No plan trip to work exchange and met with great accompanies

Today is the 2nd day we reach into Okayama. I don’t know about it. I used to think Kobe is boring but then I love it into the 2nd days onward. So far Okayama hasn’t give me a reason to like it yet. The shopping is clustered near the train station and our hotel “the onefive Okayama” was 20mins walk away. Nothing special and there are not much 2nd hand shop for me to shop around. Tmr got an event in the evening and Sunday we shall go visit Aeon mall for shopping. 

We drew on the toilet of the homestay we are at

Leaving the house is a bit sad as we met really great accompany in the house. 2 German girls, Hannah and Marke and 2 France girl, Joanna and Julie. Each of us was very polite and had good initiative. We will help each other on simple task like fetching hot water. At night as it was so cold the whole house only the living room table is attached with heater so we will curdle together and discuss on all topics under the sun, religion, education, culture, breaktalk and everything German and France related. So fun to hang out with them.

Met up with Kiyonori san and his mum gave us all some tidbits in Kimono bag!

We had the extreme honor to be invited Kiyonori San church where he explained to us his religion, 天理教。Where they focus on living a joyous life be it living in a joyous life or helping others to feel joyous. So their mission is to host and give to people. Kiyonori’s mum gave us a pouch that is handmade by Kimono fibre and she also teach us hand by hand to do Okonomiyaki, which is kinda junk food and comfort food at the same time. And his mum also run her own podcast show on her own when now she is 83 yrs old. Kiyonori also show us how he do his own rocket burner to cook his water using abandon wood. 

Kiyonori san’s mum taught us how to cook Okonomiyaki

As we are nearing the end of the stay in the guest house, we are planning to travel to Okayama. Julie just happens to want to discard a converse shoes. So happen that her feet size is 42 which match with my foot. As you know I didn’t even own a shoes back home as I only travel with slipper all the time. I faster say I want the shoes as a memento. Julie is also glad that the shoes will be taken care by me so we both had a good timing where one wanna discard and I wanna keep. I will love this shoes very much and I will wear until it is very broken.

We pose as the converse shoes is gifted over to me

It was a great stay and we make sure the toilet is painted with our youtube channel so that the future volunteer will be able to subscribe to us and see the video we post for this house. I didn’t know that I have a talent in painting and received good review for my drawing.

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We are advocate for no plan travelling. Sometime if you plan and rush for the trip you will miss out in fun and often fall short on your expectation. If not for our no plan trip we couldn’t have went to the sudden last min recommendation for work exchange and will not be able to meet up with all these great people along the way. See you at Okayama

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. 

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.