Hey folks,
I'm back in Osaka again. I just spent two weeks in a place near a town called Bicchu Takahashi, which is in Okayama prefecture in southern Honshu. It was a region of steep cliffs and narrow ridges, with very little flat land. But there are many people living there, and have been since ancient times. It's very cold, in fact it was just as cold as Hokkaido, and there was snow (although not too much). It's an incredibly beautiful area, with lots of forested mountaintops and rocky outcrops.
The place I was staying at was a tomato farm. They also have some fields where they were growing broccoli and hakusai (Japanese cabbage). It's a very successful farm, the guy that owns it has lived there all his life, and from the looks of the place, his family have been there for several generations. No-one there speaks good english, so I got to exercise my Japanese. The work I was doing was pulling down the remains from the last season's tomato crop, and preparing for the next crop, which will b vegetables, since the tomato season starts in September.
It was quite a tough place to live. The Japanese don't seem to worry too much about comforts. My room was pretty nice, it was insulated (which is highly unusual for a Japanese home) and had a good heater. But I was sharing it with two other guys, so it was crowded, and sleeping was sometimes difficult. I didn't have proper clothing, and I got sick for a while. But I'm OK now. The people there were very interesting. There was the family that owns the place, and there were a whole lot of younger people working there. There were three girls, Tomochan (Otsubo), Hamachan (Miyuki) and Anchan. Tomochan and Hamachan had quit their jobs and dropped out to do farming (Tomochan was an illustrator and Hamachan was a nurse). They found the farm through a program called Bora Arbeito (volunteer work in Japanese). Anchan had just finished high school. There were two guys there, Miyashitasan and Jagasan. Jagasan was a paid employee, but he didn't plan on farming forever, he was studying to go to uni to be an elementary school teacher. He ran the day to day work at the tomato sheds. Miyashita san was finishing high school, I think he was doing the job to earn a bit of money.
I had a good time there. The highlight was this party they had as part of some kind of religious ceremony to honour the ancestors. There was a lot of chanting and bowing which I understood not at all. Then they got out the food and the sake and the karaoke. I didn't understand much of the conversation but it was fun watching the various psychodramas unfold around me as the alcohol took effect.
So I finished there, and now I'm in Osaka. Yesterday I went to Osaka castle, today I'll be going to Himeji castle, and tomorrow I leave for Nagano, where I will be working on a pension. Osaka castle was really cool, although I read some poor reviews of it on the internet. It's huge, it's got to be almost a kilometer across on each side, and the inside has been turned into a garden. It's an enchanting place to wander through, trees and moats and enormous stonework. The museum in the central tower was also cool. They have the sword there that was (supposedly) used to behead Toyotomi Hideyori as part of his ritual suicide after losing the Summer War. Also plenty of armour and other .
My time here is coming to an end, and although I've loved my time here, I'm looking forwards to returning home. It will be nice to stay somewhere for more than two weeks. Also it will be nice to eat a pizza and a kebab, which are at the top of the list of things to do when I get back :) And hopefully I will get a few weeks of warm weather before it gets cold again, although I don't have very high hopes for that.
I'm back in Osaka again. I just spent two weeks in a place near a town called Bicchu Takahashi, which is in Okayama prefecture in southern Honshu. It was a region of steep cliffs and narrow ridges, with very little flat land. But there are many people living there, and have been since ancient times. It's very cold, in fact it was just as cold as Hokkaido, and there was snow (although not too much). It's an incredibly beautiful area, with lots of forested mountaintops and rocky outcrops.
The place I was staying at was a tomato farm. They also have some fields where they were growing broccoli and hakusai (Japanese cabbage). It's a very successful farm, the guy that owns it has lived there all his life, and from the looks of the place, his family have been there for several generations. No-one there speaks good english, so I got to exercise my Japanese. The work I was doing was pulling down the remains from the last season's tomato crop, and preparing for the next crop, which will b vegetables, since the tomato season starts in September.
It was quite a tough place to live. The Japanese don't seem to worry too much about comforts. My room was pretty nice, it was insulated (which is highly unusual for a Japanese home) and had a good heater. But I was sharing it with two other guys, so it was crowded, and sleeping was sometimes difficult. I didn't have proper clothing, and I got sick for a while. But I'm OK now. The people there were very interesting. There was the family that owns the place, and there were a whole lot of younger people working there. There were three girls, Tomochan (Otsubo), Hamachan (Miyuki) and Anchan. Tomochan and Hamachan had quit their jobs and dropped out to do farming (Tomochan was an illustrator and Hamachan was a nurse). They found the farm through a program called Bora Arbeito (volunteer work in Japanese). Anchan had just finished high school. There were two guys there, Miyashitasan and Jagasan. Jagasan was a paid employee, but he didn't plan on farming forever, he was studying to go to uni to be an elementary school teacher. He ran the day to day work at the tomato sheds. Miyashita san was finishing high school, I think he was doing the job to earn a bit of money.
I had a good time there. The highlight was this party they had as part of some kind of religious ceremony to honour the ancestors. There was a lot of chanting and bowing which I understood not at all. Then they got out the food and the sake and the karaoke. I didn't understand much of the conversation but it was fun watching the various psychodramas unfold around me as the alcohol took effect.
So I finished there, and now I'm in Osaka. Yesterday I went to Osaka castle, today I'll be going to Himeji castle, and tomorrow I leave for Nagano, where I will be working on a pension. Osaka castle was really cool, although I read some poor reviews of it on the internet. It's huge, it's got to be almost a kilometer across on each side, and the inside has been turned into a garden. It's an enchanting place to wander through, trees and moats and enormous stonework. The museum in the central tower was also cool. They have the sword there that was (supposedly) used to behead Toyotomi Hideyori as part of his ritual suicide after losing the Summer War. Also plenty of armour and other .
My time here is coming to an end, and although I've loved my time here, I'm looking forwards to returning home. It will be nice to stay somewhere for more than two weeks. Also it will be nice to eat a pizza and a kebab, which are at the top of the list of things to do when I get back :) And hopefully I will get a few weeks of warm weather before it gets cold again, although I don't have very high hopes for that.
And now for some photos. And as I start to write the commentary I discover that either Blogger or Picasa has ritually deleted about half the photos that I painstakingly selected and uploaded. Hooray for crappy software. Anyway...
This is the central tower of Osaka castle.
This is one of the huge stone at the Sakura gate. This one is estimated to weigh 130 tonnes. It is the biggest there. There are five stones estimated to weigh more than 100 tonnes.
This is the outer moat and wall.
This is part of the outer wall. Huge stones were used everywhere.
This is the youth hostel where I am staying. There is also a hotel in the same building. The youth hostel is the top two floors.
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