歩こう、歩こう、私は元気！

Was キャロル's rest day so she wasn't in the house.
マサン took ゆか, along with とも子さん、けんた and me to hiking at 乙女渓谷 :)

Tea time :)昼ご飯は野菜丼を食べた :)
そして、午後の仕事...
まきを切った
晩ご飯は...

えぇ!? Chicken McNuggets!?
そうじゃないよ :P
ごめみたい材料で作っただよ☆
それもおいしかった!

6級の地震・疲れた一日

そうですね。
Over thousands of earthquakes are recorded in Japan every year, which comes to 3-4 earthquakes every single day (but a lot are so minor that it cannot be felt).
According to Area and my mom there was quite a strong earthquake in Tokyo yesterday... hmmm yes. But no, I didn't feel it.

The map isn't super clear, but I am now at where the pink arrow on the left is and Tokyo is near the green blothches of highways on the right. Quite far apart.
So I wouldn't have known about the Tokyo earthquake if they haven't asked me about it.

料知最後地震還是在這邊發生了。
睡覺的時間感覺到房間在搖晃, like someone shaking me from my dream.
But I wasn't scared at all, as long as nothing was falling on my face. So I stayed lying, the shaking was the strongest earthquake I felt yet and actually lasted quite long I guess a bit more than 1 minute.
5:10am when I checked the clock on my phone.
Cool, back to sleep.

In the morning I asked キャロル whether she felt the earthquake, apparently no. She was quite disappointed and told me to wake her up the next time, not the best response to a earthquake. And then 理恵さん told us the earthquake reached Richter Scale 6.0! Wow from my IB HL Geographical knowledge.. that was quite a strong one ;)

To start the day off we had some yummy breakfast!
Tomatoes with 玉ねぎ&しそう and home-made bread by 理恵さん.
おいしかった、トマトはとても新鮮です。

The couple have left yesterdat but the family stayed here for another night. After breakfast マサン showed the "パパ" the tools and ingredients he used to make beer! Oh and a new wwoofer came: とも子さん, 日本人, 32.
Then マサン took us out to 加子母歌舞伎theatre "明治座".

Each person is required to donate ￥300 for the good-keeping of 明治座. It works this way, after making the donation you can take a piece of wood beside the money box. Break it in half, one side is the reciept and the other side you write your name on it and hang it on the walls of the main corridor.
A guide showed us around. Their 歌舞伎 performances attract lots of people from outside and last time more than 500 people squashed into the little theatre. Famous 歌舞伎 actors also came here before and Olympics gold medal swimmers came to visit (how they are related I have no idea) They also have other kinds of performances like.. classical music concert.
After 歌舞伎 the family left (byebye cool daddy:( ) and we headed home for lunch!
Curry and an Indian type of bread (but NOT Naan).

散歩しよう☆
This afternoon I finally had to work in the fields... extremely tiring work.
キャロル and I found potatoes that were planted under the solar panel and we dug them up! We spent quite some time there hehehe... were happy as we dug up more and more... wasn't sure if マサン wanted them so early though hahahha but anyway! they were put into good use since we integrated those little mini potatoes in our meals.
Tea we had watermelon sorbert! It's a bit different from the normal ones we have (I do not usually eat watermelon) but this one was really good. 理恵さん added maple syrup, and especially good during a hot day's work outdoors.

And I was so glad that plucking weed ended for the day (plus I didn't have to do it again).
大変疲れた。


At night マサン sat down with the wwoofers and 2 guests who came (ワダさん and his daughter ゆかさん) to talk about... もりのいえ basically. How もりのいえ became to be (I really tried to understand what he was talking about, he can speak English but it's not perfect, plus I was totally tired from the day).

The name もりのいえ itself has lots of meaning to it.
1. 森(もり)野(の)家(いえ) - the home of forest and fields
2. もり is part of their last name 森本
3. マサン is called "のりまさ”.. you can find のり
4. 理恵(りえ) is also included
5. there were some other things that could mean heart and life...

I might come round to the story if there's the chance.
There are many things that strikes to be good and ideal to do to live in a eco-friendly way and help conserve the environment, but definately quite hard to achieve in Hong Kong.
出来るだけその方ようにやってみましょう。

加子母の・野菜天麩羅 ビール 花火

The morning starts with preparing breakfast,
Japanese likes to have rice in the morning as well, we had a kind of red rice with beans mixed together. Healthy and yummy, starts the day with a filling stomach.
マサン took the guests for a small tour around 加子母 and invited me and キャロル to join :)
第一站:加子母小学校
(i was wondering why ゆうた didn't have to go to school for some reason.. =___=)
在加子母裡只有一間小學和一間初中,讀高校和大学的話就要去其他地方或名古屋和大阪等附近的城市。But unlike other villages there are jobs here for young people so some of them return to work afterwards.

The tables are tailored to fit the kid so they are not the same height, which is so Japanesey (attention to details).

図書館だ, love the stained glass.
The school actually won a prize for it's architecture, it is built in a D-shaped so the classrooms around the curve of the D have a round wall, and if you walk down the corridor you eventually reach the start since it's looped. The glasses of the windows extends from the ceiling to floor so a lot of light gets into the room. In the middle there's the playground/garden.
And they use a lot of wood around here, they are proud of their wooden structures.

第二站:加子母Community Centre

第三站:モクモク shop which sells wooden souvenirs

Wooden ferris wheel from モクモク, there are also toy trains, chopsticks, some cheap blocks of wood that would be nice to make into chairs...

第四站:Wood Processing Factory (to steal thin wodden bits that can be used around もりのいえ).

こうたろうくん, kid of the family who is staying here. (he made good friends with ゆうた)

Lunch, washup, afternoon nap as usual. Then today I took charge of lighting the fire for the お風呂! I pushed the newspaper too much into the stove when I put the wooden logs in and the logs wouldn't catch the fire at first, but it was good in the end and me and キャロル were happy.

And now the excitment begins.
Three words to tell what was done in short: 野菜天麩羅　ビール　花火
One word to describe the night: 素晴らしい

マサン is not a farmer, but since he practices permaculture he does have a few patches of farm which he grows vegetables and rice for self sustainability.
So for the afternoon we went out in his big "garden" and picked bits and pieces of fresh leaves.

Like this one, but I don't remember what it is called.
This is マサン showing us what to pick and how to pick them.
マサンの畑

ゆうた
Apparently he didn't want to take photos.
Woala :) We had three bowls of these.
Searching for corn...
Corn that look like pearls!
The leaves were brought back to the 台所 :) I have picked out しそう (a kind of leaf that they use for almost every meal, smells and tastes really good i really like it but i have no idea what it is called in English or Chinese) and vegetables are their main food source...

but tonight we made 野菜天麩羅 (vegetable tempura) which is totally exciting teeeheeee :D :D :D before... and and and...after!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Various types of leaves that are edible :D :D

...And on the plate, おいしそうなぁ☆すごくおいしかった★

Grilled rice dumplings with a special kind of sauce.
Ahhh and I was all satisfied :D :D :D
And then and then...

No need for words,
Perfect way to end the night :D
嬉しかった一日だ :D