Aidan here, I wrote an entry back in February or March, I have been living here as a part of Nou-en for most of that time.

Living here has taught me new things about farming and Japanese culture, and a lot about myself. I would like to share some of the experiences I have had.

I have seen the project in full swing this year, with many people coming and going, all contributing in some way to the house environment and to the local community in some way.

It is a rare opportunity for people wanting to experience true Japanese culture to do so by working for and alongside local people, but at the same time being a part of each other's journeys as we leave our home and daily life in search for the experiences that will make us grow into wiser and more inspired people.

My perspective on living sustainably has changed since living here. Being economical (ie waste nothing), often means being sustainable, and I have been faced with many challenges that I would not face at home like joining two logs together to make the framework for a house, or make a chicken coop out of a bunch of scraps and how to cook a daikon in seven different ways, leaves and all.

Trying to live a sustainable life here has given us woofers many opportunities to explore all the possibilities of pretty much anything we want to, because we have all day everyday to do so. A couple of weeks ago Gen wanted to celebrate Seth's birthday by having an Inoshishi (wild boar) party. My day that particular day consisted of simply figuring out with Gen how to do a spit roast on the spot, with no electric rotisserie; just a metal pole, wire and strategically placed wooden wedges, hung between two wooden stakes at either end, which did the trick just nicely; taking 20 minute shifts together to turn 'yet another one of Seths engineering feats', a counter balanced handle at the end. To make the day even better, everyone from some of the local farmers we help to the local Buddhist monks came over and helped Seth celebrate his birthday in style.

Experiences like this have made living here a lot of fun whilst trying to provide ourselves with food, sustenance and comfortable surroundings.

For those that have been here before, thank you. Thank you for your input, hard work and creativity. I'm sure everyone, like me, came here wanting these kinds of experiences but not knowing if it would be possible. Thanks to Gen and Anna, we have been a part of a special thing here, I hope this project continues to grow and touch more people like it has me, I think it has a positive effect on everyone who is touched by it.

Arigatou gozaimasu!

Beans

Lately, the volunteers have spent much time with the local kuromame beans. We have been harvesting, gathering, sorting, selling, eating and talking about beans all day long.

Importantly, we have had an insight into the Sasayama community and the lifestyle of many of the local people. To work alongside farmers, their family and friends as part of the harvest, and to see the pride they have in their produce has been most rewarding.

Autumn

Slowly the seasons are changing in Sasayama, with the afternoon sky slowly moving from peach to violet as night time arrives. The morning fog arrived last week, making the occasional morning worthy of wearing a second layer.


The past few weeks have been busy, both with maintaining the fields at Tsuji and continuing to assist local farmers through Nouen. The famous Sasayama bean harvest has just begun, which will keep our 19 volunteers very busy over the next few weeks as well as a number of local festivals.

The goats have been happily playing in, and eating away the rice field next to Kasugae, whilst Seth, Toby and Aidan work alongside to notch the beams for the new house.

We're just like Bugs Bunny!

Over the last few weeks, we have noticed that more and more of our seedlings are falling prey to the dreaded caterpillar, a worthy opponent of the Organic Farmer! We have recently been informed that a blend of crushed carrot leaves and water can be sprayed on the plants as a natural deterrent. Thus far it seems to have made a noticeable difference. We have also been using tobacco water on some of our younger seedlings which seems to be helping.

This particular remedy has an upside for both the plant (less caterpillars) and the WWOOFers (better night vision), in order to keep the carrot concoction in good supply, we need to eat carrots every night! It still amazes us how many different meals can be cooked with the same ingredients, from soup to stew to stir-fry, there is no end to the versatility of our beloved carrot.

Here at Tsuji we are constantly looking for natural remedies for common problems. We are learning more and more each day about ways to sustain ourselves without the need for non-organic solutions. Sometimes it can be quite a challenge maintaining our lifestyle, but when you have so many great people living under one roof, there's always something interesting to talk about.

If you haven't planned to yet, book your flight, get on a bus, or make your way here on a tractor if you must, and when you knock on the door and you want to come in, say these three words after you've been dropped off by Gen... What's up Doc!

Nic

mochi making

Habe-san had all the WWOOFers over for mochi making and a barbecue to celebrate the first day of autumn. Habe-san lives up the road from Tsuji house and they were the first Nou En farmers we helped out last year. We still work for them often and in return they have made us part of their family. I think that most WWOOFers who get to know them come to think of them as grandparents, they are that welcoming and generous.

So for those of you who don't know, mochi is pounded rice paste made from special glutinous rice. The rice is steamed, placed into a hollowed out stump, and whacked a hundred times or so with a big hammer until it becomes smooth and taffy-like. As you can see in the video, it's a two person job. It can become a wrapping for anko (sweetened bean paste) to make Japanese sweets, or it can be left to cool in various shapes. Then it can be toasted until it's puffy and melty inside and put into soup, or seasoned with a little sweetened soy sauce. It's totally bland but strangely addictive.

Nou En Camp Video

Nou En Recipe #1: Shiso Pesto

Many people who come here have never heard of Shiso (perilla frutescens). It's a versatile herb, showing up often in sushi, salads, and as a garnish, and you see it all over Japan. It's about 10 yen per leaf at the grocery store so the bill adds up quickly if you want to use it in any quantity. It's a vigorous, somewhat weedy member of the mint family (it will re-seed and come back with a vengeance next year) with a flavor that combines mint and basil with hints of anise, clove and maybe even cumin.

Last year, there were lots of little baby shiso seedlings popping up everywhere and someone decided to plant a row of it. The little plants quickly grew into bushes. A few hundred leaves turned into thousands. They flapped in the wind. We wondered what to do with it all.

Not wanting to see a good thing go to waste, I stripped all the leaves off one of the plants and made a batch of pesto, replacing the basil with shiso. To my surprise, nobody complained at lunch, and actually most people really liked it. So shiso became a new staple. We made batch after batch and ate it all through the year... and here we are now, finishing up our last bag right as we're harvesting this year's shiso.

This is a good example of of how growing your own food and eating locally can challenge you to be more creative in the kitchen. This, combined with the sheer number of WWOOFers passing through, each bringing in different approaches to the same ingredients, means that I am always on my toes and constantly learning. I like learning how to deal with large amounts of one ingredient (I'm thinking back on how we ate turnips every meal for quite a while last winter) just as I like learning how to cope without ingredients I'm accustomed to using because they're not in season or not available in Japan.

Shiso Pesto

a few cups green shiso leaves
a handful of nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, cashews, or whatever you've got)
a few peeled garlic cloves
half a cup or so parmesan cheese
olive oil (add enough to make it a nice smooth consistency)
salt to taste

Blend everything in a blender. Serve over pasta.

p.s. This year the recipe has devolved quite a bit-- we've nixed the nuts, cheese, and olive oil (I know, it hurts!) because they aren't locally made and they're somewhat expensive. Not as good as the original but it still does the job.

Camp Tsuji

This summer has been chock full of fun days hanging out with kids from the area. In early August we held an overnight camp at Tsuji house and around ten kids participated. We explored the vegetable fields, went swimming in the river, ate a gigantic pot of Japanese curry cooked over the wood fire and ended the evening with songs, thanks to Hanno and Faye. The next day the kids made pinwheels out of plastic bottles, swam some more, and painted an awesome "thank you" sign together before going home.

Next we held a day camp for our English school. The kids arrived and began stretching out balls of pizza dough and topping them which we then baked in our bread oven-- a total of 40. Then, WWOOFers paired up with the kids for a treasure hunt, we played a big game of hide and seek, and took a walk up the valley to visit the goats. We came back to the house to cool off a bit before digging in to some curry, followed by music around the campfire and fireworks.

Today's event centered around playing in the river and a curious contest devised by Seth. The kids teamed up with the WWOOFers to make a balloon-powered vehicle out of plastic bottles. Attached to the bottle is a sharp pin, as well as a drinking straw through which you thread a string. Letting the air out of the balloon propels the bottle along the string, hopefully to the pop the balloon at the end of the line. Got it?

What made these events unique was the interaction between the kids and the WWOOFers. It was great to see the kids playing and working together with foreigners and having a great time, despite the language, culture, and age barriers. I loved seeing the faces of the WWOOFers as they remembered how incredibly fun it is to get silly with kids. I loved seeing the faces of the kids as they took on new challenges with gusto and did things well outside their daily routines. These events were truly symbiotic! Good vibes all around. I'm already looking forward to next time.

Barefoot Building

I really hope Aidan never steps on a nail. Maybe by the time it happens, his feet will be blunt enough that they won't get punctured.

A handful of our longer-term WWOOFers are now helping to construct our house in the backyard. The current team: Seth provides the brains and engineering know-how, Aidan's got the brawn and a work ethic that would put even a Japanese person to shame, Toby provides the dirty jokes and common sense, and Gen uses his Yakuza connections to source free building materials.

So, the work on the foundation is finally complete. One of our long-termers last year, Louis, recommended that we do a dry-stone foundation since that's the work he does back in England. To put it mildly, it was much easier going when he was here guiding things, but he left last December to go hang out on the beach in Australia. Many a WWOOFer put in their 7 hours a day painstakingly finding that perfect jigsaw fit, freezing their butts off through the wintertime. Seriously, a big thank you to everyone who worked on it (I was lucky, I was exempt because I was pregnant, not wanting to lift big heavy rocks all day in the icy cold!)

But I'm chipping in a bit more now. Diapers hanging on the line, here I am peeling the bark off logs. It's kind of like shaving the legs of a giant carrot.

This last nine weeks has flown by so quickly it's hard to recount all the great things I've learned and experienced. My original intention was to stay in Sasayama only four weeks and then head North to Hokkaido, but here I am, still enjoying myself and with no idea when I will leave.

One of the more interesting experiences was being taught to drive a tractor and tilling fields by a little old lady who didn't speak a word of English, and me not understanding any more Japanese than “Ohayo”!! but nevertheless having a great time destroying her rows with smiles all round and hugs and beer at the end of the day.

The skills I am learning here has completely altered how I view my future and the possibilities available to me when it comes to living green. In such a short time here everything has changed.

I'll finish by recommending that anyone who feels they need a break from their normal lives and wants to learn how to live an organic lifestyle, leaving the smallest of possible footprints behind should give this place a chance, just be ready to work for what you want.

-Toby

Photos from Sara, Spring 2010

One of our WWOOFers from the spring, Sara, took lots of awesome pictures of the project while she was here showing the house and surrounding fields, lots of the things we worked on in that time, and everyone involved. It's a nice to look back on these photos and remember all the people that came through and all the fun stuff we did. Also it's interesting to see what we were eating at that time compared to what we're eating now that it's summer and we have loads and loads of fresh veggies coming in every day. Pretty much every meal we ate sansai salad (wild greens) gathered from the edges of the fields to go along with venison and brown rice. I think at that point we had even run out of our winter turnips. A goal for this fall is to plant lots of veggies to tide us over through those skinny months... it really was slim pickings, but made for lots of creativity in the kitchen.

Here is Sara with a carving knife and a bloody deer shank, soon to be frozen or cooked....

....over this incredible antique wood-burning stove, one of the best features of the Tsuji house, especially in those chilly spring months.

This is Julian preparing sansai tempura. Mmmmm....

We made our own koji (fermented rice fungus used to make sake, soy sauce, miso, etc.) for our homemade miso experiment. The rice ferments in these trays for a few days underneath the hot kotatsu table. We have yet to see how it turned out since it takes about a year for the miso to mature.

Mama Yuriko and the WWOOFers getting messy, stirring up some koji.

Sara, Momoko, Giacomo, ?, and Nanae making mochi together.

Sachiko, Sara, and Pierre making onigiri. Hmm... parmesan cheese onigiri???

Yuriko, Nanae, Jeremiah, and Seth preparing nobiru, the cute little wild onions that pop up everywhere in spring.

Nanae, one of our students-turned-WWOOFers, who is now headed to the Netherlands with another WWOOFer. Yay, Nanae. Sounds like fun.

And this is Sara making some seriously perfect rows in the Nou En Batake community garden.The soil perfectly turned and sculpted to a chiseled edge, her rows rival even obaachan and ojiichan's.

Me, Jeremiah, and Sara getting silly in bamboo hats while cutting bamboo shoots for canning and eating.

Robert taking Bear for a walk. Bear belongs to our friend and they let us take him on walks whenever we like.

The Tsuji house backyard....

....the Tsuji house garage and our indispensable K-truck...

....and the Tsuji house itself. Home sweet Tsuji house.

After a long rainy season, it's finally turned into a beautiful summer here in Sasayama. We've been busy and active the past few weeks and a lot of good work has been done. Thank you to all the WWOOFers that have passed through and to those that are still here doing their best every day.

Some of our recent projects include:

-preparing the soil and planting fall vegetables.

-cob house construction (foundation is finished, now working on the log frame).

-various food preservation projects: venison jerky, vegetable dehydration, pickles, freezing, and canning.

-weed whacking and weeding.

-making a chicken run for the Tsuji field (the chicks are loving it!)

-threshing the wheat. Next rainy day we'll begin winnowing it.

-volunteering for local farmers-- weeding, weed whacking, black bean maintenance, etc.

-holding 2 summer camps, one at Tsuji for local kids with autism, and one here at Kasugae for students from our English school.

-breaking our record for the number of WWOOFers staying at Tsuji (21).

Outside of work hours, activities include:

-baking bread and made 60 pizzas in our wood burning oven.

-WWOOFer hitchhiking race to Amanohashidate.

-venison yakiniku and pizza party before going to the Dekansho Festival.

-hiking.

-swimming in the river near Tsuji house.

-trip to Miyama to have a picnic and swim in the river.

-kendo lessons.

-acupuncture workshop.

-tea ceremony.

-japanese study.

-field trip to an organic vegetable farm in Ichijima.

Harvesting

Everyone’s hard work over the last several months is beginning to pay off (Thank you’s to all those that have come and gone). The broccoli, daikon, beets, negi, lettuce, spinach, turnips, and carrots have been great additions to our meals recently, but now the big harvesting has started. We have now harvested the onions, peas, garlic, and wheat. The house is beginning to look a bit strange with all the hanging food around. We still need to tie and hang all the wheat.

Nou-En Batake has been getting some much needed love recently. The plots are looking really good and soon we’ll be ready for those typhoon winds.