Clear skies over Fuji

Today we had unusually clear weather and had a great view of Fuji. I decided I couldn't let the oportunity pass and took a bunch of photos. Unfortunately I forgot to change some of the settings so a bunch of the pictures have a much lighter background and Fuji isn't as clear because of it. Still good pictures regardless.

(Click to embiggen)

On top of being uncommonly clear, it was also really really nice weather. The kind of weather that is so good it puts you in the mood to go outside and do stuff. Since we were already outside, I got right to the doing stuff part, grabbed the girls, and took some silly photos involving one of my favorite activities: Picking people up.

(Click to embiggen)

The girl in the first Photo is named Wing. She's from Hon Kong, and apparently hasn't been picked up like that since she was a small child. The girl from the second photo is Apple. She's from Taiwan and was convinced that she was too heavy for me to do this. Clearly she doesn't know me very well. I then proceeded to run down the road with her on my shoulders. This was met with much screaming and laughter.

So yeah, I had a good day.

~Daniel

Meet. Love. The End.

So I since I have had to be up by 7 every morning since I've been here, my sleep schedule has been pretty well set in. In fact I've actually started getting up earlier then my 7:00 am alarm. Most of the time I wake up and realize that its before my alarm and just go back to sleep. For some reason though, when I do that it gets really hard to wake up at 7:00. So I've recently just been getting up when I wake up naturally at around 5:50 and just kinda sitting around. This morning I realized that there was actually something productive I could be doing with that time. From this point on my mornings are going to be Rosetta Stone time.There is nobody else on this side of the house, so me saying phrases over and over into the microphone won't really bother anybody even at this early hour.

In other news, we had yesterday off and I finally had the chance to go to the second hand store WITH MY CAMERA WORKING. The scope of the place is a bit too much to capture in a few pictures, so instead I will share with you the huge sign over the entrance.

(Click to embiggen)

I love this sign. It has absolutely nothing to do with whats inside, which I suppose works to the point of: "This place is totally random and awesome!" There is other stuff written on the building but its all in Kanji so I can't really make sense of any of it. (Well, I recognized the symbol for "book", but that's it.) So yeah, this place is Like a mega thrift store that deals in Clothes, books, games, movies, cards, electronics, sporting goods, music, instruments, figures, and cell phone dangle thingies. So yeah, this place rocks. I took a long video inside, but its too big to upload to youtube, and photobucket didn't know what to do with it. Oh yeah, I wanted to share this message that appears on the ash tray thing outside of this store, and is the reason for the strange title of this entry.

(Click to embiggen)

Well I need to eat breakfast and get ready for Today's work (More weed whacking).

~Daniel

missing

Before I came to Japan I loaded up my laptop with pictures of my friends and family. I did this so that If I missed them I could look at the pictures. Also, e-mail helps quite a bit. As a result I really don't spend time actively missing anything from home. Its all more of the passive missing feeling that stems from seeking something familiar and comfortable.

What I didn't prepare for before I left, and in fact hadn't even considered, was how I would miss the new people I would meet. In setting up this trip, my concerns were based on travel arrangements and lodging concerns. Do I have a plane ticket? Do I have place to stay for the duration? Check and Check, Ok, time to pack. I never stopped to consider the other people who would be guests here on the orchard. I didn't realize that I would be making so many friends here. Even though I have pictures of these people, I still find myself thinking of them often and missing them to pieces.

I think what might be doing it is the fact that I have no idea when/if I'll see these people again. For everybody back at home, I know that I'll be able to see them again once I return to the US. But I have no idea when/if I'm going to be able to make it to Hong Kong, Taiwan, or even France. Before now I never really had a reason to visit any of these places. Now I find myself wanting to plan trips so I can go visit these people and spend more time with them. But I know that's not going to happen until after I graduate. And even then, who knows. I guess I'll live on the chance that some of them may come to San Francisco and we can meet up there.

To the men and women (Ok, I'll be honest, its mostly women) Who I've met but have already left the Orchard: I Miss you and look forward to seeing you again sometime.

To friends family and acquaintances back home: I'll see you in June.

~Daniel

Yasumi

Yasumi is Japanese for rest or break for those of you who are curious. We had today off and we spent most of it just relaxing. It was great. I watched an anime movie I'd been wanting to see for a long time. (The Girl who Leapt Through Time. Great movie in my opinion) I had some good communication with Obaa-chan. We went shopping at the mall with Yoko, Mari, and Kokona. (Mari is Kenichi's fiance, and Kokona is their 3 month old daughter) I spent most of my time picking out a pair of chopsticks. I'm going to need to make at least one more trip though, because one of the things I wanted was out of stock in the color I was looking for. Also Apple told me about an awesome water bottle she saw that I want to buy. We had takoyaki for lunch in the food court. (Fried octopus dumplings basically. They are delicious.) Our time at the mall totaled about 2 hours. We came back home and I spent most of the rest of the afternoon uploading pictures and chatting with friends.

It was pointed out to me today that despite all the pictures I've uploaded, there are very few of me. So the pictures I uploaded this afternoon are all ones that other people took that have me in them. You can view it on my facebook HERE so enjoy those for what they are worth. There are a fair share of silly ones, and even a few that some people might call "cute". (You have been warned)

Apple and I also went to the post office to put postcards in the mail and get 20 yen stamps. (Its 70 yen to mail a postcard to anywhere in the world. The usually sell stamps in 50 and 80 yen. We got the 20 yen stamps so we can use up all the 50 stamps we already purchased.)

Anyway, I'm going to finish out the evening by watching some Anime and reading my book. Good night people.

~Daniel

Over due.

I apologize for the delay in updates, but I've been having far too much fun in the evenings to want to spend time uploading pictures. But since we had 4 people leave today, its much more low key and I've got some time now. So prepare for a really long picture filled entry. (Since putting it after each photo is going to interrupt my typing flow, remember folks, "Click the image to embiggen") (sub note: if you're wondering why I use the word "embiggen" instead of "enlarge", It's because my favorite author Patrick Rothfuss uses it on his blog, and I think its a cool word)

To start with, I want to show you guys this photo.
Despite the nice preview screen on my camera, I thought that this set of photo's didn't turn out very well. Obviously it didn't look nearly so nice on my camera as it does here on the computer and I was happily proved wrong. This is the view of the mountains that lie to the west (roughly) of the orchard. we had some nice cloud cover and you could see the sun rays shining down. I figured it was worth a few photos.

This one was taken on the same day. It's a little hazy but I wanted to get the blossoming apple trees in a shot with Fuji before we finished trimming all the flowers off. So here is that one.
From what Kazu was saying, the best time to see Fuji from the orchard is during winter when the air is crisp, cold, and clear. So I'm thankful that I can still see it despite the haze and clouds.

I'm also thankful that while I was taking the above photo I got a chance to photograph my favorite insect friend here on the orchard. Please allow me to introduce you to KUMABATCHI!
See that big flying black thing? That is Kumabatchi. (s)he is a really big bee that is apparently kinda dangerous (but not aggressive). But for some reason I love this thing. Literally translated, Kumabatchi means "Bear Bee". Probably because compared to the other honey bees around, this thing is like a bear. From what I can approximate, this thing is larger then any of the bumblebees that we have in California.

While I'm on the subject of Insects, I'd like to request the help of you nature/science minded people. (I'm looking at you Dad and Mr. Immel). Kazu found this bug on one of the trees. He recognized it, but didn't remember anything about it, like if it was bad for his fruit trees or not. Anyway, I'd like some help identifying it if you've got the spare time.
I'd never seen this one before so I had no help to offer Kazu. But it was a pretty neat looking bug. (I know, its technically a beetle, but "bug" just flows better.)

Still in the realm of critters, but lets move on to something more familiar. CATS! As I mentioned before in previous entries we have two cats that belong to Nakagomi Orchard, "Mini Mike" and "Brandy"
This is Mini Mike (the original Mike was a WWOOFer that found him as a kitten and brought him to the orchard I found out). As you can see, we're having a great time.
And this is Brandy, Taking some time to clean herself up. She values this time these days because of the following picture.
Yup, KITTENS! Brandy is a Mother now. (Mini Mike may or may not be the father, we really don't have a way of knowing. There are other cats in the area after all. But Mini Mike has been playing the dedicated father and keeping watch of the house where these little guys have been living the past several days.) Looks like there are four of them, but its kinda hard to tell when they're tangled and furry such as they are. They haven't come out of the cat house yet. We actually had to take off the roof in order to see them. So yeah, I'm sure these guys will be great photo material in the weeks and months to come.

And while we're on the subject of new life, I'd like to share with you the fruits of our labors here on the orchard.
The cherries that we spent so much time pollinating, plucking, and trimming are starting to show their fruits. Its pretty cool to see something that you spent time on start to grow into something that you know will be delicious in a few weeks. Though I'm the only Volunteer that worked on them that will also get to taste them. (Sorry Aiyana, Rachel, Viola, and Yvonne. I'll be sure to take pictures of the fully ripened ones for you guys.)

So yeah, the last few days have been good. The people in the photo I posted last time are all gone now except for Apple. The Americans Stefen and Tabi were great to have around. It was nice to be able to talk at full speed in English without having to simplify my speech or leave out any slang.

I really enjoyed having a Japanese roommate too. Even though Daisuke's English wasn't great, (probably better then my Japanese though) we got along great and had fun. Its amazing how much you can communicate despite the language barrier. (Having a good sense of humor helps too)

Maki is also gone. She was Apple's roommate while she was here. She was the first Japanese girl We've had at the orchard while I've been here. Unfortunately I didn't find out until 2 days ago that she actually knew some English. I didn't get much time to talk to her, and I would have loved to have gotten to know here a bit better before she left. Although when I finally did get to talk to her, I realized that Japanese people have no sense of the size of America. (To be fair, most Americans don't have a clue about the size of other countries either). They tend to compare US states to the size of Japanese prefectures (from what I gather, each prefecture is closer to the size of a large county or perhaps an east coast state). Knowing that I live in California, Japanese people automatically assume that I'm close to L.A. And then I pull out my map, point to San Francisco, and then L.A. and then I tell them 8 hours by car. That's when it starts to sink in.Although when I finally did have a conversation with her, I realized that Japanese people have no sense of the size of America. (To be fair, most Americans don't have a clue about the size of other countries either). They tend to compare US states to the size of Japanese prefectures (from what I gather, each prefecture is closer to the size of a large county or perhaps an east coast state). Knowing that I live in California, Japanese people automatically assume that I'm close to L.A. And then I pull out my map, point to San Francisco, and then L.A. and then I tell them 8 hours by car. That's when it starts to sink in. (On that note, how long does it take to drive from California to New York? I'm pretty sure somebody who reads this has done it.)

And to top off this nice set of days, tomorrow is a day off for us. (WOO!) Anyway, I'm off for now.

~Daniel

Hanging out

My room is full of people, and that makes me happy.
left to right: Maki, Apple, Daisuke, Tabi, Stefan

I took this a few minutes ago, were all in here hanging out. Maki and Daisuke don't speak a whole lot of English. Apple is Taiwanese (they speak Mandarin as their national language) had English literature as her minor in college and Minored in Japanese, and Tabi and Stefan are American. (They speak a tiny bit of Japanese) As you can guess Apple does most of the translating. We're having fun.

~Daniel

Nice days

The weather has been nice and warm these past two days. Really pleasant to work in (At least for me, the Asians seem to think its hot, for me its just warm) Had a nice view of Fuji today, as well as the other mountain range that is in the opposite direction who's name I can't remember. (I do know that the name translates into "Eight Peaks" though). I remembered to take my memory card out of my computer so I was actually able to take pictures today. I haven't uploaded them yet, so you'll have to wait for the photographic evidence of how nice the day was.

As a bonus, we got off work an hour early and got to go to an onsen. We went back to one of the ones with an outdoor bath, so I was happy. I sat in the hot water for about 45 minutes and am now quite relaxed. According to Apple, you could see part of Fuji from the girl's bath, sadly the men's area didn't have quite the same view. Ah well.

To bring a damper on this nice weather, my MP3 player stopped working for some reason. No response from the buttons, nor when I plug it into my computer. So that sucks, but its not the end of the world or anything.

Well, I'm gonna go read I think. I hope things are going well for all of you people out there who are reading this.

~Daniel