JAPAN - Matsumoto, Azusa, and Azumino

It has been about four weeks since we arrived in Japan and I am relieved to say farm work is not making me want to run crying back to the corporate lifestyle.  In fact, we have come across a number of people with similar stories of suddenly ditching what they always thought was expected to pursue a way of life that is healthier and better aligned with personal interests.  I particularly like a saying of our current host, 'life should be half agriculture half x', which suggests a lifestyle that combines living off the land to provide good food and a little bit of extra income with a means of financial support closely relating to one's skills and interests.

Our plan to hitchhike over the course of a week from Tokyo to Azusa fell through in favor of a three hour bus ride.  We had decided upon this the night before and booked a hotel for a few days to buy some time to form a plan for how to live cheaply until we met with our first host on the 7th of June.  Between getting the stink eye and finding one pillow, towel, etc in the room, we realised what we had booked was intended for a single person and they would charge double for two, incurring more expenses than we were willing to pay.  We arranged with the hotel to stay the first night, and the next day went around town visiting a few hostels until we settled on a low cost room across the street from Matsumoto Castle, the oldest castle in Japan.  We struck a deal with the hostel staff to pay half price for the room in exchange for some gardening, which turned out to be a nice light introduction to the volunteering for accommodation adventure.  For the most part we had the place to ourselves and it was a blast learning how to buy groceries, cook, and sleep on futons rolled out over tatami mat floors in our own little Japanese house.  We managed to keep expenses down until we met with our first hosts.

We worked with Winnie and Keita in Azusa, Matsumoto for two weeks.  Our timing was great, allowing us to see the process of preparing an organic rice field from step one.  On the first day we used shoveling tools to try and level the mud for planting and I earned my first blisters.  The next day I covered those blisters in the muddy water of the paddy while replanting fallen rice seedlings and filling gaps left by the planting machine.  I truly realised the value of said machine after putting every fiber of my being into hand-planting straight rows of mochi rice and having them turn out so far from straight it was impressive in itself.  Once the rice was in place, we built a fence around the paddy and put up a house for 44 ducklings scheduled to arrive that week to prevent and eat weeds.  The ducklings were only days old when they arrived, adorable of course.  The day after arriving, one managed to escape his enclosure and was brought back to the house for the night to keep an eye on him, and Charlie and I had the alternating honor of keeping him warm.  Once the rice paddy was stable, we began doing more work in the garden ranging from picking vegetables for our meals to planting a field of beans to harvesting canola by hand.

The days went by quick and we enjoyed every one of them between socialising with interesting people and learning about various methods of organic agriculture.  I hadn't thought too much about organic vs. non-organic but I am so glad that we are involved in the former since I can't imagine spraying the crap out of crops with questionable substances being half as fun as playing in the mud, building structures, and cuddling baby ducklings.  It also gives a sense of pride and good health about what you are eating every day and how it came to be.  We worked hard in blazing sunshine and pouring rain and got to enjoy the benefits of the lifestyle in three incredible meals a day.  We also had a handful of highlights in our free time including our first trip to the onsen (public bath), making mochi the traditional way in a hollowed log with a wooden mallet, and wandering around the lush Japanese Alps.

Yesterday we arrived at our second host, Bou Masuda's guest house and farming areas in Azumino.  He and his family welcomed us with a big meal of grilled meat, vegetables, and copious amounts of beer.  The work at this host is even more grueling so far, mainly weeding bean fields rice paddies for hours straight, but I like the more regimented style Bou-san seems to have and hope that severe pain equates to getting into better shape.  Here we have been given long breaks, usually in the blueberry field where we can eat ripe organic blueberries to our hearts' content.  I have been volunteering to lay low in the back of the two-seater truck to and from the fields, reveling in any rest I can get between bouts of work.  I will report more on our experience here after we finish out our two weeks.

Missing friends and family back home and hope someone is enjoying these details.