10.a 30 Mar to 6 Apr – NE of Nagoya, WWOOF #5 at Tomomi’s

WWOOF-5, a short week and likely our last WWOOF experience of this trip in Japan… Mimiko left us at a train station which allowed us to reach the town of Mizunami , the closest big town from our WWOOF host: Tomomi, a girl aged ~38 And again a totally different experience from the previous ones. …

9.e 25 to 30 March – Tour with Mimiko

After our hamono and shoyu expedition on the hills, back to coast area with the town of Matsue. Matsue Evening meal at a Izakaya (sort of tavern), good place to have a drink and food, like yakitori (small brochette of all sorts) Matsue is also another interesting and beautiful city… In Matsue, Mimiko brought us …

9.d 25 to 30 March – Tour with Mimiko

With Mimiko we visited some well known places, but also had a few adventures off the beaten tracks…. Izumo Hamono in Minari-Okuizumo Mimiko asked if there were other things we wanted to see while in Japan… we are were more open to any suggestions, but one thing was on our list (well mostly Patrick’s list), …

9.c 25 to 30 March – Tour with Mimiko

After our visit of Hagi, we went zigzagging between inland and coast. First small village of Tsuwano then along the coast to Oda. Tsuwano One of the shop we visited was a sake brewery (by accident), we were only curious and hoping to taste a few specialties too, also ask few questions… this is when …

9.b 25 to 30 March – Tour with Mimiko

In Hagi-Shi We had a good day visiting Hagi, a town that preserved its historical atmosphere of early Meiji period. Streets and houses just like we were in a Samurai movie – just need to look at it with a B&W filter. But of course what has been preserved are the more luxurious properties, ex-samurai …

9.a 25 to 30 March – Tour with Mimiko

After WWOOF #4, a real experience of living close to nature, and before WWOOF #5, we got a short week of touring with our friend Mimiko. For us almost full day in trains (5 interconnections) going east, for Mimiko a frightful ~900km by car, westbound. Our rendez-vous point was in Hagi. We did not just …

8.b 15 to 24 Mar – south of Fukuoka, WWOOF #4 at the Shigematsu

Let’s start over with presentation… our hosts are in their 68’ Minako and Hiroaki. They were both attending university when they made the decision to radically change their way of living and moved to this remote countryside, start a chicken farm (for eggs) and raise a family of 3 children! Quite some guts and determination, …

8.a 15 to 24 Mar – south of Fukuoka, WWOOF #4 at the Shigematsu

Bus from Ureshino to Fukuoka, then local train to Chikuzen-Daibu and from there our new host came to pick us up… still 30’ by car (silver car with a dog). At first we were really surprised when entering the main house: First impression is of a messy, dirty and poorly lit place with everything falling …

7.b 7 to 14 Mar – Nagasaki & Torikabuto (WWOOF #3)

Kan-san also brought us down to the big city of Nagasaki over the week-end. We then stayed at his companion’s work place, a small room used for Yoga classes at the back of an also small restaurant in very busy night life center of Nagasaki… But first he brought us to a huge onsen, almost …

7.a 7 to 14 Mar – Nagasaki & Torikabuto (WWOOF #3)

A totally different WWOOF experience and quite original character in meeting our new host 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. …