Ayumu Takahashi

Haru-chan and Non-chan introduced a wonderful little photo book to us, called Love & Free by Ayumi Takahashi. He is a travel writer who has this one book translated to English. And what a wonderful inspiring read. He travelled with his new wife for 1 year and 8 months around the world, and the book is his random journal entries on his travels and the photos are the photos he takes. He writes about the stuff that makes your heart flutter and reminds us of the little bits and pieces of life that matters. The translation has been kept to the Japanese style and rhythm... Here's one I really like that is a reflection of myself here, and the wonderful people I've met here at Fuji eco park...

Personality
In the great outdoors, in big cities, I come across many different personalities.
If broadly categorising humans, there are the "farming type" and the "hunting type".

In the farming world, there is no cheap judgement system of "who can do the job, and who cant do the job." The calm routines and small pleasures of everyday life are virtues.

In the hunting world, roles are assigned in order to achieve a goal.
The role of the leader is born to manage the group to effectively achieve those goals.
In this world, a person's abilities and competence are challenged, and everyday is a succession of competition. And of course, victory becomes a virtue.

Neither is superior. Both worlds possess their own type of happiness.

With that in mind, I have no doubt that until now, I lived deep in the hunting world.
And without trying to see personalities, forced the farming type into the hunting world and judged them on the basis of "Can or Cant"; no realising how much suffering that may have caused.

I will probably, as always, continue to live deep in the hunting world, but because of this journey, I know now I have the heart to accept this farming world or the first time.
Lately, weird... how that makes me happy.

Dirt, strength and patience...

Things I've done in the past few days I have never done before in my life:

1. Wheelbarrow. And my god.. we wheelbarrowed like crazy for the last two days.

2. Handled worms and bugs with my hands (albeit gloved hands hehe!)

3. Petted a hen and spoon feed it live worms. We have an injured hen with a broken leg and its pretty spoiled!

4. Speak so much mandarin in 4 days to our Taiwanese wwoofers. Boy am i struggling, but its fun to work the brain and try to improve my so called mother tongue without feeling silly or embarressed.

5. Eat so much vegetables and so little meat - something we've been meaning to do but always never do...

6. Use a compost toilet (no flush, no water... only a seat above a hole in the ground and saw dust)

7. Slept so early - 9pm yesterday coz we were sooo tired!

I feel stronger just with 4 days of hard labour. The first couple of times ptich forking the wood chips from truck to wheelbarrow and ground to wheelbarrow etc... my back and arms and neck were aching and I couldnt last more than 5 mins. But today, I could go on for a while without feeling totally shack. It's a great feeling. Feeling strong. Maybe some day I can be as strong as the bangladeshi workers who slave to build singapore for us back home... Just check out how muscular and hefty I'm looking in this photo! Scary...

It's only Monday, but I am already dreading the relunctance to go when we have to leave this sunday. I dont think anyone can leave here without feeilng emotional..When the 2 Japanese wwoofers we met last thursday left the next day after a month of staying here, I thought how it must be so hard to leave when you're in such a beautiful place, doing the same thing for one whole month and then just leave to go back to your old life or to another life. The Japanese are also not the most affectionate people... they just waved and bowed goodbye at each other after spending one month with one another. Unlike Europeans who kiss and hug even if they've just met.

Anyway, we had a great time today, despite the hard work again... we started at 6am today! Coz we thought we'd try to avoid working in the hot sun (it was my 'bright idea). We chatted alot in the various different languages... Japanese, Mandarin, English and Swedish... and its nice that everyone understood and laughed at my lame jokes. hehehe. Its great. We even sang as we worked.

We have an off day on Wednesday and we're going to check out a lake and go to an On sen (japanese hot spring!). Noiceeee! It's strange but also nice to have a 'day off'. Coz we're only here 10 days, and this doesnt entirely feel like work.

Some thing I've definitely noticed is how diligent our Jap wwoofers are at doing their work, cleaning, cooking, doing the hard labour... yet they are also very very chilled out. For example while pitch forking & wheelbarrowing the chips all day, they were efficient and strong themselves, but didnt rush anyone else. And if mistakes were made, they just laughed it away and say its ok. They didnt worry terribly if we were late, stupid, lazy, inexperienced, soft... they were forgiving, patient and so nice. I found myself at times wanting to direct people to do things a certain way so that its more efficient... but I stopped myself as I thought, if these people who've been here so long aren't telling me what to do...why should i tell anyone else how to do stuff? I realise I needed to chill out alot more. Alot of times, Bjorn and I bicker because we both think we know the best way to do something... anything! It' really stupid. If we just learn a little patience and understanding, and not feel the need to control every aspect of our lives, people will be way more chilled out. I'm happy I've taken this one thing away with me from here. It's so fulfilling when you take away something positive that you never expect to.

Our Japanese Wwoof hosts/wwoofers

Can't believe that we're already 3 days down in our ten day stay here. Seems that theres just so much to do! Today we did some hard work man. Its just moving wood chips from one place to another and spreading it around this area where blueberries and rasperry bushes were. It took of us and the whole day and we're still not done. My goodness... But we had lots of fun, and our 3 japanese hosts/wwoofers have been soo soo nice to us. I can imagine how annoying it is to people this and that, and then we leave the next week. I think its time to describe our 3 hosts.

First is Haru-chan who is the only permenant paid staff here at fuji eco park. She's pretty good in English and has travelled pretty much most of asia. She was studying asia pacific studies at uni when she took a break to wwoof... then fell in love with this place, quit uni and is now a permanent staff here. Extremely helping, patient and not at all bossy, Haru-chan is a gem to have.

Non-chan is a wwoofer here for about one month now, and she is another super lovely gal. She was a nurse, then when she had some health troubles, she went to study organic vegetarian cooking and has cooked many delicious healthy dishes for us so far! She carries a notebook around and writes down all the english words she comes across while speaking with us and studies them in her free time. Such diligence and personal upkeep is so admirable.

Aki-chan (akira) is our energetic, upbeat boy whose also been here a month and is totally into the work while having fun! He's also really keen to learn and practice english and is travelling to australia in autumn to help an australian guy build his permaculture self sustainable housing!

ALl 3 are not older than 26 years old, yet there's almost an air of wisdom about them. They totally love the place, the work, they take care of it, and they take care of themselves. They have dreams to travel and experience life, yet they also know how lucky they are. I am so happy to have met such humble, inspiring people in a great but humble nation.

Perfect Mount Fuji

Simply stunning. We had simply gorgeous sunny weather today and oh my god. I dont know how to describe the beauty my eyes and my being has absorbed today.I stepped out of our hut and saw that the dandelions had come out to play. And working against the backdrop of fuji in full view.... is just priceless. There's something abotut that mountain. Its perfect shape and symmetry... it's perfect snowcapped top. Its the mountain we all drew as children. Everytime I accidentally gaze upon it, I am again at awe. Simply at awe.

Today, I did more weeding in another herb spiral garden & keyhole garden. This one was more tiring as it had fuller on weeds! We also fed the earth worms we dug out to the injured chicken, shinco. I took the dog, Daichi out for a walk after lunch, and didnt lock him up properly... as a result he ran away! But eventually came back. I dont think a dog should be caged up, and on a leash... he will never get to run about in his full potential. Bjorn and I are knackered. He spent the day cleaning the chicken house with Aki. Now he's almost snoring away on the comfy chair.

And our food... my god. We've been eating wonderful vegetarian japanese food since we got here. But we've not pooed yet! (I know... TMI...) This sounds not right obviously because eating more veges shold mean we should poo more. But our situation is a bit different... coz we've been pooing twice a day since we got back from London about a month ago.... which equates to kind of diarrhea due to the not so clean and healthy but very yummy south east asian food. And now... our bodies are going into shock because its not used to suddenly eatng such good food! So its taking a while to ease into it. At least thats what I hope!

Rainy but not disheartened...

We've nearly been at Fuji eco park for 24 hours only, and already I feel that 10 days isnt going to be enough.

Our fellow wwoofers here all have stayed one month minimum, and they say to us that 10 days is quite short. It's so different to the Singaporean mentallity I'm used to, which going for a 3D2N holiday actually counts as a proper holiday and that perhaps 5D4N is quite 'long'. Why is it that in city life, time is so precious and we constantly feel the need to fill it up with things to do, 90% of which are things that dont matter really.

Here I am sitting in our centre house, with soothing piano intrumental music playing in the simple cd player, and bjorns outside in the rain weeding the keyhole garden and spiral garden. I can't get over how beautiful the mount fuji backdrop is. ANd most of all, I cant believe we're getting to stay here for free, and not only that, we got free transfer from the train station & free meals! It's unbelievable. We spent so much money in the last 5 days in Tokyo it was nuts. Now, time passes nice and slow, its serene and quiet everywhere except for the frogs keeping us up at night and the birds chirping in the morning. What a world away. And only less than 2hrs by bus from Shinjuku station. Crazy. Wwoofing as a program rocks. I mean, I've heard of stories of some wwoofers getting exploited by their hosts. But I can tell in Fuji eco park's case, it is not at all like that.

Firstly, this is more of a 'park' than a proper smallholding that needs to make a living. They seem to be able to take in 6 - 8 wwoofers at any one time, but the work can easily be done by 2 for sure. That means feeding 6 - 8 wwoofers. Apparently i heard our host, Masa-san whom we've not met yet, drops by about once a week when he takes a break from his Tokyo day job, and brings us money for wwoofers to sustain. Its mad!

Ok, the rain is letting up, so its back to weeding the spiral & keyhole garden for me now. Before I go, a photo of fellow wwoofer - Nozomi-chan serving our lunch for us... japanese brown and white rice in seaweed soup with egg & veg... plus miso potato & mushroom dish. YUMs... :)

We're here in Mount Fuji Eco Park!

Yeah!! We have overcomed the comforts of Singapore and made our way to Japan! Bjorn and I are sitting here, in the centre house of Fuji Eco Park. Just outside our door, is the spectacular Mount Fuji. The weather has been shit and rainy and grey, so we havent gotten a full view yet, but we have the next 10 days for the great mountain to show.

We've actually been in Japan for 6 days already. Holidaying luxuriously with the in laws in downtown Tokyo, and hanging out with our friend dakai every evening at random Izakaya places downing sakes. Tokyo's buzz is mad! From the high tech toilets, the super fantastic service, efficient train systems and crazy television shows. We had a fab time, and were honestly, a little scared at this stretch of our trip where we know some comforts will be taken away from us. But to our delight, this place is no ghetto. Comfortable futons to sleep on, spare wellington boots for us and hot water.

Have gotten to know some fellow wwoofers here... all of which I will describe in time as I get to know them.... but on day one, it was fantastic helping out in the kitchen. I learnt to make garlic soya sauce, japanese cabbage pancake, and rice balls (the triangle shaped ones). Delightful! I just know thta we will take out more than what we will imagine out of this experience. Already, cooking and helping with our fellow japanese wwoofers is something beautiful, something money cant buy.

Its almost 11pm now, and its pitch dark outside except for the almost full moon, and we're going to hit the sack. Nitzzz.......

For now, I'll leave you with a photo of the Fuji eco park. Thats the centre house where we cook, eat, wash, pee, poo, talk, read, chat, and watch the gorgeous mountain ahead.

First stop.. Japan!

Hot, humid, itchy, oily and sweaty!

We've been back in the tropics for 12 days already, 3 days in Tioman & 9 days in Singapore.

And we've been busy bees! I'm afraid to admit though, not really busy planning our big trip, but more like eating plenty, meeting good old friends and spending time with our parents. It really makes a difference when both our moms dont really have full time jobs. They occupy!

However that said, our plans have diverted a little. Next week, we're going to be spending 8 days in Vietnam with my mom. Its purely going to be a take in the sights and eating heaps. And then back in Singapore for 3 days, and then off again to Japan! Where it will get a bit interesting...

We're spending the first week in Toyko, then we're off to the Fuji eco-park village where we'll Wwoof for a week! Thanks to good 'ol Bjorn with his eager initiatve, scored us the gig there. Most Singaporeans love Japan for their weater, food and good natured people. I love it for its culture of minimalism, and the ideas that come out of there which encourages living life simply without 'excess'. Everything from their design, food, architecture has an air of simplicity and unclutteredness about it. We cant wait!!