Saturday, 1 April 2017

Day 13 Farm stay: Reflections by Francesco


Farm stay - Kuta Village

Our farm stay for me, has been one of the highlights of our trip so far as it gave us all a chance to see some authentic traditional Japanese foods and practices. We made our way from Hiroshima early Tuesday morning taking the Bullet-train or Shinkansen as it is called in Japan to Kyoto, we then took a bus for roughly two hours out of Kyoto into the countryside of Japan to a small village known as Kuta. The bus journey was a scenic one, as we slowly rose up along the cliff-side roads snow appeared on either side, becoming more and more common the higher we went, the air became cool and we past many rivers, all flowing strongly from the melted ice and snow. Winter was leaving these hills.

We were met at the base of the drive with open arms by Kazy and his wife Lumi, the owners of the farm and were taken into their home for some refreshing Japanese traditional rice tea, which was much appreciated after a day of travel. We then met our hosts for overnight stay, all senior Japanese speaking ladies, (the towns average age was said to be about 70) and our interpreters, a handful of youthful Japanese women and Yuki, a young man who just graduated uni less than a week prior, he was the only communication tool between us boys and our host, our very own 'Japanese Grandmother' as Yuki would call her. When Yuki was not present we were reduced to polite nods and pointing as our best means of communication, not very effective at all given the language and age difference. However, with or without communication she was incredibly hospitable and catered to our every need the best she could.

On the stay we did activities such as making Mochi, making soba noodles, as well as weaving our own chopstick rests. I will not go into these as they have already been mentioned in detail in previous posts. If you would like to read more check out the farm stay posts, all published prior to this one.

The first night at our newly adopted grandmothers house was spent washing ourselves in the super deep bath, playing with the small overexcited poodle, 'Poochie' as well as (to my delight), watching the Japanese world cup qualifier against Thailand around the living room table on the floor (the Japanese way). The blue samurai ran away 4-0 victors over a Thai team that impressed me in some stages of the game, but never mind my football ramblings, I should be writing about our cultural experience instead. We went to bed on the floor atop a heated floor mat which was not enough to keep out the cold for some.

Most of our days were spent around the living room table sipping Japanese rice tea and eating anything they gave us, (so much food!) and talking to the many Japanese hosts and translators about the differences in culture and their lives and travels. Life was very different from the cities, everybody was relaxed and seemed at peace with themselves, this is somewhat unsurprising considering their surroundings and the lifestyle that comes with farm life.

The time we spent at the farm was an absolute joy from start to finish, the food was fantastic, the experiences were unique and the people were overwhelmingly hospitable and will be missed. I really hope that one day I will be able to return.

Francis 1st April 2017

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