BEE Japan

I was supposed to write this entry two nights ago, but a head injury and eye explosion (two separate incidents) have kept me from completing this task.  And so here I sit, half naked whilst awaiting the washing machine to finish it’s job cleaning my filthy clothes trying to collect my thoughts on what has been a roller coaster of a couple of days. 

August 15th:  The farm
I am not sure how much Colin wrote about our ride from the Aomory ferry port to our fabulous WWOOFing hosts, but needless to say, we arrived at the farm WET.  Dripping with sweat, rain and road juice.  But as soon as we stepped foot into the farm house, our personal rain clouds drifted away as we were greeted with smiles, towels and a HUGE udon lunch. 

WWOOFing for all that don’t know, stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms.  It is a network that hooks up willing workers (such as us) with Organic Farms who could use an extra pair of hands to keep their farm running smoothly.  In addition to hosting our huge party of six smelly cyclists, there were three other WWOOFers who were staying at the farm.  Each had unique tales to tell about their various other WWOOFing experiences (none were newbies), and provided us with countless hours of laughter as we helped them with various chores over the course of the day.

So what did we do on the farm? 
Though Aomori is mostly known for it’s apples (and there were many an apple farms in the surrounding area), our hosts grew mostly vegetables and grains.  After napping for the early part of the afternoon, our group divided into two groups: dinner duty and barley husking.  I don’t know much about what went on with the dinner crew, (what I do know that what they produced was nothing short of heavenly), so I am going to report on how I spent my afternoon: husking barley.  Barley is used in Japanese cooking for making miso, or for adding extra nutrition, flavor and texture to rice.  The grain itself is like any other, it grows on a stem and is wrapped in a husk.  I think on most farms there is some sort of automated machine which removes the husk from the seed, however, our hosts had devised a different method.  First, we used long sticks and a metal pole to pound the barley- this would shake the barley from the stems.  Then came sieving the barley through a wire mesh, which eliminated the large pieces which were not needed.  Finally, the barley was put through this cranking machine which sorted heavy barley from light barley.  Heavy barley was “good”, light barley was “bad”.  We soon discovered, however, that much of te light barley was actually good barley that just had the husks still on- clearly we needed a better plan.  On came the thinking caps, and in the next twenty minutes we devised a plan involving a huge mortar and pestle.  We would grind the barley in this huge pot using huge sticks and the tough exterior would come off!  This trial and error process of trying to generate a system for us to reach our desired end goal is typical of the attitude of our hosts.  When I asked Kutsu-san why he decided to farm organically, he said “I don’t understand the need for all the other fancy stuff.  I grow vegetables, I eat vegetables, I sell the extra vegetables to other people who would like to eat them.”  Simple as that.

Some other random awesomeness about the farm:
-the composting toilet:  it didn’t smell at all- in fact the faint hint of cedar added a great aroma to the mudroom where the toilet was located.  No need for unnecessary water to flush, and the waste could be used (after a period of decomposition) for fertilizer
-the bath:  heated using a wood burning stove, the used bathwater was used to water the field.  Any soaps or shampoo used to bathe with, were 100% biodegradble and organic to ensure that the treasured garden wouldn’t be dammaged
-vegetable boxes:  many will know this as CSA.  Our hosts had 60 families who subscribe to receiving a box of fresh local produce every week.  The day we left the farm happened to be delivery day, and I got to see all the vegetables being picked and packed into cartons with an extra helping of love. 
-the farmhosue: made with love and with Katsu and Jun-chan’s own hands, the floorboards in the main room were made from salvaged 100 year old wood from a nearby hospital.  The walls were insulated (not common for most Japanese houses) and the hosue was designed so that it could be heated with one wood burning stove.  The main room was also stocked with a cello, guitar and piano for ours of wonderful musical entertainment!

August 16th: leaving the farm, and accident number 1
After a HUGE breakfast (where we used ALL the eggs that the chicken had produced over the last two days, and any other random ingredient we found lying around the kitchen), we set off with smiles and happy bellies.  The sky was not blue, but with Colin’s confident “it is NOT going to rain” proclamation, we set off for Odate.  It was a beautiful day of riding, with some challenging hills and lots of tempting apple and peach stands.  I was riding with Colin, and we kept each other entertained with random show tunes and conversations about sustainable food choices.  All was going well until it started to POUR.  Though we were far from hungry, we ducked into a cute mom and pop shop where we were treated to free watermelon, cans of pocari sweat and a dry place to make our hummus sandwiches.  By early afternoon, the rain had cleared and it seemed as though the rest of the ride would be an easy downhill, when excitement over a tofu factory and heavy traffic caused me to swerve, lose my balance and somehow end up on my head.  Apparently it is difficult doing ukemi (forward roll used to break a fall in in aikido) when your feet are attached to a bike.  No worries though, I was fine, just a little bump on the head and a nasty looking scab on my soulder.  Lucky for benny (my bike), Colin is good in times of distress, and rescued benny off the street as I sat dazed and confused. 

The free campsite we stayed at that night was wonderful- complete with onsen and a ginormous slide.  Our dinner of veggie soy cheese burgers tasted extra delicious.

August 17th: a tour of hospitals around Akita
I awoke on the 17th pumped to start a new day.  My head barely hurt, and I had survived the night without having an aneurism- which is always a good thing in my books.  We had a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried tomatoes (inspired by all the Brits I’ve met here!) and were about to get movin when I developed a searing pain in my right eye.  Apparently, I had used the wrong combination of contact solution in my confusion and haste the night before.  A few tears later, however, I felt fine enough to get on my bike, so Nicholas (my biking buddy for the day) and I head off for Akita with the sun shining and the wind to our backs.  Our first pit stop was at a road side ice cream stand- babahira a local specialty- and that’s when it was decided that my sore eye wasn’t going to fix itself.  Flush it out with water as I may, it got worse and worse, and by lunch time I could no longer open my eye.  That’s when the adventure began.  After asking some locals where the nearest hospital was, we began our tour of all the local medical facilities all of which were closed because of Obon (a national holiday weekend where people commemorate their ancestors).  Luckily, we happened upon a car full of delightful young ladies, who proceeded to drive us to the nearest city hospital, and then helped us figure out how to get to Akita city when THAT hospital decided they couldn’t help me because there was no eye specialist on hand (mind you this was a 24 story proper HOSPITAL). In any case, we made it to Akita city, went to a really nice English speaking optometrist (who spoke to Nicholas in Japanese, and to me in English) and got the medication necessary to fiz my swollen, pussy eye. Huge props to Nicholas who put up with me and all my ailments all day, super dooper trooper. 
The rest of the gang also pulled through HUGE.  While Nicholas and I went from hospital to hospital, they managed to oommandeer a K-truck to transport our bikes to the campsite, cook dinner and have everything ready to go for evening meeting by the time we finally made it to the makeshift campsite at 6.  Another evening of reminscing on Emi’s random misfortunes while enjoying a delectable lentil meal.

It’s been a crazy two days, but with the help of the group, I made it!  I hope I’ll be able to pay everyone back with the same kind of love and positive energy everyone has showered me with the past 3 days. 

“I can see clearly now the rain has gone…. I (hope) I can see all obstacles in my way… Ready to cycle my way to Kagoshima… Cuz this is fun fun fun BEE 2008!”