Archive for the ‘Fall’ Category

Thatch Harvest

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
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What a great weekend! Saturday was spent gethering kaya (material for thatching a roof. In this area they use nemagaritake and susuki, but it is not called kaya until it is older and ready to harvest). This time we had no foreign guests, and I am kicking myself fro not getting around to inviting anyone. My apologies to anyone who might have wanted to join. We did, however, have about 12 Japanese folks come join - ranging from people who just wanted to see this village, to a father and three-son group who have a second home with a thatch roof, and wanted to be more involved in the process.

The susuki field is way up on top of a mountain, where there is an unbelievably beautiful flat area that was, until three years ago, home to several hundred free-range cattle. Now it is now an abandoned delapitated farm. Buildings don’t last long here in the snow country without someone to take care of them.

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Anybody out there interested in starting a little eco-community in this area? Keep in mind that durring the winter, the only way in an out is via snow shoe.

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A Month of Autumn

Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Shiga KogenShiga KogenMom & Dad @ Shiga Kogen

The great thing about this place is that fall last for a month. Over two weeks ago when my parents were here, the Shiga Kogen looked like the photos above, while Akiyamago looked like the photo below.

Yashiki in Aiyamago 秋山郷 屋敷

Then, when we had our fall bike trip, the Shiga Kogen was past its peak, but Akiyamago was amazing. (see previous post).

Just toward the end of their visit, Nonomi was reaching its peak - and kept on peaking. As you can see below, I wasn’t the only one there with a camera hoping to take advantage.

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The lower areas (around 200 meters) where we live is just starting now. This last shot is of the “one-man-car” that runs along the Iiyama line between Nozawa and Echigo Kawaguchi. This is from Yokokura - the nearest station to us, located in the little hamlet you can see in this photo from the mountainside. Next week should be great as well! Anyone want to come out and join us?

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Sick of Tokyo?

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
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A few photos from this weekend when we had one customer who just couldn’t stand Tokyo any more. Who are we to deny her a few days of relief? We were busy on Saturday, so she took a map and a bike and made her way through our village. On Sunday morning, Cara and I took off in the morning for a 2.5 hour ride completely uphill - 800 meters up (starting at 200 meters) to be exact. While the fall colors have started here now, they are amazing betwee 700 and 1,000 meters.

These are a few shots from that day. (Mostly from the downhill portion)

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Fall Bike in Akiyamago

Sunday, October 26th, 2008
Akiyamao AutumnFall Bike Trip

A few shots from our one week fall bike trip.

Nakatsu River in Akiyamago

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Parents in Town

Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Mom, Dad, Tomoe in FieldMom & Dad Visit

So, I have a lot I want to comment on about that last post and other people’s responses, but I have been busy with my parents who were visiting for a week to check out our new life. In some ways they were our “easiest” customers, and in others, the hardest.

They were our easiest because they didn’t need much help to entertain them. Their motto was “just do what you do every day so we can see you do what you do every day”. I think they got more than they were looking for when Tomoe and I had our tri-daily fight.

They were the hardest customers in that… well, no I guess they were not that hard.

Mom & Tomoe

Although I told them to bring a book because this is not Tokyo and there is not as much to do (depending on the person), their days were filled with helping us harvest soy beans and sorghum, gather mukago, separate the shaft and the seed from our bird-seed harvest, shuck walnuts, and even using our new antique pedal powered dakkoki to take the sorghum seeds off of the stalk.

When they were not working, dad was helping me to build a little storage shed for our rice-straw in the winter, and our bikes in the summer. We did have enough time to take a few drives and bike rides through the surrounding areas, and I recommend that anyone in Japan get to the Shiga Heights this week. The colors are at their peak and I am worried for next weeks fall color bike trip. The Akiyama Valley is not quite at the peak, but by the time the bike trip arrives, it should be brilliant.

I have more photos, but these are the only ones ready to post now as we have to get to work preparing for the one-week trip that starts in 1.4 days. Here you can see mom and dad spending their nights looking at the Internet, and their days working in the field.

Family Night

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Harvest Festival

Monday, September 15th, 2008
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A week ago (or was it two?) We had our local harvest festival. It’s actually more of a big picninc with everyone from our hamlet bringing a dish to pass around. Theoretically all the harvest is in and people have a chance to breathe. The weather was great and the beer and sake were flowing, but I was having a hard time relaxing. Unlike last year’s harvest festival, where our biggest worries were to get the house cleaned up (still not done), this year my head was filled with a mile long to-do list, and knowledge that winter would be here soon.

Somehow we have managed to stay ahead of the wave, but it feels like it is crashing down soon. The snow starts in less than a week and we are still working on getting the fire stove installed. I have been spending almost every day cutting wood from a recently demolished house down the road, but we have no where to put it. Our yard is a mess because our house was not built with farming in mind and does not have that much storage space. I’m sure our neighbors are glad that we moved in. Which reminds me - I have to find someplace to store nine bikes for the winter because the bike shack I built last spring is in an avalanche path. And, oh yeah, we had hoped to get chickens this winter so I have to find someplace to build a chicken coop that will not be demolished by the snow.

On the One Life Japan front, I have to get that website updated before we are featured on a popular travel program next week.

We are making progress though. We finally got our sorghum relatively cleaned up and ready for storage, our rice is all taken care of and, and our green tomatoes and zucchini are pickled. With dad’s help we have added a little lean-to to the back of our house to keep our rice-straw relatively dry through the winter. We probably have enough wood already to keep us for the winter, and may have enough time to get more (if, that is, I have not broken my neighbors chainsaw - 50% chance)

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Photos from Fall Bike Trip

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
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Just sharing some of my favorite photos from this year’s Fall Colors Hike & Bike Tour in Japan. The colors were amazing, baths were hot, the monkeys were wild, and the sunset and sunrise from the top of Mt. Naeba was a tad chilly.

The most important thing is that everyone finished safely - if you don’t count my sore shoulder and one very badly mangled former-favorite wide-angle lense.

DSC_7294_1.jpgBiking in AkiyamagoIMG_2217_1.jpg

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