Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Whoa
So right now there are about 12 kids from 5 to 12 years old getting ready to go to sleep in the main rooms here- they spent the day at the farm doing sort of a day camp thing with us- it was a great idea but right now I'm so tired I can barely see straight. In addition to all this, I made a stupid rookie move last night, and had a few beers and a little sake when I was a lot more dehydrated than I realized, and so instead of getting a good night's sleep under my new mosquito net, I spent 5 hours face down on the kitchen floor feeling like I was about to die any moment. So it's not even 9 PM yet, but I'm going to sleep! I'll try to catch up again tomorrow when they've all gone home. With photos.
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
We drove east for about an hour to go to this river in Miyama yesterday - Gen-san says he stopped going to the beach because this place is so much better - it is probably the nicest spot to swim in that I have ever been to. That photo in the middle is a deep spot - the water there has to be 7 or 8 feet deep, and you can see right to the bottom. The water temperature was perfect and it was ridiculously clean - you cant really see from the photos how deep it is because its perfectly clear. The current is a little strong in some places, but not dangerous - made it more fun to swim in. The last photo is a holy tree/shrine right across the street from the nearest convenience store.
Sorry about the lack of apostrophes - I cant find them on this keyboard!
Sorry about the lack of apostrophes - I cant find them on this keyboard!
Audio file
Hopefully it's not difficult to play an .amr file- this is close to sunset- what you hear a lot of out here- running water, birds, and that weird bug sound in this clip
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
So who all is actually reading this?
I check often for comments and there hasn't been a single one - let me know you're there, kudasai!
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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Trying to remember what happened a week ago isn't usually too difficult, but there are constantly moments here, now, where I know important details will slip my mind if I keep waiting so long to write anything down. It ends up sounding like a bunch of expository drivel and really isn't what I intended to do with this blog.
At dusk here every day coming from the woods on the hills, a staggered chorus of eerie sounds repeatedly swells and peters out in a distracting rhythm. It's gone by the time it gets dark, I'm still not sure whether it's the frogs or some locust-like insect, but there's nothing like it in New England. It's really captivating.
There are a Lot of frogs here, probably because it's so wet for so long, and the tanbo seem to be a great place for tadpoles to grow up. Rainwater, lots of it, runs down from the hills in streams like the one we go swimming in every day after work. I got here at the end of the rainy season, so there was a ton of water coming down the hills. Relatively large channels, built who knows when, border everything like gutters or small moats- houses, streets, fields- and the water seems to be distributed pretty evenly through the land between the hills. I always want to call them mountains, but they're not really mountains like the Rockies or the Appalachian mountains or anything like that. Some of the French girls here have hiked in the Alps and so they think it's pretty funny when anyone calls these ones mountains. They are impressively steep, regardless. There is a lot of bamboo and cedar growing in the forests here too, so they have a very different look than the woods back home, even from a distance. Anyway, there are lots of frogs, mostly tiny ones in the grass and the fields, which always have water running nearby- and since there's so much green here, there are pretty much little frogs everywhere. They sing at night, too. During the day, a bird with a really amusing call can almost always be heard in the trees near the fields - I was told they're uguisu, a kind of warbler. I had read sometime in the past few months that images of uguisu in ume (plum) trees are iconic in Japanese artwork, so I actually knew what they were talking about, which was nice.
In the hatake (field), a noticeable number of small metallic aqua blue beetles hang out under the kuromame plants, and white cranes fly overhead on a regular basis. I think cranes like to eat frogs as well as fish. Snakes also like frogs, and we saw a big one a few days ago, about 3-4 feet long, checking out a ledge in a terraced group of fields we were working on. It was almost completely apathetic to our attempts to chase it out of the field, and I think it was nearly half an hour before we got it to leave. There is at least one kind of poisonous snake here, but I'm told they're hard to miss. There are lots of spiders that weave those big spiral webs, and barn swallows (we have a nest on a rafter in one of the garage-type rooms, so the adults are constantly flying in and out of one of the side windows- it's a good thing there are so many insect eaters around here- even with them, some of the mosquitoes are big enough to knock you over) and also some skinny little type of bird that runs around on the road in front of the house and constantly bobs its tail. There are electric fences bordering all the forests that get turned on at night to keep the deer and wild boar from coming into the fields and eating everything. They put out big traps for raccoons, but I don't think they catch many. Where I got off the bus in Sasayama the first day, there was a snail climbing the stone wall outside someone's house with a shell about the size and shape of an Oreo cookie. I saw a couple of lizards running around on a low rock wall today- it was hot as hell, so it seemed perfectly appropriate. A couple of days ago, I was sitting outside early in the morning on the curb in front of the house when something bounced out into the street to my right- what looked like two ferrets were jumping and rolling around in the middle of the road. They played there for about ten seconds and took off- apparently weasels live out here too!
All the roads are very narrow, did I mention that? A couple of us took bikes out to find a local convenience store around sunset today- the road we took is considered a highway, and they do drive pretty fast down that way, but the whole thing is only as wide as a lane and a half of Boston road. We decided to come back the other way, around the back side of the hill instead- there are some fields back in that neighborhood that we work on so we thought it would be simple to find the way. We got a bit lost, of course- the road patterns here are so different than what I'm used to that I have a hard time navigating them, even though I might have a good idea of where I am in general. However, we did come across a gorgeous old kitsune (fox) shrine that I need to retrace my steps and find again so that I can get a closer look and take some photos.
I have an atrocious sunburn on my shoulder blades right now that I got through my shirt, and I'm not sure why since I spent less time in the sun today than I normally would while working. Need to figure that out- it was kind of a dark shirt and was soaked through with sweat... My arms were bare and they're fine. I brought a ton of sunblock with me. Field work is interesting- yesterday it was pretty dry so instead of wearing those horrible rubber boots, a couple of us just wore socks to weed a bean field. It was a lot more comfortable! I haven't worn my running shoes much- haven't been for a run either, but a New Zealander arrived recently that's interested in getting back into it, so maybe I will pretty soon. It's so damned hot during the day, though.
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At dusk here every day coming from the woods on the hills, a staggered chorus of eerie sounds repeatedly swells and peters out in a distracting rhythm. It's gone by the time it gets dark, I'm still not sure whether it's the frogs or some locust-like insect, but there's nothing like it in New England. It's really captivating.
There are a Lot of frogs here, probably because it's so wet for so long, and the tanbo seem to be a great place for tadpoles to grow up. Rainwater, lots of it, runs down from the hills in streams like the one we go swimming in every day after work. I got here at the end of the rainy season, so there was a ton of water coming down the hills. Relatively large channels, built who knows when, border everything like gutters or small moats- houses, streets, fields- and the water seems to be distributed pretty evenly through the land between the hills. I always want to call them mountains, but they're not really mountains like the Rockies or the Appalachian mountains or anything like that. Some of the French girls here have hiked in the Alps and so they think it's pretty funny when anyone calls these ones mountains. They are impressively steep, regardless. There is a lot of bamboo and cedar growing in the forests here too, so they have a very different look than the woods back home, even from a distance. Anyway, there are lots of frogs, mostly tiny ones in the grass and the fields, which always have water running nearby- and since there's so much green here, there are pretty much little frogs everywhere. They sing at night, too. During the day, a bird with a really amusing call can almost always be heard in the trees near the fields - I was told they're uguisu, a kind of warbler. I had read sometime in the past few months that images of uguisu in ume (plum) trees are iconic in Japanese artwork, so I actually knew what they were talking about, which was nice.
In the hatake (field), a noticeable number of small metallic aqua blue beetles hang out under the kuromame plants, and white cranes fly overhead on a regular basis. I think cranes like to eat frogs as well as fish. Snakes also like frogs, and we saw a big one a few days ago, about 3-4 feet long, checking out a ledge in a terraced group of fields we were working on. It was almost completely apathetic to our attempts to chase it out of the field, and I think it was nearly half an hour before we got it to leave. There is at least one kind of poisonous snake here, but I'm told they're hard to miss. There are lots of spiders that weave those big spiral webs, and barn swallows (we have a nest on a rafter in one of the garage-type rooms, so the adults are constantly flying in and out of one of the side windows- it's a good thing there are so many insect eaters around here- even with them, some of the mosquitoes are big enough to knock you over) and also some skinny little type of bird that runs around on the road in front of the house and constantly bobs its tail. There are electric fences bordering all the forests that get turned on at night to keep the deer and wild boar from coming into the fields and eating everything. They put out big traps for raccoons, but I don't think they catch many. Where I got off the bus in Sasayama the first day, there was a snail climbing the stone wall outside someone's house with a shell about the size and shape of an Oreo cookie. I saw a couple of lizards running around on a low rock wall today- it was hot as hell, so it seemed perfectly appropriate. A couple of days ago, I was sitting outside early in the morning on the curb in front of the house when something bounced out into the street to my right- what looked like two ferrets were jumping and rolling around in the middle of the road. They played there for about ten seconds and took off- apparently weasels live out here too!
All the roads are very narrow, did I mention that? A couple of us took bikes out to find a local convenience store around sunset today- the road we took is considered a highway, and they do drive pretty fast down that way, but the whole thing is only as wide as a lane and a half of Boston road. We decided to come back the other way, around the back side of the hill instead- there are some fields back in that neighborhood that we work on so we thought it would be simple to find the way. We got a bit lost, of course- the road patterns here are so different than what I'm used to that I have a hard time navigating them, even though I might have a good idea of where I am in general. However, we did come across a gorgeous old kitsune (fox) shrine that I need to retrace my steps and find again so that I can get a closer look and take some photos.
I have an atrocious sunburn on my shoulder blades right now that I got through my shirt, and I'm not sure why since I spent less time in the sun today than I normally would while working. Need to figure that out- it was kind of a dark shirt and was soaked through with sweat... My arms were bare and they're fine. I brought a ton of sunblock with me. Field work is interesting- yesterday it was pretty dry so instead of wearing those horrible rubber boots, a couple of us just wore socks to weed a bean field. It was a lot more comfortable! I haven't worn my running shoes much- haven't been for a run either, but a New Zealander arrived recently that's interested in getting back into it, so maybe I will pretty soon. It's so damned hot during the day, though.
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Monday, July 19, 2010
Where was I?
The night of that first full day, I really wanted to take another long walk, but I think I was ready to drop by 8:30. They don't do daylight savings here, though, so it did get dark really early. I wouldn't figure that out for nearly a week, however, and thought I was just out of my mind from suddenly being on the other end of the earth, thinking it was getting dark way too soon.
I had eaten plenty despite the vegetarian thing- there are dango, cracker and cookie stalls all over the place, and on top of that I got inarizushi and an enormous apple from the supermarket down the street (it was tiny, and reminded me of New York) though that meant I wasn't really eating any vegetables. Knowing I'd soon be picking my own dinner more or less every day made that easier to run with, though. Asakusa at night is very peaceful- there were a few tipsy businessmen talking really loudly while stumbling home, and some outdoor restaurants were open with people sitting at tables on the sidewalks, but it was pretty quiet. There were a lot of nicer looking bars and restaurants that seemed to be open, but since I don't eat most things they'd serve, I was alone so I wouldn't drink, and I speak so little Japanese, I didn't go into any. They are mostly very small and cozy- looking almost like residences, and I'd love to check some of them out again if I spoke more or was with other people, but that night it was fun just to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. There were still more places open on the main roads, but I tried to stay away from the convenience stores for the most part, since they're full of really interesting snacks that I didn't need.
I got up the second morning a little later, closer to 7, and walked around with my hotel coffee one more time before I'd have to leave. I actually had to go back to the post office a second time so I could mail stuff I'd bought back home, since I'd picked up a lot of omiyage that I really couldn't fit in my overstuffed bag.
It was sad to leave, but there was still so much more to do- I squashed everything into my giant 35-dollar-on-amazon backpack (I think it must have weighed near 45 lbs with everything) said goodbye to the hotel staff and made one last lap around Nakamise Dori (basically just means central market street- Asakusa's had a big market there for hundreds of years, I think) ... Then went down into the train station to start making my way towards Osaka.
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I had eaten plenty despite the vegetarian thing- there are dango, cracker and cookie stalls all over the place, and on top of that I got inarizushi and an enormous apple from the supermarket down the street (it was tiny, and reminded me of New York) though that meant I wasn't really eating any vegetables. Knowing I'd soon be picking my own dinner more or less every day made that easier to run with, though. Asakusa at night is very peaceful- there were a few tipsy businessmen talking really loudly while stumbling home, and some outdoor restaurants were open with people sitting at tables on the sidewalks, but it was pretty quiet. There were a lot of nicer looking bars and restaurants that seemed to be open, but since I don't eat most things they'd serve, I was alone so I wouldn't drink, and I speak so little Japanese, I didn't go into any. They are mostly very small and cozy- looking almost like residences, and I'd love to check some of them out again if I spoke more or was with other people, but that night it was fun just to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. There were still more places open on the main roads, but I tried to stay away from the convenience stores for the most part, since they're full of really interesting snacks that I didn't need.
I got up the second morning a little later, closer to 7, and walked around with my hotel coffee one more time before I'd have to leave. I actually had to go back to the post office a second time so I could mail stuff I'd bought back home, since I'd picked up a lot of omiyage that I really couldn't fit in my overstuffed bag.
It was sad to leave, but there was still so much more to do- I squashed everything into my giant 35-dollar-on-amazon backpack (I think it must have weighed near 45 lbs with everything) said goodbye to the hotel staff and made one last lap around Nakamise Dori (basically just means central market street- Asakusa's had a big market there for hundreds of years, I think) ... Then went down into the train station to start making my way towards Osaka.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
At six AM, there were people up walking around, but Asakusa was very quiet with everything still closed. I don't think I've posted a lot of photos yet but it gets very busy around Nakamise Dori during the day- a bit like Faneuil Hall on a Saturday, I guess- but much more interesting, to me at least. I was able to get some pictures of the statues and temple buildings without a ton of tourists (or all the actual Buddhists come to pray at the temple) standing around. It's also at least 5-7 degrees cooler that early in the morning. The summer heat here isn't a lot different than Boston, but it is still hot enough that I was sweating through all my clothes. Foreigner, check. Scary tattoos, check. Disfigured right hand, check. Giant sweat stains all over my clothes, check. I swear, even now at the farm, we're out in the sun and I soak my clothes through with 'ase' like a sopping sponge wrapped in kleenex while all the other workers are wearing sleeves and pants and are merely sticky. I'm just naturally not a very 'kirei' person, I guess.
Anyway, getting here last week, I caught the end of the rainy season, so at least there's that. Gen-san says it's just 'starting to get hot now'...
When I had looked at a map of Asakusa before leaving, the area I wanted to see seemed huge- what I didn't realize was that all the streets on the map were narrow paths that would mostly only fit a single lane made for a pretty small car. The main roads with 4 or 5 lanes and a bike path are only as wide as an average street in downtown Boston, and the roads are all filled with small shops. Locally owned stores are sort of a popular thing to be getting into right now at home, but here there seem to be few chains, and the ones you see really stand out. There are a ton of 7 Elevens and Baskin Robbins though, and McDonalds, of course.
Walking around and seeing everything was so interesting that I decided to stay another night so I could just spend the whole day wandering around Asakusa.
It's a great neighborhood, though of course I haven't been to other parts of Tokyo yet. The people at the hotel were wonderful and were very patient with my crappy speaking skills, even teaching me a lot more than I knew when I walked in, and so when I go back to Tokyo I may stay there again and take the train to see other parts of the city.
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local shrine and -swimming hole!-
Sorry the pictures are sometimes really blurry - I pick from thumbnails so it`s difficult to tell how focused they are.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Where was I...
So getting to Asakusa was easy. Paying fares on the train here is different though- you pay more or less depending on how far you go, so you can pick any amount when you get on, but you have to stop at a 'fare adjustment' machine on the way out so you end up paying the proper amount. I got that part down without trouble, but I got confused by the gate while leaving, and stood there staring too long after inserting the ticket, and missed my chance to walk out. The gate only stays open for about 8-10 seconds, and after that you're stuck. The attendant saw me standing there looking so confused and let me by after a moment, but for all he knew I hadn't paid enough or something. Slightly embarrassing- I could probably have explained what I did in Japanese if I'd had the time, but he just let me through, so I didn't say anything except thank you. It was about 6 PM when I got to the hotel, which was really like 500 yards from the exit, but once I got to my room after talking to the people at the front desk for a minute and blaming my incoherency on exhaustion, I took a shower and went right to sleep. I had wanted to spend the first night checking out the neighborhood, but I hadn't accounted for the traveling part being so draining! So what ended up happening was that I woke up at about 5 AM the next morning, which turned out to be a good thing...
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Catch up
There's always something going on here, but I have a little time while lunch is going on, so... Where to begin?
I remember sitting at Logan, forcing down what would be my last cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee for a long time- I'd take the bus to Osaka for one of those right about now. I haven't had coffee since leaving Tokyo.
The flight to Toronto was short, but nervewracking- the plane was small and I really hate flying. The wait for the flight to Narita was about 2 hours, but it went by pretty quickly. I was already worn out from anxiety, and I still had 13 more hours to go before I'd get dropped off in a completely unfamiliar place where I may or may not have difficulty finding my way to the hotel. The second flight was torture. I have a hard time getting up and walking around on planes, since I constantly feel sure that they're about to break apart at any moment. So, I end up spending far too much time sitting ramrod straight, tensed up and clutching an armrest (not both, because apparently I'm one of the only people considerate enough to refrain from sprawling out all over the place). I lost count of the number of Canadian elbows I got jabbed with while curled up in a ball in my own seat, not even calm enough to take up all of my own space. They fed us too often- I left my 'breakfast', which came out an hour before landing, completely untouched. I really hate wasting food, but by that point I felt like death warmed over and was ready to run screaming into Tokyo. Fortunately, the line at immigration for foreigners was really long, so I had some time to calm down. My Japanese is really sparse and it was very lucky that most Japanese working at the different stations are used to dealing with it. The little bit I could speak made a huge difference, though, because instead of just asking the most basic 2-word questions and getting short answers(or other questions I wouldn't be able to understand), I was able to have short conversations with people, which made me happy, and seemed to please them well enough, too. This is the first time I've ever really tried to communicate with people in another language outside of a school, and as difficult as it is when you know so little, it's really rewarding when you can get something across and then understand them too, especially when it's something you would say anyway, regardless of language. Finding the train out of the airport ang getting to Asakusa was actually really easy. The trains feel somewhat like the subway in Boston, but they're mostly above ground. As soon as it left Narita, I could see small towns with farms all over the place. They don't waste space with strip malls and parking lots here. Roads are as narrow as possible, paths between houses even smaller, and every available patch of land has some kind of vegetable or garden plant growing in it. I did see later that there are plenty of industrial areas, but they're just treated differently. Continued in next post-
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I remember sitting at Logan, forcing down what would be my last cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee for a long time- I'd take the bus to Osaka for one of those right about now. I haven't had coffee since leaving Tokyo.
The flight to Toronto was short, but nervewracking- the plane was small and I really hate flying. The wait for the flight to Narita was about 2 hours, but it went by pretty quickly. I was already worn out from anxiety, and I still had 13 more hours to go before I'd get dropped off in a completely unfamiliar place where I may or may not have difficulty finding my way to the hotel. The second flight was torture. I have a hard time getting up and walking around on planes, since I constantly feel sure that they're about to break apart at any moment. So, I end up spending far too much time sitting ramrod straight, tensed up and clutching an armrest (not both, because apparently I'm one of the only people considerate enough to refrain from sprawling out all over the place). I lost count of the number of Canadian elbows I got jabbed with while curled up in a ball in my own seat, not even calm enough to take up all of my own space. They fed us too often- I left my 'breakfast', which came out an hour before landing, completely untouched. I really hate wasting food, but by that point I felt like death warmed over and was ready to run screaming into Tokyo. Fortunately, the line at immigration for foreigners was really long, so I had some time to calm down. My Japanese is really sparse and it was very lucky that most Japanese working at the different stations are used to dealing with it. The little bit I could speak made a huge difference, though, because instead of just asking the most basic 2-word questions and getting short answers(or other questions I wouldn't be able to understand), I was able to have short conversations with people, which made me happy, and seemed to please them well enough, too. This is the first time I've ever really tried to communicate with people in another language outside of a school, and as difficult as it is when you know so little, it's really rewarding when you can get something across and then understand them too, especially when it's something you would say anyway, regardless of language. Finding the train out of the airport ang getting to Asakusa was actually really easy. The trains feel somewhat like the subway in Boston, but they're mostly above ground. As soon as it left Narita, I could see small towns with farms all over the place. They don't waste space with strip malls and parking lots here. Roads are as narrow as possible, paths between houses even smaller, and every available patch of land has some kind of vegetable or garden plant growing in it. I did see later that there are plenty of industrial areas, but they're just treated differently. Continued in next post-
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Test post through email
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quick post with pictures
Hello - it's been busy and I don't have much time to write at the moment, but I have some photos and I think I can write from my cellphone now.
Monday, July 12, 2010
First morning in Sasayama
Okay, so I'm finally on a laptop here, though I don't have much time. Got in to town at about 5 last night, showered, ate, talked to the other WWOOFers here for a little while, and then tried to sleep. There are tree frogs here like the ones Ian used to think we had on Cherokee st, and they kept getting each other riled up last night. The mosquitos are small and faster than the ones in Boston, but they're no match for these green coiled incense-looking things that were burning last night - apparently they have DEET in them. Insects were dropping like, well, um, it was weird. I wonder if burning DEET incense is illegal at home, because I've never seen it before. I still got a bunch of bites, but I don't seem to react to them very badly, which I've been told happens to some people here - some don't react at all! There are 11 people here total right now, I think - Australian, German, French, Taiwanese, and one other American, at the moment. I was getting in a lot of Japanese practice my first 2 days in Asakusa, but it's going to be easy to forget and speak English too often, here. I'll have to try pretty hard to continue, surrounded by so many other Westerners!
There's a lot more I want to write, of course, but I only have time because I woke up about early - have to eat breakfast and get ready to go out and work. I ought to have some time to check back in tonight, though. I'll try to hook my camera up then and see if I can upload some of the better quality photos - the phone's good for quick posts on Facebook, but I assume the photos are a bit fuzzy. I'll try to get back soon! So many things to write about-
There's a lot more I want to write, of course, but I only have time because I woke up about early - have to eat breakfast and get ready to go out and work. I ought to have some time to check back in tonight, though. I'll try to hook my camera up then and see if I can upload some of the better quality photos - the phone's good for quick posts on Facebook, but I assume the photos are a bit fuzzy. I'll try to get back soon! So many things to write about-
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Sasayama- the middle of nowhere, the center of everywhere
Next Monday, I'm flying to Tokyo.
I've never been out of the country before, and I just got my passport last year, hoping I'd eventually find a way to make it to Japan for some kind of trip. Or, you know, someplace in Europe if I really had to settle. It truly felt like wishful thinking at the time. A huge messenger race was about to happen over there, and I'd wanted to go, though there was no way I could afford even part of the expenses. The passport came in the mail several months before I got hired at MIT, which I hadn't expected, and which is a place that basically shuts down for the summer. The shop that I work at half the week also gets ridiculously slow in July/August, so for the first time, suddenly, I had a summer coming up with days off whether I wanted them or not.
People do ask, and all I can really say about my motivation is that I've always had some fascination with Japanese culture and its intricately layered, peculiar social customs. I don't really know why, but as long as I've known about the existence of Japan, I've been interested.
My current job situation certainly does not allow me to spend over a month staying in hotels - there's another, cheaper and infinitely more interesting way to secure a place to sleep over there for such a long period of time.
I'd heard of WWOOF-ing on a few different occasions over the past 13 years, and had written it off a long time ago as something I just had too many responsibilities to mess with. I first heard about it from a girl I worked with at Hutchins Farm, in Concord. The previous summer, she'd spent 2 months working at a farm in New Zealand, for room and board in return. It always sounded like something I'd love to do, especially considering how much I prefer being busy and outdoors whenever possible, but I'd already started working on a responsibility that would devour my early 20's - struggling to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt on an 8 dollar an hour job, so this WWOOFing thing wasn't really even something I dreamed about.
That was about 12 years ago, though, and apparently, the fundamental direction of the drive that has compelled me to do all the odd things that I do never actually changed - I hate being idle, and never really felt like it was much of a crime to spend so many years just working and dealing with responsibility, without ever taking off and experiencing things I know I'd love - but I was always keenly aware that I was missing out on a lot of valuable experiences. I would probably have joined the Peace Corps at some point if I hadn't needed a job so I could pay my bills and finish school. However, I always thought if the opportunity came up to take a trip like this, I might still be too hesitant to jump on it, and then regret it when it was too late. Thinking about that made it a lot easier to push the 'buy' button for a plane ticket. It's still a little difficult to believe I'm actually going. But I am, and I've got a new camera and this blog to use to try and record as much as I can, because it'll never work if I try to remember everything instead. I will have some internet access while I'm there, so although I'll probably be really busy, I'll try to update as often as I can so everyone knows what's happening over there. Oh, and yes, I can speak a little Japanese. In reality I've probably spent hundreds of hours at this point studying, by accumulating a lot of books and reading whenever I was on a train or needing to sit still for a moment. I have not really gotten much practice speaking with other people, though. I'm hopefully going to more than make up for that over the next 2 months, and then be able to get a lot more engaged in conversations with friends here in Boston who are from Japan or who have lived there and have years of experience on me. Please check in here often, because I really do intend to post as much as I possibly can.
この旅行にはちょっと困っていますので、よろしくおねがいしますand as a friend suggested for a never-fail charmer - 私は酔って未だご前!
I've never been out of the country before, and I just got my passport last year, hoping I'd eventually find a way to make it to Japan for some kind of trip. Or, you know, someplace in Europe if I really had to settle. It truly felt like wishful thinking at the time. A huge messenger race was about to happen over there, and I'd wanted to go, though there was no way I could afford even part of the expenses. The passport came in the mail several months before I got hired at MIT, which I hadn't expected, and which is a place that basically shuts down for the summer. The shop that I work at half the week also gets ridiculously slow in July/August, so for the first time, suddenly, I had a summer coming up with days off whether I wanted them or not.
People do ask, and all I can really say about my motivation is that I've always had some fascination with Japanese culture and its intricately layered, peculiar social customs. I don't really know why, but as long as I've known about the existence of Japan, I've been interested.
My current job situation certainly does not allow me to spend over a month staying in hotels - there's another, cheaper and infinitely more interesting way to secure a place to sleep over there for such a long period of time.
I'd heard of WWOOF-ing on a few different occasions over the past 13 years, and had written it off a long time ago as something I just had too many responsibilities to mess with. I first heard about it from a girl I worked with at Hutchins Farm, in Concord. The previous summer, she'd spent 2 months working at a farm in New Zealand, for room and board in return. It always sounded like something I'd love to do, especially considering how much I prefer being busy and outdoors whenever possible, but I'd already started working on a responsibility that would devour my early 20's - struggling to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt on an 8 dollar an hour job, so this WWOOFing thing wasn't really even something I dreamed about.
That was about 12 years ago, though, and apparently, the fundamental direction of the drive that has compelled me to do all the odd things that I do never actually changed - I hate being idle, and never really felt like it was much of a crime to spend so many years just working and dealing with responsibility, without ever taking off and experiencing things I know I'd love - but I was always keenly aware that I was missing out on a lot of valuable experiences. I would probably have joined the Peace Corps at some point if I hadn't needed a job so I could pay my bills and finish school. However, I always thought if the opportunity came up to take a trip like this, I might still be too hesitant to jump on it, and then regret it when it was too late. Thinking about that made it a lot easier to push the 'buy' button for a plane ticket. It's still a little difficult to believe I'm actually going. But I am, and I've got a new camera and this blog to use to try and record as much as I can, because it'll never work if I try to remember everything instead. I will have some internet access while I'm there, so although I'll probably be really busy, I'll try to update as often as I can so everyone knows what's happening over there. Oh, and yes, I can speak a little Japanese. In reality I've probably spent hundreds of hours at this point studying, by accumulating a lot of books and reading whenever I was on a train or needing to sit still for a moment. I have not really gotten much practice speaking with other people, though. I'm hopefully going to more than make up for that over the next 2 months, and then be able to get a lot more engaged in conversations with friends here in Boston who are from Japan or who have lived there and have years of experience on me. Please check in here often, because I really do intend to post as much as I possibly can.
この旅行にはちょっと困っていますので、よろしくおねがいしますand as a friend suggested for a never-fail charmer - 私は酔って未だご前!
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