Hi! My name’s Emily Thornber and I’m a medical student from Oxford, England. I came WWOOFing in Sasayama to learn Japanese and to learn about Japanese culture, but I got so much more than that with the Nouen project. The goal to bring more young people into Sasayama is an admirable one, but it was the chance to meet lots of Japanese farmers that made the project truly amazing for me. They’re such hardworking people, but they’re also really fun and friendly – I think I even met my ideal Japanese parents! I had so much to learn from them that was really interesting, and I even learned a bit about myself, such as the fact that I love weeding rice fields! The project was an amazing opportunity to make lots of fantastic friends, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve left a bit of my heart in Sasayama and will always be thinking of its black bean fields – thanks for everything guys!

More Nou-En testimonials

in this photo: Silvia and Theresa

I was in Sasayama for one month. And now I’m going to leave. It actually makes me pretty sad, because Tsuji house and Sasayama feel a bit like my home already. It was really interesting to live and work with so many different people, even if it wasn’t always easy. I especially enjoyed working with the Japanese farmers, and being able to help them at least a little bit with their fields. All the farmers I met here are really nice, hard working people and it was a great experience to take part in their daily life and working process. Even if it was only for a short time I think the time I was here has taught me a lot about Japan and its citizens, I think in a much closer and more direct way than I would have when I would have been just a tourist staying in hotels. 

--Theresa from Austria

I really enjoyed being part of this project. Although the work was sometimes tough because of the heat, in the end when you see that you did a good job and could help the farmers, you know that it was worth it. Work is also a bit easier when the farmers care for you like they do here in Sasayama, always providing us with snacks and cool drinks.  

Another thing I appreciated was the possibility to go to matsuris (festivals) and going on different trips together, and also to have the freedom to take 2 days off to visit the city.  

Living here together with so many people from all over the world was a totally new and great experience for me. It’s interesting to hear everyone’s own personal story. In the last 4 weeks that I’ve been here, we had a lot of fun and I really grew fond of all the people around me here. Tsuji house feels like my second home and I already know that I’ll miss my life here that I got so used to. 

Thank you for everything. 

--Silvia from Austria

in this photo: Bradley and Darío

Far away from any big city, surrounded by rice fields and mountains is where you can find the farm, a great experience shared with amazing people! I have been there, in the farm, for almost 2 weeks, and it has been incredible!

I have almost all my muscles aching, even some I didnt know I had, because of the hard work, I have many scratches in my legs and arms made when we were weeding and some itching mosquito bites as well. But it's worth it! The people there are incredible, it's like a working camp, doing organic farming, helping some old farmers, and sharing many many things like cooking, good meals, fun, local festivals, some treks, trips to the mountain lakes and much more :)

Its been probably the best time I've had in Japan, and I've been already almost 2 months there!

--Darío from Barcelona, Spain

A note from Andy

Andy came to us after finishing an English teaching stint in Osaka and hails from North Carolina, USA. He brought with him a talent for musical improvisation as well as a keen observational sense. Thanks, Andy, for all your encouragement and insight into how to improve the project. These are his comments:

The world needs more of this! Community building from the ground up.I'm always happy to find people who believe in the need forresponsible, sustainable, chemical-free farming, but I was amazed tosee this project going one step further by focusing on an entirefarming community in need of support. Furthermore, by bringingtogether people from all around the world and Japan via WWOOF to help,the Nishimuras are dispersing social seeds which will no doubt lead tosimilar projects elsewhere. I also deeply admired the Nishimuras'philosophy of reciprocity; there's something very heart-warming aboutworking for free, and letting the people we help decide how to showtheir gratitude without money. And of course I love eating food grownand produced by people I've met.

To improve the project I suggest finding ways to improve communicationand planning, which should reduce stress and increase efficiency. Byplanning work schedules further ahead and keeping all the volunteersmore informed about them, especially the new volunteers, people maywaste less time, as well as feel and be more useful. If each personknows everything that needs to be done for the day and how to do it,the confidence of individual volunteers should be improved, makingthem less reliant on receiving constant orders and instruction.Compiling a handbook with general rules, information about how tocarry out basic farming-related tasks, maps of the area, thephilosophy of the project, what a typical work day should look like,etc. to show new arrivals might be helpful. I also suggest a buddysystem wherein a new volunteer is paired with a more experiencedvolunteer, or improving the team system already in place.

Despite my minor suggestions, I think the project is heading in the right direction and will accomplish great things. I hope to be a partof something similar back home. I wish everyone the best of luck!

(Somewhat) Recent Happenings at Nou-En

So, it's been too long since we've posted any photos or given an update on what's going on with the project. It's September and locals are already harvesting rice, the figs are finally ripe and the seemingly infinite supply of cucumbers has dwindled. My pictures go back 2 months, so here's a look at how we spent the summer. Sorry for the delay.

(in this photo: Louis Sutton)

No, he's not mowing the lawn, he's using an old, rusty rice-field-weeder. It has a wheel with spikes on it that churns up the weeds and deposits them into a tray. It may save you your back, but it will give you terrible blisters. Notice he's not using any gloves.

(in this photo, from left: Ozawa-san, Emily Thornber, and Yuriko)

See, hands work just as well, and are maybe more fun. Squelching around in sticky mud brings out the kid in all of us. We spent many days hand-weeding Ozawa-san's rice field.

(in this photo, from left: Sylvia and Theresa, two Austrian wwoofers)

Ozawa-san has many fields, something like twelve in all, but not all of them are organic, because it's impractical for one person to maintain. Ozawa-san agreed to keep a number of them organic if we agreed to help with the upkeep. In May we planted from seed this huge field of black soybeans, which is Tamba-Sasayama's specialty crop. We're looking forward to the harvest in October.

(in this photo, from left: Nicholas Broman, Andy Savoy, Momoko, Midori Nishimura, and Meredith Strandquist)

In August we took a break from weeding to do our 2nd annual Ecotopia camp, where everyone spends a week camping out in the woods, giving workshops and learning how to work together and live a little bit differently. At least that's how it's supposed to happen, but this summer we were dealt a freakishly long rainy season, so EVERYTHING we've tried to outside has gotten rained out. So we just had the "camp" inside. We were split into two houses, so we didn't get to experience the same community vibe, but we still had a good time and learned a lot. Andy gave us a workshop on improvisation and rhythm and made a bunch of cool percussion instruments out of garbage. Gen and Yuuko worked on building a smokehouse to preserve all the wild boar and deer that we hunt. Ideas for a sweat lodge/sauna were tossed around, and Louis and Lawson made a forge and have since made a couple of knives.

(in this photo, from left: Mary Strandquist, Nicholas Broman and Andy Savoy)

We did get to spend one night in the forest. We lugged a bunch of supplies to the site, enough for 25 people to camp for three nights, only to lug it out again the next day when we were inundated by torrential rains. Bummer.

At least we got one good night around the campfire.

And we got to take long-exposure photos of burning sticks and an iPhone.

(Eco and Rocco, photo by Anne Marijn Koppen)

But worse than the rain was our goat Eco getting sick. This is a photo from when she was healthier. We noticed her acting more stubborn than normal and that her balance was a bit off, and then one morning she couldn't stand up. The vet came and told us she had filariosis, a potentially lethal infection from a parasitic nematode. They colonize in the spine and affect the nervous system, so her mobility became seriously impaired. We really thought we were going to lose her, and for four days we had to feed her by hand until she was strong enough to stand up on her own. Nearly a month after first showing symptoms, she's still weak and can't hold her head up, but she made it!

(in this photo: Momoko and Mary Strandquist)

During the Dekansho Festival, which attracts around 30,000 visitors to Sasayama to eat chicken on a stick, drink lots of beer and do something called the obon-dance on the grounds of Sasayama castle, we held our first flea market in the parking lot of LABO English School with the hopes of raising money for Nou-En. We invited donations from the school's students and gathered quite a lot of merchandise-- clothing, books and toys, as well as some of Ozawa-san's organic vegetables and local tomato jam and salsa from the landlord of the Nou-En house. Kinari Glass, the company a few meters down the road from the house, set up a booth to sell their beautiful glass beads.

(in this photo, from left: Theresa, Yuuko, Sylvia, Meredith Strandquist, Andy Savoy, and Yuka Fujii)

A mainstay of Japanese festivals is a game where, for a small fee, you try to catch goldfish or tiny turtles using paper net. We filled a baby pool with water and then dumped in a bunch of donated cherry tomatoes. Maybe it's not as exciting as catching a living thing, but the kids had fun. I think the record was something like 42 tomatoes. The kid had great technique-- he used the rim of the plastic net to flip the tomatoes into the bowl.

(in this photo: Yoshi, Hiro, Eddie, and Rocky)

We set up a stage on top of the sandbox to feature some local musicians. Yuichi, one of our students at LABO, did beatboxing, and Eddie sang r&b.

Our flea market managed to raise some money for the project and we've decided to continue it and make it a bi-monthly event. Our next one will be held on September 20th. Little by little we want to increase the number of vendors to create a thriving market featuring local products.

-posted by Anna

A note from Chris

This is Chris, from England, a Nou-En participant who stayed with us for five weeks this summer. He worked really hard to get this project off the ground and we miss him a lot. This is what he had to say about his experience:

Sasayama's great, and the Nou-En project was a really good way to experience both farming and Japan for the first time. Helping local farmers made the work we were doing feel very rewarding. Not that weeding black bean fields isn't rewarding in its own right - there's something really satisfying about changing a row of sad looking black beans, drowning in a sea of weeds, into a row of happy looking plants standing proud in the soil. Doing that with 8 other young people so the Obaa-san (who's just brought you a basket full of cakes and drinks) doesn't have to break her back doing it by herself makes it even better.

Weeding rice paddies barefoot is also really good fun - it's like playing in the mud as a child, but instead of being scolded by your parents you get more cakes and snacks, and sometimes fruit and vegetables or a 30kg bag of the best tasting rice you've ever had to take home. It all seems like a pretty good deal to me!

The work done through the project appears to be genuinely acknowledged and appreciated by the people of Tsuji. We were invited to a couple of community events and I was lucky enough to be allowed to take part in a festival, carrying the Dashi (Festival cart) to and from a nearby Shrine. These are all experiences I doubt I would have had anywhere else and am really grateful for them.

The people I've met WWOOFing in Sasayama, both villagers and fellow WWOOFers, from different countries and backgrounds to myself, and are all brilliant people. I'm truly thankful I had the chance to live and work with them all for the 5 weeks I've stayed here. That all this was in the stunning fields and valleys around Tsuji makes it all the more memorable.

a few thoughts, from the field~~~

Sometimes I wonder what the farmers we work with are thinking when we show up to help them with their day's work. Initially, it must be a pretty strange idea for them. One day a mixed bag of young Japanese and foreigners starts fixing up an old house in your village. Next thing you know, they've moved in and word is spreading that they're offering free agricultural help. Free? Really? That can't be right.
And it isn't. Unless you consider friendship, cultural exchange, acceptance into a community, home cooked meals and wisdom worthless. In today's world, what I'm talking about is a lot harder to come by than money.
I have so much respect for the farmers that have accepted our help so far. Sometimes I think it's harder to accept other people's help than it is to give it-- the emotions involved in receiving something are decidedly more complex than those you have when giving something. Maybe it makes you feel a bit vulnerable or guilty or indebted. I'm grateful to them for getting past that and taking the risk of going somewhat against the grain, which is a big step in any society but especially here in Japan.Take a look at the picture below:

That's Yuriko. She's in a big field of black soybeans cultivated by a lady named Oonishi-san who lives in the next village over. Try to imagine how it would feel to maintain this field (and quite a few others) by yourself as a 70-year-old. Everyone's different, but I think I'd feel a bit overwhelmed and lonely.


We were happy to help out. Pulling up the big weeds, hoeing in the smaller ones and piling up the soil around the young black bean plants was easy and fun with 8 people helping out. When you're doing work with your friends, tasks you might otherwise consider drudgery turns into something to look forward to.

This is Gen, the brains(?) behind the project, with Oonishi-san. At the end of the day, after eliminating every last speck of a weed from her fields, she seemed delighted. She said with a big smile on her face how proud she was of how clean her fields looked.We were glad to oblige. I think we all look forward to going back to her place, especially after she brought out a basket of gleaming, sleek purple eggplants and told us she'd fry up a big batch of tempura for us to take home for dinner. She packed us a really nice basket chock full of rice balls, a richly flavorful dish of stewed green peppers, and a humongous pile of eggplant, green bean and mixed vegetable tempura with homemade dipping sauce.
This is the current crew, minus a couple of faces.

~~~posted by Anna~~~!

Field Trip to Saihouji

Recently we took advantage of one of our nice days off to visit the scenic village of Saihouji, in
Kyoto Prefecture. The drive took us high up into the mountains and beyond any reminders of the outside world. From the village all that could be seen were mountains cascading away from a foreground of steeply terraced rice fields.





While visiting Saihouji we learned that the village

consists of only 36 people, however we were surprised to hear that the average age is some where in the mid-forties. This is in large part due to the work of Tomozou-san, a local young man who returned home to Saihouji after finishing school and traveling briefly. Starting with Tomozou-san's father, his family has been hard at work encouraging young people to move to the village and continue the way of life that is closely tied to the mountians through the changing work of the seasons and the daily demands of mountain life. They have established a temporary housing and work arrangement to provide interested people with a footing while they build or renovate their own house in the village and get established as farmers.

The dominant economy of Saihouji seems to be egg production. Three farmers keep laying hens on a commercial scale, which means that this small mountain village of 36 people is also home to some 6,000 chickens. In addition to providing reliable daily income the chickens produce an abundance of manure, which in turn provides both direct and indirect resources to sell either as organic fertilizer or in the form of organic vegetables.

To thank Tomozou-san for taking time away from his fields and other work to show us around, as well as generously giving us a flat of fresh eggs, we decided to all chip in and help him harvest and process his onion crop. With our collective 16 hands working together we were able to do in a few hours what would have taken Tomozou-san and his mother two days to finish.

Our trip to Saihouji was a great way to spend a day enjoying the beauty of the mountains, but more importantly we were able to network with another group of motivated people doing work that coincides with the Nou En philosophy. We were all able to get inspiration and ideas from one another and to top it off we were able to help out with a bit of field work in exchange for some good healthy food.

We've been busy here at Nou En. In the past month or so we have secured a traditional Japanese house (or is it two?) to clean, fix and live in. Because the house hasn't been occupied for over eight years there was a lot of work to do. We've so far managed to clean most of the house and move in.

We've also had our first group of WWOOFers come and some have already gone, so we've been making good friends and hopefully inspiring people.

In rural Japan, as in many areas around the world, small communities are suffering from rapid population decline as young people flock to the cities. A self perpetuating cycle develops in which rural communities lose their youth to entertainment and work opportunities in the city, which cripples the local economy by leaving behind small towns and villages lacking an able workforce.
Here in Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture, the evidence of this can be easily seen on any walk or bike ride around the valley. In some villages more than half of the houses are vacant. Many fields have been abandoned and have begun the rapid transition back to a more natural state. Elementary schools with great facilities are being forced to close due to low enrollment. At our local elementary school this year's First Grade class has three students. Village elders possess a lifetime of priceless skills and knowlege that is not being passed on because of a lack of interested youth. Looking forward in time, it is worrisome to imagine the state of these communities if current trends continue.
Seeing these things, we here at Nou En have been motivated to work for positive change. Our aim is to encourage young people from around the world to return to rural communities. We organize enthusiastic volunteers (mostly through the WWOOF organization http://www.wwoofjapan.com/main/)to help local farmers in exchange for healthy food and invaluable local knowlege. We network and assist local organic farms with vegetable and rice production on a regular basis. We try to enthusiastically jump in and help local villagers whenever we can. In addition to these projects we also have our own fields and gardens as well as chickens and goats that we care for.
Because part of our aim is encouraging people to want to live in the country side we also take time to enjoy the benefits of country living. We go hiking in the surrounding mountains, swimming in ponds and streams (especially during the hot humid Japanese summer!), barbecues with friends on weekends, kendo lessons at the local gymnasium and much more.

Mostly we try to provide a communal living environment where we work, learn, and grow together, all while striving to benefit and elevate the local community.