WWOOFing again
Monday, September 10th, 2007
We have come to Kanagawa-Ken to wwoof once more. Our new host family, the Iijimas, is by far our favorite. Satoshi his wife Mayumi, their sons Yohei who’s 22, Toru, who’s 19, and daughter Miwa who is 7 are so great to live and work with. They also live with Satoshi’s mother, and Mayumi’s father. Satoshi is an amazing man. He’s a great Dad, caring husband, and amazing farmer. He enjoys snowboarding and windsurfing, as the previous qualities allow. He has such a cool laid back approach to everything, yet he’s very determined and works very hard to support his family.
Miwa is super cool and in love with Melissa! They get along so well. She comes to help us out from time to time and comes over to play when she can. She loves Melissa’s card tricks, and likes to help us learn Japanese. Maybe because she doesn’t speak any English but she giggles every time we call her sensei. On our days off we all go to the beach together. The close one’s only five minutes walk so we can go just about whenever. Some nights we all shoot off fire works together and drink beers (Miwa enjoys juice).
They live in Miura, a peninsula city, rich in history and culture. The Iijima’s main business is called Furawa Gaden (Flower Garden). There is a storefront that sits atop one of the many rolling hills of the eastern coastal area. At Furawa Gaden there are several beds of many different flowers. Most of which Melissa and I have grown at Sunken Gardens. There are also several big veggie fields, and about15 big greenhouses. Families come to pick their food, make bouquets and even have picnics under the shaded shelter. It’s really great to see fathers, sons, mothers and daughters having fun, celebrating fresh organic food.
All together Satoshi owns 15 fields in the area. They’re all pretty sizeable but three are huge. The Japanese countryside is so much different than what Americans think of as a farm. First of all there is little space. No acreages here. The fields are always separated and seem to be scattered about what is typically mountainous terrain. The farming families all live together in a small community close to the fields. On our short morning drive from the house to Furawa Gaden we drive past at least a dozen other farmer’s fields.
Satoshi comes from a long lineage of farmers in this area. The fields that he grows on have been in his family for over 300 years. Yes 300! We’re talking pre-1700’s, his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather (give or take a great or two???) sowed, weeded, and lived off of the very land we’re working on today. His oldest son Yohei studies farming, and agriculture and works by his side. Someday will run the farm too.
They seem to be one of the few families of the area who are upholding traditional methods of organic farming. We’ve been learning a ton, and have gotten to see many new methods of growing food naturally.
In the three weeks we’ve been here so far we have learned more Japanese than the past three months. This was our first host that required wwoofers to speak Japanese “to a certain degree”. A certain degree is pretty vague but our risk definitely paid off. Satoshi can speak some English using keywords but speaks more Japanese to us. When he does speak English he always compliments it with simple Japanese so it’s very conducive to learning. The rest of the family knows very little or no English.
Their home is amazing. They live in what Melissa and I like to call a “Japanese countryside compound”. Meaning there’s a huge Japanese style house and equally huge guesthouse. As well as a few other buildings and sheds all inside an 8’ concrete wall. Satoshi and his father built them all by hand.
Our Work:
We’ve done a lot of weeding of the veggies and the flowers. Many beds needed to be harvested and prepared for the next crop. There’s lots of watering to do. We worked with lilies for a long-time, cutting digging and planting them. I’ve been helping to build two huge greenhouses lately (70m x 4m!). Melissa has been doing a lot of work in the main strawberry house.
Cutting apart plants, propagating babies and getting ready for the winters TABEIHODAI! This means from January until May customers come and pay 1400 yen (about $12) to eat as many fresh organic strawberries as possible, right of the vine, for half an hour. I wish we’d be here for that!
Major perks:
1. We work form 7 until about 12:30 when we stop for lunch. This includes a half hour break when they spoil us with tea, fruits, and snacks.
2. We live in a pimp house! It’s a two-story Japanese style home. It has 8 big tatami rooms, a traditional bathing room, 2 toilets, a big kitchen, balcony etc. Furnished of course. All to ourselves, we don’t even go upstairs.
3. We can pick all the fresh organic veggies we can eat. They grow multiple varieties of eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Also there is nira, goya, ginger, garlic, cucumbers, watermelons, carrots, herbs, corn, lettuce, blueberries, and some other Japanese veggies. Now I’ve been eating strictly organic veggies for several years, but even from a co-op or farmers market you can’t get the freshness that comes from pulling it out of the ground or off the vine only hours before you cook. I must say all the veggies are GREAT, however the garlic is mouthwatering, delicious, and beyond anything I ever thought garlic could be. If all goes to plan I’ll be smuggling some back to the states for cultivation.
4. We’re treated like royalty. The family is so nice. One night Satoshi took us to the grocery store where he liberally bought us food and BEER (not included in the wwoof contract). Afterwards he insisted we go for ice cream and then to a bar for veggie appetizers and a couple beers. All of which were his treat. This is one example of many of our outings. He’s so nice.
It will be hard to leave them all. We’ve been getting along so well and having so much fun while working our hearts out under the scorching sun and humidity. This place is truly what WWOOFing is all about!
Zach