Woah
So today is Day 5 of Hippyville, Japan. I'm in a town called Ohara, which is in the Chiba prefecture which I think is like a county. I don't think I have much time but I'll try to explain the basics....
1. People - Husband, wife, daughter, a Japanese WWOOFer with her 3 year old son, a WWOOFer from Germany (but grew up in Japan until she was 10, speaks Japanese as her first language), a WWOOFer who has been here for 6 months who has a boyfriend in the area (from before she started WWOOFing I think) and a WWOOFer, Michiyo, who is from near Yokohama who is looking to be here for a year, but plans on going home on the weekends. Today at lunch she asked me if I was homesick and told me that she was. She got here Sunday.
2. Language - I am the only one who doesn't speak Japanes as their first language. And there are a lot of people here so there is a lot said, all in Japanese. I sit cluelessly for hours at a time. The girl from Yokohama spent a year in the US in high school and a year in the US for college (at SUNY Buffalo, how weird!?!) so she speaks English really well and talks to me sometimes, but I think she's getting annoyed with me asking her, `what's he/she saying?` all the time. All the directions, instructions are given in Japanese and then I either have to ask Michiyo what's being said. Maybe once a day the wife (who speaks English, but just doesn't like to) will say something to me in English like, `are you ok?` and yesterday she tried to have a conversation and she started it off with, `so do you know anyone who was hurt in the hurricanes?` Yeah. Those are our conversations. Slow, awkward, short.
3. Friends - So Yuto is the 3 year old who has yet to figure out I don't speak Japanese. He asks me a lot of questions. In Japanese. Repeatedly. And when I don't answer, he'll move on and ask a new question. My favorite thing I've learned from him is that the whole Japanese peace sign in pictures thing starts young! Wow. As soon as I took my camera out, his fingers were up. In front of his face. I had to work hard to get him to move them to the side. I have pictures but they're not uploaded yet. So he's cool, but sometimes three year olds aren't the best people to have as friends. Like when he starts screaming or when I'm supposed to be working planting seeds but he thinks he should take the seeds and put them back in the bag. And sometimes when I'm working he wants to play the climb on Beth game, and not knowing how to speak Japanese kind of makes that difficult.
4. Farming - Yeah, I work on a farm I guess. Monday, I layed grassy stuff over seeds. Tuesday, we harvested wild potatoes in the morning, started clearing weeds in the afternoon. Wednesday, we cleared more weeds and started seeded wheat and this morning we seeded some more. This afternoon, I'll be seeding some more.
5. Clothing - I was not prepared. On the first day I got to the house (she picked me up from the train station) and after a little paperwork she said, `You can change into your work clothes and then we'll leave.` I was already wearing my jeans so I didn't know what to do. I decided to change into the polypro long underwear and rain pants and polypro shirt with a t-shirt over it. I did alright. That evening when we got back to the house one of the other workers took off her rainpant looking pants and she had jeans on underneath. I thought maybe that was a good idea and tried that on Tuesday but it was gross and my jeans were completely soaked with sweat by 10am. Wednesday and toady I went back to the polypro long underwear and rainpants. Today I'm in the same. So pretty much I wear the same thing everyday. Laundry gets done at least once a day so I can have anything I want washed so underwear and socks stay clean. I also started borrowing flannel shirts to wear over the polypro top. The t-shirt the first day wasn't that necessary. I just don't like wearing only the polypro top. I also get a pair of rubber boots to wear. They're big on me (even in Japan), but not that bad. And it's better than getting my sneakers all gross.
6. Food - I guess I've been a vegetarian for the past 5 days. It hasn't been bad. This has been the easiest place to eat so far. It's all really bland which is totally my style. Lots of brown rice, mushy vegetables, the occasional pasta (buckwheat pasta this afternoon) and soups that I sometimes try. No dairy, no fish. Actually they have homemade yogurt and cheese that I've had a little of. Yogurt in the morning usually. Ok, they're all back now. I should probably go.
Lastly, I'm going to be leaving early. There are like a billion people here (one more Japanese WWOOFer just showed up as I'm writing this) and I kind of have been feeling crappy since the day I got here. I was under the impression that there would be this whole group of international travelling kids (like in Australia and NZ) and it's pretty much the complete opposite. No one really talks to me, but I can tell when they're talking about me which is never a good feeling. At the dinner table there are usually 2 or 3 conversations and then me and the whole `experiencing their culture` novelty has worn off. I've done laundry, hung out with their kids, set the table, worked on the farm, all of it. So I think I`ve been through enough. I was under the impression that I'd be learning about farming, Japan, herbal remedies, all of that stuff that it said in the book, but it's way too busy for anyone to actually teach me anything. I've kind of turned into cheap labor. Cheap because all they give me is food (which is very very very nice of them) and a place to stay (an extra WWOOFer's house, about 15 minutes away, no running water, freezing cold at night). I was also under the impression that I would have time off to explore the area. See, I'm not against being the only one who speaks English as a first language, but I'm kind of not so keen on it when I also have no time for myself and am constantly shuffled from one place to the next. We wake up at 7:30, get to the family's house by 8:30, eat breakfast, do chores, go to the farm, eat lunch (sometimes on the farm, sometimes at home), more farm work, then home, more chores, dinner, shower, then back to the house, usually by 9pm. I also have the rail pass that I've already paid for so if I figure if I'm not happy here there's not too much of a reason to stay.
Back to the farm now! I'll write more after I leave. So far I've asked for the weekend off. I forgot to mention the part about me not coming back. I will.
1. People - Husband, wife, daughter, a Japanese WWOOFer with her 3 year old son, a WWOOFer from Germany (but grew up in Japan until she was 10, speaks Japanese as her first language), a WWOOFer who has been here for 6 months who has a boyfriend in the area (from before she started WWOOFing I think) and a WWOOFer, Michiyo, who is from near Yokohama who is looking to be here for a year, but plans on going home on the weekends. Today at lunch she asked me if I was homesick and told me that she was. She got here Sunday.
2. Language - I am the only one who doesn't speak Japanes as their first language. And there are a lot of people here so there is a lot said, all in Japanese. I sit cluelessly for hours at a time. The girl from Yokohama spent a year in the US in high school and a year in the US for college (at SUNY Buffalo, how weird!?!) so she speaks English really well and talks to me sometimes, but I think she's getting annoyed with me asking her, `what's he/she saying?` all the time. All the directions, instructions are given in Japanese and then I either have to ask Michiyo what's being said. Maybe once a day the wife (who speaks English, but just doesn't like to) will say something to me in English like, `are you ok?` and yesterday she tried to have a conversation and she started it off with, `so do you know anyone who was hurt in the hurricanes?` Yeah. Those are our conversations. Slow, awkward, short.
3. Friends - So Yuto is the 3 year old who has yet to figure out I don't speak Japanese. He asks me a lot of questions. In Japanese. Repeatedly. And when I don't answer, he'll move on and ask a new question. My favorite thing I've learned from him is that the whole Japanese peace sign in pictures thing starts young! Wow. As soon as I took my camera out, his fingers were up. In front of his face. I had to work hard to get him to move them to the side. I have pictures but they're not uploaded yet. So he's cool, but sometimes three year olds aren't the best people to have as friends. Like when he starts screaming or when I'm supposed to be working planting seeds but he thinks he should take the seeds and put them back in the bag. And sometimes when I'm working he wants to play the climb on Beth game, and not knowing how to speak Japanese kind of makes that difficult.
4. Farming - Yeah, I work on a farm I guess. Monday, I layed grassy stuff over seeds. Tuesday, we harvested wild potatoes in the morning, started clearing weeds in the afternoon. Wednesday, we cleared more weeds and started seeded wheat and this morning we seeded some more. This afternoon, I'll be seeding some more.
5. Clothing - I was not prepared. On the first day I got to the house (she picked me up from the train station) and after a little paperwork she said, `You can change into your work clothes and then we'll leave.` I was already wearing my jeans so I didn't know what to do. I decided to change into the polypro long underwear and rain pants and polypro shirt with a t-shirt over it. I did alright. That evening when we got back to the house one of the other workers took off her rainpant looking pants and she had jeans on underneath. I thought maybe that was a good idea and tried that on Tuesday but it was gross and my jeans were completely soaked with sweat by 10am. Wednesday and toady I went back to the polypro long underwear and rainpants. Today I'm in the same. So pretty much I wear the same thing everyday. Laundry gets done at least once a day so I can have anything I want washed so underwear and socks stay clean. I also started borrowing flannel shirts to wear over the polypro top. The t-shirt the first day wasn't that necessary. I just don't like wearing only the polypro top. I also get a pair of rubber boots to wear. They're big on me (even in Japan), but not that bad. And it's better than getting my sneakers all gross.
6. Food - I guess I've been a vegetarian for the past 5 days. It hasn't been bad. This has been the easiest place to eat so far. It's all really bland which is totally my style. Lots of brown rice, mushy vegetables, the occasional pasta (buckwheat pasta this afternoon) and soups that I sometimes try. No dairy, no fish. Actually they have homemade yogurt and cheese that I've had a little of. Yogurt in the morning usually. Ok, they're all back now. I should probably go.
Lastly, I'm going to be leaving early. There are like a billion people here (one more Japanese WWOOFer just showed up as I'm writing this) and I kind of have been feeling crappy since the day I got here. I was under the impression that there would be this whole group of international travelling kids (like in Australia and NZ) and it's pretty much the complete opposite. No one really talks to me, but I can tell when they're talking about me which is never a good feeling. At the dinner table there are usually 2 or 3 conversations and then me and the whole `experiencing their culture` novelty has worn off. I've done laundry, hung out with their kids, set the table, worked on the farm, all of it. So I think I`ve been through enough. I was under the impression that I'd be learning about farming, Japan, herbal remedies, all of that stuff that it said in the book, but it's way too busy for anyone to actually teach me anything. I've kind of turned into cheap labor. Cheap because all they give me is food (which is very very very nice of them) and a place to stay (an extra WWOOFer's house, about 15 minutes away, no running water, freezing cold at night). I was also under the impression that I would have time off to explore the area. See, I'm not against being the only one who speaks English as a first language, but I'm kind of not so keen on it when I also have no time for myself and am constantly shuffled from one place to the next. We wake up at 7:30, get to the family's house by 8:30, eat breakfast, do chores, go to the farm, eat lunch (sometimes on the farm, sometimes at home), more farm work, then home, more chores, dinner, shower, then back to the house, usually by 9pm. I also have the rail pass that I've already paid for so if I figure if I'm not happy here there's not too much of a reason to stay.
Back to the farm now! I'll write more after I leave. So far I've asked for the weekend off. I forgot to mention the part about me not coming back. I will.
posted by beth at 1:02 PM
4 Comments:
So essentially, you are living the life of a medieval peasant girl. Except I think peasants got paid a little. So you are more like a socially-ostracized indentured servant. Hong Kong is waiting for you Beth!
Hi Beth.
That was a really interesting blogging(?)you shared.Actually, living it doesn't sound like anyway to spend time exploring the Asian world.
I agree with Danny's post, actually. Unless things change in some way- it sounds like " Been there-done that-got the tee shirt-time to move on.Anyway, looks like you can eliminate this type of work( WOOFERING) in that enviroment as a career choice.
Brown rice meals will make your mom smile, I'm sure.
Glad you're planning to take care of yourelf by moving on.
I'll be in touch through voice mail, etc.
Love,
Barbara
So... not exactly a hippie fest...The five days must have felt like five weeks. I know the work, cold room, etc., would have all been OK for you if it weren't for the social isolation. I'm glad you're leaving. It's not like the people there would suddenly all start speaking English to you if you just stayed a few days longer. Dad asked if you're going to look into any other WWOFing places. Have you lost confidence in the program since the description of this place was so off the mark?
Beth I don't know how to break this to you while you're across the world, but I have some terrible news. 7th Heaven has been cancelled: http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/11/television.shows.reut/index.html.
Try to be strong. Keep having fun in Asia to keep your mind off this tragedy!
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