A totally different WWOOF experience and quite original character in meeting our new host Yoichi Kan …
Yoichi Kan
Managing director of PAL structural design (www.pal.co.jp), a successful company in civil engineering. It seems that company is involved in quite advanced designs both in complexity and innovation.
He also owns two good size hotels in an onsen city, Ureshino. City of natural hot springs, so very praised touristically.
And fairly recently got interested in ecology and environmental issues. Now in his seventies, he has some sequels of a stroke, he cannot move his right arm much and sometimes has problems controlling his foot – which makes the driving shaky and somewhat uncertain at times …
With him we visited several places, Nagasaki (very briefly), Ureshino and his onsen hotel, Arita (town famous for its ceramics), and his farm – where we were expected to do our actual WWOOFing duties…
Fish farm in the mountains!!
Up in the mountains…He built many warehouses, in which big water tanks are used to grow both fresh water and sea water fish!
Fugu
Shima-aji
Starting from fresh water source, he built a complex water network…… the water is also circulating through some greenhouses where some vegetables are grown, maybe also used to add nutrients?!? (It was sometimes hard to get details, or precise answers either…)… still expanding a bit.
… surrounded by beautiful isolated countryside!Amongst other: ι― Tai (japanese sea bream), ζ²³θ± Fugu (puffer or blowfish), ηΈι―΅ Shima-Aji (striped jack)
Tai
Including heating the water to the required temperature, adding salt to re-create sea water…….Will look for the name….
Torikabuto Nature School, an ecologist camp
Torikabuto Nature School (web site only in Japanese) is a kind of experimental ecology oriented camp he designed and built as a hobby.
Few hundred meters above the fish-farm… with traditional countryside farms in between…All buildings are βhomemadeβ and designed for the summer camps for large groups…
A 82 years old lady, Mihara, is our only companion when staying up in the mountain camp..
.. the βcampβ where we stayed and did a bit of gardening……here, our kitchenWith her we did a bit of gardening…… and cooking.Sometimes using wild plants…
KAN-san comes from a family of carpenters, combined with his education in architecture and civil engineering + interests in ecology and environmental concerns he applied original techniques to the set of buildings forming the Nature School camp, see Reciprocal Frame Architecture (https://www.baubiologie.at/workshop2013/Reciprocal-Frame-Architecture.pdf). A fascinating way of building wood framed buildings as a puzzle intertwined beams that support each others with minimal or even no joints!! Really worth checking this concept!!
Some 12-15 buildings scattered on his plot of land…Kitchen and dining place, viewed from outsidePlexiglass walls (nice when there is sun!, but else..)Interior of that tea houseZooming on the ceiling…Overhanging extension, seen from outside.Half-pipe watermill.Mill used to process the rice, removing husk and bran layers.Chicken house is conveniently just next to the rice mill.Dome shaped building, based on triangles combined into hexagons.Buildings are surrounded with facilities to experiment with traditional ways of cooking
Each of which has its own original design and purposeOffice, but also our βnon-heatedβ sleeping placeReception/ tea house!?!?Over-hanging extension to that tea house.Check the table and shutters….Other similar (but different) building, likely used of group activities… yoga? …. Water comes as a deviation from nearby stream.Part of our duties was to take care of the hens.Which seems to be used for parties !Also many βonsensβ, hot baths…… and many more smaller experimental structures…
Would be interesting to see in summer, when in full operation… as it was, it looked a bit abandoned and hard to imagine hosting an organised summer camp!
last but not least, the barbapapa house, which is really the one that fully applies the reciprocal frame architecture – or at least used as main reference in the book.
