up at the hose, and then driving them back out again. Simple work, but active enough to make the day go by fast. I would of course do other things here and there, but mostly it was water. Felt good to be driving again though.

(This was pretty much my weekends)






















































Wednesday, September 19, 2012

At the end of the day

I spent today working in the rain all day, which wasn't terribly enjoyable. The first part of the day was weeding, which I rather enjoy. However the "Rain Jacket" I picked up was not quite as water proof as I would have hoped. I was kinda damp for pretty much the whole day. After weeding was propping up the fruit laden branches of all the apple trees on the orchard (There are 3 separate orchards dedicated to apples.) with metal support rods. Normally I would probably rather enjoy this activity but I was unable to for 3 reasons. The first was pretty much just due to being wet. The second was because of how low the tree branches had gottten, I had to do a lot of bending over just to get around. This was not very good for my back.... at all. The third was the act of propping up the branches. While normally I love a good strength dependent activity (I'm pretty good at those), the branches were almost certainly heavier then what I am supposed to be repeatedly lifting while my back is recovering.  Yet it was bitter sweet since it's my last day at Nakagomi Orchard. No idea when I'll be able to make it back. But since it was my last day here my host, Kazu, decided to take us to my favorite onsen. It was the perfect way to end an exhausting day of work in the rain. (Also excellent for my overworked back.)


(Can you see why I love this place? It's awesome!)

I'll try and get a more complete post of all the stuff I did here once I get back to Oita. I have very limited internet time here, so I don't really have time for a full on update.

Take care until then,
~Daniel

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Nakagomi


I've been back in Yamanashi working on the orchard for the past week. Today is a day off so I figure it's a good time to update this blog and post a few pictures. Currently it's the season for Grapes, Plums, and Pears. Peaches are no longer on the trees, but they have some that they've been keeping in the freezer. And although they don't grow any on this farm, it is also rice harvesting season. I've been having a ton of fun working on the orchard. Well, I don't know if you'd call it fun. But I'm very fulfilled. I've been able to use a weed whacker again, so I finally feel like it's summer. (I've worked for Marin County Open Space on Trail and Ranger Crew for 7 years. Cutting grass is kinda my signal that summer has truly begun.) Anyway, enjoy some photos.

(Fuji without snow on top. This only happens for like 6 weeks a year. It already has snow on it again)

(Peaches. Delicious, Gigantic Peaches.)



(Rice paddies! These things are all over. The harvest season has just started it seems)

(Close up of rice that's about ready to be harvested)

(This is how they dry out the rice once it's been harvested)


(The recption area for fruit picking. This is where the money is made)

(Grapes, Japanese style. Each bunch will cost you about $8 if you wanted to buy it at the market)

(This is where customers eat the grapes they pick. It's rather nice in the vineyard)

(Daniel, Destroyer of Grass)