The funny part we talk in the cafe during work exchange

Friends from the guesthouse gets together for coffee

The “flow” in old Japanese cafe

Yesterday at the house, morning we had an outing where all 6 of us will walk to the nearest cafe to get our coffee for the day. Well, when I saw the lady boss is working in the kitchen I was afraid that she might assume our order as all coffee drink so I went over to clarify with her on our order. Apparently she told me “Chottomatte” please wait and get back to her work. I suddenly realise that I had interrupted their work flow again.

In Japan when you get into a cafe usually you will not be entertained to until when the owner is finished with her tasks one hand and ready to come to you. You will know it is your turn when the owner brings over a hot towels and then they will have to serve a glass of iced water. There will be the time you put in your order. I think any other time when you just interrupt them for order will be rude.

It is very different from Chinese people where they can multitask and take order while maybe cooking fried rice at the same time. All Chinese cares are about is turnover rate and collection of money as quickly as possible. But in Japan, you will get the feeling that they don’t care so much about the money but instead they are very persistence in their sequence and traditions. Which they focus more on well being instead of the peruse of material procession. 

Question for personality test

In the cafe they asked us 3 questions and wants us to answer them straight when we think of the question.

When you are walking in a jungle and;

1. You see a color and what color will that be? And why
2. You see an animal and what will that be? And why
3. You come around an environment and what will that be? And why

You can stop and think of these questions yourself and I will be sharing my answer below and what does it mean in the end.

My answer for the color have 2 answer to it. First thing comes to my mind instantly was yellow and my mind was changing it quickly to black. The reason was that yellow was what i used to like as a kid where it symbolise energetic and happiness, but as I grow older I stop liking yellow and love black. Black is the absent of color or I should say more accurately the presence of all colours. As I grew as an adult I felt a lot of emotion need to be contained and not expressed so I choose black as my favourite color.

The animal that come to my mind was cat as i liked cat most as I was attracted by the car attitude and for them respecting distance. They are cute and comfy to hold in. Sometime they give you a feeling that they need you and provide comfort for you and yet sometime they are just on their own doing their stuff and they will not require your attention at all. Furthermore, I love the arrogance attitude from cat as they know they don’t need you as long they had their food taken care of.

As for the environmental scene that I can think of this, standing at the cliff looking down on the sea in front of me. This scene was the one that Sandy, Tracy and me was in Danang. The feeling attached to it was that I was so small compared to the huge and board world in front of me. That was a sense of liberation and I describe that something was “holding back and suddenly got released”.

They laughed hard as the answer correspond to these is, color is what you think of yourself and animal is what you are looking for in a partner and last question on environment is what is your ideal sexual experience. So literal right?

Bread vs toast

You know me and Jackie just had a heated discussion on the difference between a bread and a toast. For my understanding, bread and toast is the difference in hardness. As long as the bread was placed in a toaster and removed moisture where you know it became hard and warm is a toast.

However for the German they had a philosophy on bread. Just like wine and coffee per se. There are differentiation between sour, sweet and bitterness in bread. The after taste and the initial taste so on. They really respected bread a lot. On the hand, toast to them is like “junk food” like any bread that has a shape of a square is a toast. Like all our gardenia bread is call toast even without putting in a toaster. They call it the untoasted toast. 

Living expenses in Japan and farming

Today morning me and Jackie went out to do a cycling around the village to explore a little. It is an hour ride out and we manage to reach Teramae and stumble into a supermarket. Grocery shopping is expensive for us. Just simple 2 meals and some snack will cost us $30 - $60. It don’t even last us 2 days. Living in Japan can quickly add up I think $150 for a week or $600 a month would be decent amount to put aside. A side note is that being vegean is difficult in Japan due to the high price on vegetable and fruits. 

Rental is kinda expensive too. I believe $1,500 a month you can get quite a small single apartment. The basis is that we can only find daily apartment at the lowest of $30 given only if it was low season. On weekend the price run crazy as much as 10x the usual price. Crazy right. Don’t think I am exaggerating as the hotel can really go into $300 - $400 range on weekend like Friday and Saturday. Last time i asked it was due to the crazy amount of traveller coming in to Japan as they claimed that “Japan is cheap”. I don’t know where they got the idea from. So our solution to spend the night on weekends are using their spa during the night and sleep at their sofa area. Also some recommended us to use mange cafe to spend the night although we hasn’t try that yet.

“Sorry Sensei, we are wrong” , Bow before me~~~

Today our job is to do some quick gardening and the thing I worked on is compost, which is mixing the green and brown so they get to compose to some great stuff for the soil. What we are doing is the cold method which need least attention but longer to convert. We just find some weed and bad grass, cut them and throw it to the compost area. Layering chicken shit in between them and give them little watering down and sunlights. In time this will provide soil for us to grow more fruits :) 

I start loving the farming way of life and will want to learn more on permaculture for days to come.

Meet up with German and France friend at the guesthouse

 Today was a stay home day for us. We wake up for breakfast and lunch and then many people came. First is a Japanese neighbour came over and gave us orange and he told us that he is a priest from a church. 

Then we had another Germany Marke coming to join Hannah. So picture for the day is with these 2 girls. What is interesting is that Marke told us her encounter when she stayed at host house and it was funny. We spoke the whole night on different topics like housing, religion, politics and culture. Well it was very interesting to meet people and listen to their stories.

Hannah right and Marke in the middle

Later in the evening we are greeted by another 2 France girl whom have lots of stories to tell us. They are Joanna and Julie. A school teacher and a lawyer to be and they are travelling between their job. They shared with us the experience of doing a road trip in Australia where they bought a used Honda CRV with camping tent on the top and there are cooking wares and power in the back of the car.

Julie on the right and Joanna at the centre

The next day we bring the 2 girls to the Lawson and supermarket which is 35mins walks one way. We had a good talk and they detoured to a random temple along the way and they strongly recommended us to watch a Japanese cartoon later in the night. I am so impressed that the Germans are teaching their kids early to be independent. Like they will not help them to do things but will accompany them to let them complete simple task by themselves as young as 3 years old. France on the other hand is very lay back and chill where they are not really care about how people view them. They are more expressive in term of their emotion and opinion. Unlike Asian we are always trying to be nice and polite, many times i felt like we are putting up a fake skin and we care too much about how people view us.

Movie night in the house

At night we planned to watch the Japanese show Howl’s living castle which was recommended by Joanna. But we try connecting the old laptop with the projector and the speaker which we had difficult in sourcing enough electrical outlet from the house.Setting up the laptop was a slow and painful process as all of us watched patiently for Joanna to get the laptop up. Then we faced the wifi connection issue and then the Netflix browser is not supported and also prime video account can’t login so we had a series of issue and end up we still not able to get the video up working.

To every you I’ve loved before

Finally they gave up and I took over the laptop and proposed to watch another anime that is available on YouTube “To every you I’ve loved before”. 一头雾水。It is about parallel world theme suspend movie. End up we would never guess the outcome of the movie as ending we realised that the author broke up 2 separate story half into each movie. So the part we watch explain half of each story and it was super confusing. 

During we finally found out who Fred was. When we came to the house at the bathroom there was sign mentioning that watch out for Fred who will be watching you bathing if you are not careful. We had no idea who Fred was and the host gave us a clue that it has 2 eyes with 4 limbs. End up that night during movie we were greeted by a small little cute frog climbing around the house. And that was super cute.

Our Japan Osaka first week video was up and we started a new series walk the talk which we just speak while walking around Osaka.

And we had a short that I was walking along a stream near our guesthouse

Went to Himeji for Tuna sashimi and Fugu hotpot

You can see Himeji castle all the way to the back of the street

As the host is still not around as we heard from Hannah that he is working in Osaka and the farm house was just left open for volunteer to come and go as we wish. Since he isn’t around and yesterday we had done the heavy lifting of arranging the log for the farm, Hannah decided to let us go for a day break at Himeji. She will be heading to the Himeji castle but we plan to go out just to do some retail therapy.

The train station outside of Niino station

We have no jaw line in Japan due to the rice we ate

Hop on the JR train 10 station to Himeji will cost us $5.10 one way each. So today our transportation on MRT along is $20. Sianz. 

We are agreed with lots of small shopping mall just around the Himeji station and they are small enough for us to finish all these shopping and street walking using one day. So other than these handful of small shopping mall, the Himeji castle is just 15mins walk from the train station. 

We had curry rice for lunch and shop a bit till tea break where we drink coffee at one of the old cafe that use siphon coffee filter. Japanese do not really like using espresso machine to make coffee and they love to use drip coffee and siphon coffee filter which all these vintage shop had in common is the old fashion design and the rusty looking wood carpentry. 

Highlight after that was that we went to a Japanese sashimi shop Totto to had the tuna and some sashimi at a very affordable price. It is very popular among local Japanese. It make me realise that sashimi don’t have to cost a lot if you are eating it from Japan itself, maybe there are over supply in Japan itself.

Special tuna $22 and assorted 5 type sashimi for $9 cheap!!

We are happy with the down jacket we bought at second hand shop

We walked around till it gets dark in the evening and Japan sun set as early as 5pm where the sky get dark every early and we are able to get a nice view outside Himeji station. Oh ya, the sky are very clear in Japan and we can see stars in the sky so vividly and clear!! How long was that since I seen such clear sky? Since when i was in the army time?

Night view in Himeji station is breadth taking 

So after walking not long we went to take our dinner cum super at Fugu restrauant. Fugu is Japanese puffer fish which is deem poisonous to fisherman around the world but Japanese get to eat them as Japan had strict rules in cleaning the fish and removal of those parts that is poisonous. Only certain restaurant is given permit to run fugu and heavy penalty if process are not strictly followed. Therefore Japanese people feel safe to eat them and so am I. 

Tomorrow we are receiving a new guest in the house and we are meeting Taiwanese guy in the village who will want to bring us around town.

First day farming at Kamikawa amazing

Today in the house I saw the book making small farms work by Richard Perkins publish in 2016. The book belongs to Mark our new host and is talking about permaculture farming. Sustainable farming method which I will be interested in the further if we are starting our own farmhouse in either Kulai or Japan. So bookmark this for future me. Another book is the vegetable & herb expert by Dr D G Hessayon and the author had also written a series of works’s best selling gardening books.

Our job to be done today at the farm was very free and easy. We had to erect some wood pranks and make a barricage to build up a compose bin for some waste composition. After ward we had to rearrange the log at the site so that they are space out properly for airing. Those logs are heavy and it looks like they are part of a previous building for the roof and structure. The owner source it second hand so that he can build a shed if he needs to.

After work the showering is amazing. We are wondering to use the solar panel to heat up the water tank however it doesn’t work as the water were just dripping a bit before it just stopped working. The owner was kind to leave a hand pump shower for camping style. OMG i start loving this life as this is a preparing for me to do a car camping in my Alza in the future.

This is our host farm house in Kamikawa

Heading to our host village in Kamikawa

Today we are moving to Kamikawa a small rural village to meet our new host. We mentioned that we gonna to work exchange for him to get to stay in Japan for us to experience the authentic Japan culture. I didn’t know for sure if it is a hostel, a cafe or a farm. Let go over there then we decide. 

Today we met another traveler from China Guang Zhuo named Joesph and he smoke a pipe and basically go travelling alone with his wife and son’s approval. We spoke to him and as usual the tone is very similar to Shen Ge. They are Chinese that want to run away from China. (Pro USA). We had a lunch at soba shop before we part way. Joseph agrees with us with the Japan’s product quality and he told us that product bought in Japan can be sold at a profit back in China. I believe I can do a 中古店 in Singapore. See. I told you I am a hogger. 

Afternoon, after he left we walked along the Motomachi street as we heading toward the train station to travel to our new host place. Along the way, we stumbled into a Japanese 中古店 where they sold used branded clothes mainly the winter 冲锋衣和羽绒服. You know I had put off many things when Jackie asked me to buy one in Uniqlo and the other logos park one. Cause my player had planned to make me find this instead. A Columbia titantium down jacket that is going for $35. Which met all my requirements and the jacket is highly adjustable via tightening strip. So I immediately placed my order. So you see. You are only looking at the price because you are not seeing the value. Jackie got herself a brown Uniqlo down with hoody. 

Along the way special mention another purchase which is the Japanese “standard” shop which priced between $1 to $10. Super great product and we bought a reuseable pocketable bag. Very small it is like a zippo lighter and can use to hand carry or sling. 

Then we took 1.5hrs to reach niino station. We thought that there will be food mart for sure as it is an mrt. I am so wrong. This station connects us to a village with old Japanese house and there are no amenities around. Nearest Lawson is 20mins walk away. Oh my god. The weather is 4 degrees and luckily we still have our newly bought down jacket. We met up with Hannah from Germany and took us to our host house and then we are surprised that the house have no host other than volunteers. Host will not be back for the whole week and he left the house to the volunteers. 

It was so cold inside and the only heater is the small heated table and then the toilet seat. Other place all cold as fuck. The bathroom is mechanical pump and we had to boil water and pour it in. Whao. That was really new for us. We skid bath and went to bed with 3 thick blanket. Tomorrow will update you with the work we do at the house. 

Went shopping in Kobe centre

Lunch at a soba place which looks different by picture

Today wake up early to have home made breakfast below the hostel. It is mayo egg with butter bread which we bought at family mart yesterday at a discount. We had decided to do shopping at Kobe today. So we doing our walk to Motomchi and then to Montbell at the city centre.

I thought Kobe is much quite like nothing to do. But I was wrong. It was still a good retail area just not as crowded as Osaka. At Motomochi street we saw a couple of hand made leather shop, we went in to research on new ideas. And Jackie bought a pink leather for $8. Leather hide isn’t expensive in Kobe. Which I could have the ability to communicate with the owner which only speak Japanese. 

Weather had drop to 10 to 6 degree for the day. It was too cold and clothes start to feel cold to touch like a fridge. No choice have to go to Montbell to see what choice we had to bring temperatures up. End up in saw a last piece of the widely popular pocketable sling bag. As it was the last black (medium) piece. I took it and pay it. Waste money again. 

Kobe city centre has lots of branded that is isolated in a whole building one. Near Daimaru. All the sport brand, like north face, patongonia are too expensive to buy. Although their cutting is really nice. We are looking for something like a 羽绒服. Then we headed over to Uniqlo to see. 

The heat tech is something I like to buy but the fitting isn’t the nicest. Also wanted to buy the lightweight down jacket at a discount of $49 but I feel women’s cutting and the feature is better. Still thinking if I should buy the logo park (counterfeit) or not. As tomorrow we need to go mountain to do volunteer already. End up I brought a green cargo pant just to add layer for my bottom. 

Today night was funny. We went to a fried chicken rice store to eat. And we find $11 a meal is too expensive for us to eat 2 set. Therefore we try to order a large set and share a rice or order extra rice if they allow. Then the waitress knew that we are sharing. So she place 6 piece chicken into 2 set and gave us each 1 more extra chicken. With 2 rice / soup / prickles. So end up we had 2 set of small fried chicken bento at the price of a large set. Very kind owner and stuff. We eat till a last drop and left a good google review. 

Kobe beef meal and 2 person we met on the road

Selfie with Shen Ge and Karen

Today our second day at the hostel and we saw the male owner Shen Ge from China, Wuhan. He had been a teacher / coffee enthusiast / author and he shared with us a lot of wise experience. 2 points I want to share is:

1. people waste too much money to do decor or interior design on their house. As a decoration will need to display item that resonate with your identity and best is a piece that you have a story behind. Instead of buying decor to just purely beautify your house. 
2. He shared that his inspiration idol is 王小波. He credit that he gain a lot of knowledge and world view from reading his book and other author that he mention in his book. End up he can become an author of many books himself. “Why Kobe” and “I am a virus” is written by him. 

Another fun person we met is Karen from USA who had relocated to Japan to teach for 3 years. To do a proper closure for her chapter in life, she went on a pilgrimage trip in Japan. Visiting all shrine in Japan by foot. Covering 1200km by walking over the span of 60 days. That’s crazy. The whole of Malaysia from Johor to Penang is 800km + she had basically walked from Singapore to Thailand in under 2 months. Super crazy. And I don’t understand why American can quit their job so easily and just take gap years without feeling anxiety for the future. 

When ask her how she kept her expenses low, she told her that she can hitch a ride all over Japan along as a lady as Japan is a relatively safe place. She also recommended me to do couch surfing and apartment swapping in Japan. This is something we like to try up coming. 

$150 Kobe set. That is the last good meal for year 2024

Lastly, something highlight of the day is that we when to eat our Kobe beef for $150 tonight. That so long before I spend so much on food. The beef is so tender and juicy it had moved me to tears. The meat is great with just pepper and salt. Every month should go with a mouthful of rice. Very godlike. Worth it bro. 

Nanning uploaded

Arrival at Kobe coffee hostel

Yesterday sleep on the sofa of the spa room, i think many like us that couldn’t find hotel on the weekend are here to sleep for the night. It is also not kinda cheap as morning when we pay the bill it was around $89 including our dinner. Cost of staying over the night is $30 each and we had $29 for our dinner.

We took another hot spring bath again in the morning and decided to leave early toward Kobe town which is 1.5hours from Osaka and the journey cost us $7.10. 

We then check in to a hostel in Kobe name Kobe coffee hostel where it is a cute old Japanese guest house that is run by 2 Chinese owner who is interested in both tea and coffee culture. Hui Jie the owner introduced us to the Kobe meat which apparently cost a lot like Wagyu and told us that this place will only cost us a fraction $50 each. Unfortunately the restaurant was fully booked when we got there and by the price and award we saw at the restaurant we decided to book the slot tomorrow so please stay tuned for our tomorrow update okie.

Japanese map inside Kobe coffee hostel

Sleeping over night in Spa when we can’t find hotel in Japan

 

Pauline from Mexico recommended us HelpX

Today we check out from the hostel. For hostel I don’t really recommend there. Unlike Krabi’s hostel which is clean and spacious. This Japanese hostel we stay in is small, cramped and stuffy. As one of the men in mixed dorm has a smelly feet I was like oh my gosh for the whole night. Jackie on the other hand enjoyed her stay as her room mate was better. 

There where she met our new friend Paulina from Mexico. We grab breakfast at a local coffee shop in Shinimatoza. There we met a well spoken Japanese old man who can speak fluent English. Very experienced as he knew all our culture from SG to MY to even Mexico. He shared some unique Japanese cultural difference. 

• like to beat around the bush and implicate things
• Surface and heart not align and you need to push 3x if you are gifting to a Japanese as it is their culture to have to reject you 2 times. lol

Paulina left us shortly with a super big luggage and she was impressed with our one bag travel. She don’t know how we can be so “compressed” and ultra light setup. We had coined a word call urban hiking which is like conventional hiking but less cooking gear and sleeping system. We hike with backpack and eat along the way using credit card and sleep in different temporary shelter every night. 

She also shared with us her last experience to do a work exchange in Japan. She found the volunteers work thru helpX platform. We might want to explore volunteering for the upcoming week. 

Just so light for 3 months travel

Jackie join me in 7kg travel but winter we need more clothes

As explained in previous post that accommodation has surge to > $300. So we end up sleeping overnight at a Spa from this week and we will see how we can still travel in Japan and see if weekday the price will come down a little  

Letting it happen vs making it happen

 

Splurge on puffer fish in shinimazato

Today we walked > 32k steps from Namba to Shinimazato. That’s 5km apart and 1.5hrs away. Walk until my leg going to give. 

The reason is that our hotel is fully booked on Friday. When we search online all hotel is either fully booked, do not accept foreigner, or price surge which triple the price. All above $300 and even so these hotel are not in convenient location and far apart. We are desperate as we search thru all platform like Airbnb and the price is really crazy on Friday and Saturday. We had decided that we will check in to overnight spa to pass the night already. 

Fortunately, last minute that we people cancel one of the hostel and we able to grab it at a last minute discount. So we able to get 2 bunk bed at $58. So our next destination is to get from sunplaza 2 annex to woodon in shinimazato. 

We could have taken the public transport for $4.50 each and will take us 30mins. But we opted for walking will is free and will take us 1.5hrs. Initially Jackie was hesitated to do the walking. But later agreed as she thinks she had sat too long today. 

We are so glad we took the path less travelled. Or many people will think that’s a waste of time as they time would rather be spend on getting there instead of being on the road. They might even justify themselves that they time is worth more as they could have earn more in that one hour compared to the cost of transport ($4.50). It is literally the saying it is not about the destination but the journey. 

Along the way we get to see the real Japanese street, the well beaten and ugly side instead of those touristy place where they want to build an image that japan is vibrant, clean and polite. Well, off those local street, there are still trash on the floor, businesses are shut down due to poor business and some places are like dead town. I even witness 2 old uncle fighting each other and throwing vulgar along a back ally of a slot machine shop. 

Beside able to see the authentic Japan. We are happy that we can get to see other interesting and busy street along the way. We enjoy walking the street which are quiet and looks and feel like Australia. Every corner is a new surprise for us and our senses are left open wide and alert to enjoy the 一期一会。embracing what the world throws at us and letting things happen to us and around us. 

I feel if you open in the faster route like taxi or train, you mind are hard wired into goal setting as if you need to rush thru the race to get to the finish line (meaning reaching the hotel faster). Along the way, the crowded place will kinda piss u and spoilt your day and mood. Although you making it happen and we reach the place earlier but the whole journey is like pointless. 

I mean life we should be like wondering around and not be like arranged to do things at certain age like school, work la. Marriage and save for housing mortgage and then hit target after target. It should be like exploring and enjoy life as it unfold itself. We are glad we had opt into this trip and Japan happen to our last minute impromptu decision. 

On the plus note, Jackie suddenly and point to a fagu shop which sell puffer fish, initially the place is full and they required advanced booked but I think one customer let the table go and we are so lucky to have gotten the chance to eat the puffer fish. It is so nice and chewy. Good food are cook in pure water so that we can savour the taste o the food naturally. We end up ordering another portion as it is too good. 

We settled Friday night, Saturday will still be fully booked, we might try for spa overnight tomorrow. Stay tuned. 

I finish my birthday budget with Montbell rain trekker jacket

Today whole day we are out for walking. As of now I had walked 22k steps. On average we walked > 20k per day. 2 reason really. Firstly, is that I ate too much from all the cheap bento from 7-11 and Lawson. And secondly, transportation is expensive so we save more by walking more.

Today my iPhone 13 mini start to have pink line flickering and purple tinting issue when facing bright sun. Dying soon. Walking around the 中古 street to find iPhone and MacBook Air. But japan keyboard layout a bit different from us so didn’t plan to buy these electronic in Japan. Unless 20 years ago, I will import docomo Japanese phone to play those with annetanna one and have to hang keychain and strip one. 

Finally today I buy finish my bday present. The rule is like this, every year we both have $300 birthday budget to buy things we like. Why this is better for us:

- as a minimalist we don’t like to be burdened with stuff which is not useful

- as a frugal man, I don’t buy anything at all, having this rules made me spend at least once a year

- we don’t like surprise and would rather have the money and decide our own present for the year.

- reduce the stress to do shopping for present but left not appreciated

My brithday is in Sept and Jackie’s in March, so we have basically 6 months each to buy our present and in the event if we cannot decide after 6 months, the balance will be pass over to the other people budget as penalty. So today buy finishing up my budget is a good thing for me.

Sitting outside Montbell to change into the rain jacket and Jackie’s toe socks

So this year my birthday present is as follows:

1. Nike short
2. Green long pant i am wear (in pic above)
3. Leather handmade wallet
4. Qiaodan short 
5. Montbell side sling 
6. Montbell Rain Trekker Jacket Men’s

Thanks Jackie :)

Our video of us doing the handmade money clip is up below:

Japan is opening up my consumerism capitalism mind

Street with lots of second hand electronic near Namba

Today took a me time to do shopping alone at Namba. Primarily one street that is full of anima, trading cards game, toys, electronics and lots of second hand phones and laptops. This street even have young girls standing at 2 sides of the street to offer some service. Don’t know what but I guess is like massage, talking, chit chat and palm reading I guess. As this street has lots of shops that attract otaku, therefore I think the demand for these services bah. 

The famous place to buy Optimus

Today is a shopping day. I almost brought my whole year quota. Usually I don’t spend on anything but today I brought quite a few items. Jackie buy one. 

• Aukey Omnia mini 30w
• Small extendable pen
• Montbell sling bag S size

Osaka is a shopping heaven as most item can really suck you in. All item allow you to touch and try. All product they will display a sample for you to feel. Really good experience if you are doing shopping. I must say the product usually is of better quality compared to China. And also very innovative and creative. Usually you never get to see this in Singapore. 

8 floor of shopping wonders

Japan is promoting single-hood. Many of their applicants are for single person. Like rice cooker, oven, mini grills, mini kettles. It is really cute to use if you stay alone. Many of their games, anime and adult material are so good. Vintage games, 3D games, RPG and lots of cartoons and anime kept young boy and girls able to fulfil many things just by staying at home. 

Interesting. Tomorrow will go montbell again to hunt for soft shell.