BEE Japan

Since the Earth Celebration on Sado Island, we’ve passed through Nagano, Gunma, and Saitama. We stayed with Rocio (BEE 2009 member) in Takasaki, and had a nice curry dinner while we listened to some live Japanese Folk music.  In Saitama we visited Alishan (long-time BEE sponsor) and helped with a river clean-up. We also had a nice barbecue by the river, and checked out a local organic market. They had ume (plum) shaved ice that was out of this world. While we were there we met some people from Second Harvest, a food bank based in Tokyo. It was inspiring to learn of the work they are doing to help eliminate hunger.

Now we are in Tokyo, preparing for a presentation at People Tree (BEE sponsor) tomorrow. It is interesting to be in the city compared to the quiet country roads we have been riding on in the past. Our next stop will be Mount Fuji.

Well, much has happened since the last post on this blog, so hopefully you have been following our twitter feed to get the latest updates.  It has proved more difficult than I imagined to find internet connections, or the time to use them in order to make a long post.  Twitter definitely seems like the way to go for quick updates on our progress and location.  Hopefully everyone has realized that the tweets include a geo-tag, so you can see where in Japan the tweet was made from.

So, we all arrived safely on Sado island the night before yesterday.  Yesterday morning we woke up early and biked 30 kilometers to the event site here in Ogi.  We’ve got a booth near one entrance to the market, but visitors were few and far between yesterday.  Are we really that scary?  We are also volunteering at the trash separation stations, so each of us takes a 2 hour shift helping people separate their trash and recyclables.

Last night we watched an amazing performance by the world famous taiko group “Kodo”.  It was a really great show that was held up on a hill within the grounds of a shrine.

We’ll be here for another two days, and then back to the mainland.  We’ve got some repairs to get taken care of with Chris’ bike, so hopefully that will get taken care of there in Joetsu.

I realize that I am leaving out a huge gap in events over that last week and a half or so, so hopefully we will get some time to write a post reflecting back a bit.

In the mean-time, please keep checking in on twitter.

Stomach is rumbling, time to find a breakfast burrito at the market!

Until next time,

Brett

PEPY Ride – Goto Style

On Saturday, April 24th two fantastic ALTs from the Goto Islands hosted a bike ride/fundraising event for PEPY.  As you may know, PEPY was founded by a former BEE rider.  PEPY helps rural communities in Cambodia improve their standard of living, and focuses on improving access to quality educational opportunities.

The approximately 20 km ride took place in Narao, and drew participants from all over the Goto Islands, Nagasaki prefecture, and beyond!  It was a very international event with participants hailing from all over the world.  The ride itself attracted about 30 cyclists on the beautiful Saturday afternoon, and everyone was thoroughly impressed with the route’s scenery along the mountainous and winding coastline.  This event definitely was not a race, and the sag-wagon loaded with bananas and mint water (thanks Yo!) was a welcome sight at the various rest spots and overlooks.
It was so cool to see so many people out on bikes!  There were all sorts of ‘em out there…. classic mamacharis, carbon road racers, even a tiny folding bike!  Cycling is definitely the best way to see the Gotos.

When everyone arrived back at the beach house at the end of the ride, the barbecue began!

Three grills were fired up (one veggie) and quite a few more people showed up as the night went on to join in on the fun.  Everyone who showed made a donation to PEPY and the total amount raised was a whopping 108,772 YEN!! That’s about $1,100 for you US folks.  That’s really impressive!

So cheers to Kelly and Adriene for hosting a great event!

Looking for a tasty way to shake off that lingering winter chill?  Come to One Day Chef in Odate City, Akita for a delicious bowl of vegetarian chili, cornbread, and coleslaw.  My pal, Anne Smith and I will be waking up early to whip up a big batch of food, so please stop by!

Kimiko Hatazawa, the wonderful, always genki manager of One Day Chef is providing us space for this week’s  event.  All profits from the day will go to supporting this year’s ride.

There will also be an oppurtunity to talk to me about this years ride and see what BEE is all about.  Previous events hosted at One Day Chef helped raise money for the 2009 PEPY ride.

What: Vegetarian Chili at One Day Chef
How much: 600円
Where: One Day Chef, Odate City, Akita Prefecture
When: Saturday, April 3rd  11:00am to 2:00pm-ish

This event is limited to around 40 people.  Reservations and take-out are available.

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As I type, the team, under the careful guidance of Eri-san, is currently busy making the very first batch of BEE Natural Soap!

Eri-san guided us through the process of using lye to saponify vegetable oils (along with some essential oils — orange and rose — for that extra nice smell).

After about 40 minutes of stirring, the batch is ready to dry and set (unfortunately, the soap won’t be ready before we bike on tomorrow, but Eri-san was kind enough to provide us with some ready-made natural soap we can take along).