Moving Forward

We thought that once the trip is over we would be able to sleep in. Not so. Today, for example, we woke up before the sunrise to go harvest egoma, goma (sesame), and kaki (persimmon) from the field of a recent widow who can't harvest by herself, before Suzuki-san, the director of "furusato kaiki shien center" - the organization that introduced us to Sakae Mura, came to visit and discuss how things are going and our plans for the future.

The other night we sat down to make a list of possible projects that interest us and would be helpful for the community. It is soooo much bigger than we ever imagined. After talking with Suzuki-san today, we are even more aware that there is so much that can be done. We are now overwhelmed at the magnitude of possibilities. Simple bike tours seems like such a waste. We had originally hoped to use the bike tours for something more meaningful in the future, but had no idea that it would be possible so soon.

I have to admit that income is the least of my worries. We are convinced that there is enough demand for people to do something, anything that is more real and rewarding than a bus tour of Kyoto, that we will never have trouble filling our current customer quota. Our big challenge now is figuring out what projects to focus on - or else how to find enough staff to focus on all the projects that need doing.

The photos are of our neighbor harvesting her yakon from the field outside our window, and Tomoe sharpening her kama. Also, the nameko mushrooms that we have grown addicted to. Not a day goes by without a bowl of fresh nameko mushroom soup. Although we have asked our neighbors to teach us how to harvest, so far we are only lucky enough to recieve a portion of their own morning harvest.