Himeji Castle

Thought I'd post some pictures of the castle Dad and I visited. It was a bit of a rushed tour because we got there close to closing time. On the bright side, we got to see it before the scaffolding goes up for its 3 year renovation.

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Since we were moving so fast, I didn't stop to take many pictures. I only have 13 Images of the castles from the outside, and most of those are from outside the entrance to the castle grounds. This second shot is out of a window on the top floor, overlook the city of Himeji.

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As far as things here on the orchard, today was more blossom picking. However I did get to drive one of the little trucks around for the first time today. One of the other WWOOFers got a picture, I'll have to see if i can get a copy. The vehicle it self is small enough that I have to roll down the window and stick my elbow out in order to operate the wheel comfortably. I also got to drive one of the trucks that was a manual transmission. I don't think I'll ever be able to drive that one comfortably. Not enough leg room, and the seat doesn't move back at all. On the plus side, I didn't stall or lug out or anything. (I don't have a lot of experience with stick shifts yet)

OK, Bed time.

~Daniel

Shrine in bloom

The cherry blossoms are in full swing here in Yamanashi right now so I figured I'd post a couple pictures. Myself, Aiyana, and Yvonne walked back to the the local shrine for some photos and some time to just hang out and enjoy the scenery before they left the orchard. (We did this two days ago, and they left yesterday morning)

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Quite pretty isn't it? I certainly think so. At any rate, work moves on. We have been picking blossoms so that we can harvest the pollen and use that for all the other trees later on. Lots of ladder work and looking around checking for places you haven't already picked. Work wise, not to entertaining, but today after work was fun. We took a walk to some nearby shops to try and find me a Japanese style coat like the one Kazu has been wearing. (I love traditional Japanese style clothing) I don't even remember the name, but it's one of those garments that you look at and say to yourself "Man that looks warm and comfy." Sadly it seems that it is no longer the season to buy them.

On the up side, The new WWOOFers we got think It's great that I came here to learn Japanese and are helping me. We spent this evening going over some stuff from my text book. I translated a conversation (with a little help from the dictionary) and I got quizzed on some vocabulary that I haven't studied since December. Also, one of the new girls has made it her personal mission to make sure I can recite the days of the week on command in any order. She'll walk up to me and just say a day of the week, and I have to respond with Japanese translation. (I still have trouble with Monday and Tuesday)

Oh yeah, I guess I need to introduce the new guys. We got a boy and a girl from Taiwan and a girl from Hon Kong. The boy's name is Nick. So far he's been pretty quite. He doesn't speak Japanese, but he knows English well enough. It seems the name of the girl from Taiwan has already escaped my memory. I remember it seemed like more of a sound then a name though. She speaks Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, and English. (Apparently the national language of Taiwan is Chinese not Taiwanese. So many Taiwanese people don't actually speak Taiwanese.) The girl from Hon Kong is named Remmy. She speaks Chinese, Japanese, and English.

So since Rachael and Viola are also from Taiwan, all the other WWOOFers speak Chinese as their native tongue. This is not quite what I was expecting, but its kind of cool anyway. (Its sort of problematic for my goal of become more competent in Japanese though.) They have taught me a few words of Chinese, and apparently I have very good pronunciation, enough for them to have surprised looks on their faces.

Well, once again I've stayed up later then I should have. Time for sleep. Oyasuminasai. (That's Japanese for "good night")

~Daniel

Cooking up a storm

And I'm not talking about the wind that's howling outside my room either. (Made work today a little troublesome.) Last night we ended work early so that we could help Yoko-san cook dinner. And by help I mean the girls wanted to learn how to do some home style Japanese cooking. They seemed kind of surprised that I was interested in learning as well. However with Aiyana, Rachael, Viola, Yoko, and Yvonne in the kitchen there really wasn't much I could actually help with, so I wound up playing photographer instead. (Now I have a comprehensive photo record which will probably more helpful to me in the long run anyway.)

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This particular nights meal was tempura. Lots and lots of tempura. I didn't even recognize some of the stuff they were using. As you can see there was a lot going on. What they are working on above was actually the side dish. I don't even know what it was called. The best way I can describe it would be to call it sea food pudding. Shrimp, Scallops, a mini spherical hard boiled egg (quail perhaps?), and something that I could not identify. All this went into a cup, and then had egg mixed with.... something poured over it. Some veggies got added to the top, then they covered them up and put them in a steamer (or maybe it was a boiler, I really don't know).

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After the seafood pudding was taken care of, the tempura ingredients were prepared (cut into appropriate shapes and sizes) and then dipped in the fryer. (Using fat free oil as Yoko-san was proud to point out) Lets see if I can remember everything we used: Sweet potato, green onion, eggplant, and some kind of tube that is apparently made out of fish. (A bizarre concept, but quite tasty.) While all this was going on I somehow managed to miss the Miso soup that was being made. There was also rice being made in the rice cooker that I failed to get a picture of.

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As you might imagine, this home cooked meal prepared by these 5 amazing women was absolutely delicious. I even ate the eggplant (which is my least favorite food in the world) without any problems or hesitation.

It was a great meal, and I'm glad that I took 272 pictures to remember it by. Yeah, that's right, 272. (I'm loving my new camera by the way) Of course there are lots of shots of the same stuff, and several of them are blurry. But its still a ton of usable pictures. Oh yeah, I did a quick count of the images I've taken so far on this trip and found out I had more then I thought. Again, there are many photos of the same thing, and lots of blurry stuff because I was walking around a lot of the time, but still, its a ton of photos (and a few of them are video). Anyway, 5,313 is the number of files taken on this trip in my image folder right now. That's a full 2k more then I originally estimated. So please bear with me, because its going to take me a long time to sift through all those and pick out ones to upload. I know I won't get to all of it while I'm still here in Japan, but I'll try to upload some of the highlights. Until next time.

~Daniel

Late night links

Its past my bedtime (again) so rather then an update, here are some links to videos about WWOOF that feature Nakagomi Orchard (Which is where I am). They were created by a WWOOFer who used to be in the film industry so they are good quality. You'll also get to see some of what we do here on the farm.

Link to a youtube video

and

Link to some other video web site. (The first four videos have something to do with where I am now.)

The job so far

Ok, so I realize some people may be wonder what exactly it is that I'm doing here on this orchard, so I'll give you a breakdown of whats been going on. We wake up around 7:00 so that we can have a home cooked Japanese style breakfast prepared by Yoko-san. (Kazu's sister-in-law). After that we do the dishes and then have a little while to get ready for whatever work we are doing that day.

So far we have done:
Weeding around the bases of young fruit trees.
Manual pollination of the plum trees.
Picking blossoms to harvest pollen for manual pollination.
Checking irrigation

We have a break for tea around 10:30 and then we get back to work until lunch. We usually have lunch at a place Kazu calls "The Cat House", which is an area where his two cats Brandy and Mini Mike, hang out. Lunch is generally something ordered from a local shop. Today's meal was Sushi. And when I say "Orderd from a local shop" I don't mean store bought. it just means that somebody in the town other then Yoko made our lunch and Kazu had to go out and pick it up. Lunch lasts for about an hour, and then its back to work until afternoon tea. I don't actually know what time we normally have this, I haven't bothered to check my phone for the time when we break. (My phone can't actually make phone calls in Japan, but I find myself using it's conversion tool quite often.) Our work day ends somewhere around 5:00.

After work we have been taking walks and having Kazu show us around the town. (I don't actually know the name of the town we are in. I know we are in the Yamanashi prefecture, in an area called Minami Alps. The train station I got off at was called either Shiozaki or Shizuoka, but I don't know if that is the town name as well. I'm pretty sure we are a short way east of Kofu though, in case you wanted to find me on a map.) Today we took a walk up a road that switch backed up one of the mountains where the cherry trees grow naturally rather then having been planted by humans. The view would have been great if it wasn't so cloudy. We are expecting rain tonight and tommorow. (We are actually getting the day off tomorrow since conditions are going to be too bad to work in. More on that tomorrow.)

Normally I'd want to add at least one picture here, but since it's already late and it takes quite a while to upload these pictures as is, I'll instead post a link to my Japan album on my Photobucket account. So here ya go! LINK TO JAPAN ALBUM!

Working on the Orchard

I've had two days of working on the orchard so far, and I'm loving it. It's late now, so i'm going to bed, but here is a picture of Myself, My dad, and the girls I've been working with.

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~Daniel

Made it

Dad and I are at the Orchard now. So far this place rocks. The internet connection at this particular spot in the house is not so good, and we need to get to bed so I'll update more later.