Mona was really excited to help in the field the other day, as you can see.

In other news, anyone who wants to come out and try their hand at rice harvesting is welcome in the last two weeks of September. We have a lot to harvest and are lacking hands.

I have a new chicken-coop built for my new little silkies, but just as I finish, I read about Heather's super new high-security facility they have contracted with Haliburton to build. Now I get sick with envy every time I look at mine.

Enormous open sores from popped blisters on the backs of my heels prevent me from entering the rice fields to weed, for fear of something worse than just infection. Other aches and pains prevent me from moving around too much. But I had a great 11 hour hike with a friend the past two days. The second day was only 3.5 hours, but we started at 3 am, so most of it was in the dark on treacherously slippery 10 inch wide trails with cliffs on one side.

To top it off, I was sick, and unable to eat much the first 11-hour day. Not so good for the energy. I have no photos because I was too busy trying to keep up with Ryan, but here is a Google Earth screen shot.

When I got home I found four of the chickens had escaped. Luckily they came running to greet me so I was able to easily catch all but one little one who is much faster than the adults. Eventually though, I found her hiding in a corner and was able to grab her. This was one of our four new ukkoke (Slikies). They are really cute now, but I wonder about when they grow up...

Unlike our current hens, they will not lay an egg a day, but one egg costs around four-hundred yen, so it will be a nice gift for the neighbors. There are some specialty bakeries in Japan that only use Silkie eggs, so it will aslo be fun for Tomoe to experiment with her cooking.

Finally, at night Tomoe, Mona, and I de-kerneled all the corn Tomoe had harvested because we cant fit all the full cobs in the freezer. As hard as we tried to keep her from "helping", we still found kernels in her poop this morning. (sorry, no photo)

Tomoe's dad and niece dropped by for a few days last week (or was it last last week?). In addition to a wonderful finding of a hidden loft in our house (needs to be built of course), he also brought me four of his old cameras. So far I have only tested one, but not had any film developed yet. Among them was a huge polaroid camera. I know they stopped making film, but I am hoping that either it is still available someplace, or else some entrepreneur has picked up the ball and started making film that will work with it. Also included was a Super Ricohflex. I can't wait to figure out how to use this one.

In addition to that, a friend just gave me a little point and shoot digital camera so I can take movies of Mona. I am not the proud, but overwhelmed owner of eight cameras. I have still not had time to figure out how to use the developing equipment I received earlier this year, and building a loft if a big goal. I don't know how I will find time to learn to use, let alone actually use all of these cameras.

it has been a long few weeks since my last post. It is hot. The weeds are filling the rice field. I can't keep up. I have a terrible allergy to rice pollen, and guess what... the flowers are in full pollen output time. And even worse than that it is way too hot to pick weeds most of the day, and the horse flies and mosquitos come out just as it starts to cool down in the evening.

What are my other excuses for not sharing more photos of Mona? Glad you asked. Aside from troubles at home, there was a volunteer high-school student here for ten days who was upset at having to stay at a Japanese host family's house for a few nights (but later thanked me for making him stay). There was a festival, and many many nights of practicing. There were friends visiting from Tokyo. There are still lots of weeds in the rice field. I should have gone there this morning, but "other things" came up.

The photos are of part of the festival. On the first day we parade through the hamlet and visit each shrine. I have video of this but have not yet figured how to get it off of my new (used) camera (thanks Ryan) onto my mac which has no port for a memory stick.

The next day we walk through the village in sweltering heat and several layers of clothing to visit each house and drive the demons out with our magical flutes and drums, and a guy dressed up as a lion with a sword. As silly as it sounds, it is a lot of fun. Mid-way through the day we take a two hour lunch break. I was not able to nap as long as everyone else. (I don't sleep much these days), so I took lots of photos of them napping. Along the way we gather anywhere from 3,000 yen to 10,000 yen from each household - enough to pay for the (not so) cute "companions" to pour us drinks later that night.

What Gaijin Eat...

This is the latest installment of my series to answer the most asked question from Japanese people to foreigners in Japan. What do gaijin (foreigners) eat? If you are "sensitive" you may want to click away. If you are ready for the truth, read on. This is what the typical foreigner in Japan eats.

Warning: This may not be for sensitive readers - before writing this post and posting these photos, I had to research the legality of cannibalism. It lead me to this really really wonderful video of the history of the Donner party. Great video - especially if you are into hiking and mountaineering tragediy type stuff. There are also a ton of other great videos on the site. I am currently watching portions of the History of Mormon video when I have free moments. It is a wonderful site.

So anyway, finally, after seven months, we ran out of freezer room and pulled out Tomoe's placenta. I grilled it up and it actually tasted quite nice. While I was grilling it, a friend stopped by and asked what it was. I told him just try it. He had it in his mouth before I could stop him, but he quickly spit it out.

As I say, it tasted good. I wonder about the taboo of eating human flesh. I see no problem in it, unless you are killing someone to eat them - if they are already dead, as in the Donner party, or the Uruguayan Rugby Team from Alive, it only makes sense. If I was dead, and eating me would help my family I would be pissed if they didn't eat me. But it rekindled thoughts about why I feel OK to kill animals. We only eat our chickens after they have died, and only kill them when they are hopelessly sick (again, I hope someone will do the same for me). But just the other day I killed a snake and fish to feed to the chickens. There is really no difference, other than that we identify with humans more than we do with a snake or a chicken or fish. But we are all just living creatures. So why such a taboo on eating human flesh?

Anyway, the placenta was wonderful. While I originally kept it for Tomoe to eat to make the AMHS (After Mona Hormonal Changes) less stressful for me, it sat in the freezer. I gave some to the chickens, Tomoe had a bite, and there is still some in the fridge if anyone would like to try. If you are going to cook your own placenta, I recommend cutting off a small piece to experience the natural taste, and salt the rest before grilling.

And don't worry, eating the placenta is not considered cannibalism - at least not legally.

Mona plays her drum along to "Totally Nude" by the Talking Heads. The day after my parents left was the official end of the rainy season, and was it ever. Fierce heat and humidity. I will be getting a lot of inside work done where there is a nice fan, but it also means I have to be up early to do outside work while it is still cool.

Mona seems to enjoy finally being able to crawl (mostly roll) around the living room floor in the buff. (who wouldn't?) The other day while I had my back turned, I heard a strange slurping noise. I looked over to see either the biggest puddle of drool I had ever seen, or else Mona was lapping up her pee. Luckily Tomoe wasn't in the room, so I was able to let mona take care of her own mess and I didn't even need to get out of my seat! She's like a little Hoover wet-vac.

Big and I'm bad
And I want you to know
I hang around
Where the grass is greener
Totally naked, baby
Totally nude
'Cause if I want to
Who's gonna stop me?
I'm absolutely free
Living in the trees
The birdies and the bees
'Cause I'm a Nature Girl
Locked up inside
You can't tell me where it's at
Open up, open up, open the door
Rocks and trees and physical culture
Some days you hide
I guess you wonder where you are
Nature Girl, nature man, take me along
We got a life that's undiscovered
We threw it all away
Throw it all away
Rolling in every way
It's irresponsible
So civilized
I guess you wonder where you are
Nature Girl, nature man, take me along
Deep in the woods we're undiscovered
I'm a little fish and you're the river
Living in a boat that's underwater
We can tip, tip, tip it over
You can push, push, make it better now
Wake your daddy up
It's a quarter to five
Our little boat
Has lost its rudder
Dive to the bottom
And we never come up
A polka party
For Bob and Martha
I'm absolutely free
Living in the trees
The birdies and the bees
'Cause I'm a Nature Girl
Think what you like
This is really where it's at
Open up, open up, open the door
We don't need clothes and we don't need money
So civilized
I guess you wonder where you are
Nature Girl, nature man, take me along
Deep in the woods we're undiscovered

My sister already posted photos of Mom & Dad and her kids in Korea, so guess I better do so too.

Since mom and dad left, we have been gittin' little done. I had a loooong fire brigade ceremony on the second day of official "non-rainy summer" = hot hot hot sun. And we have to wear thick black uniforms in layers as we stand at attention and listen to "important" people talk for hours. It was not fun - but, the after party was.

In the photos here you see Mona swimming with the neighbors. We have made this a regular ritual. Whenever I see them out swimming, I rip off Mona's clothes and take her over there to join. The older daughter, Myu, is always excited. The son, who is Mona's age, has shown little interest. She's out of his league anyway :P

Dad and I got lots done, building a chicken tractor, that is not much of a tractor (the bike wheels we picked up at the garbage dump weren't so easy to attach). It is still mobile, but not as much as I had hoped. I put it out in the field for a "test" and placed a fish inside. A few days later the fish was gone, so I guess it is not so safe. Luckily, a neighbor living closer to our house has offered to let us use it in his yard.

Among other things, we also built a great new deck for our house. It's not fancy, but it is soooo much nicer than what we had before. Sorry, no photos yet.

We also see Mom testing an idea I have for making tours using the old-lady-scooter instead of bikes. She was reluctant at first, but liked it in the end.

The neighbor let mom borrow her little electric old-folk-scooter for a trial run. I don't know why these are not popular in the US.

I know, I know. Too much Mona. But, I have nothing else. Mona is enjoying a quilt sent along with my parents, It was quilted by my childhood neighbor Bonnie, from when I lived in Michigan. I have not seen for probably 20 years, but remember, among other things, playing with Star-Wars action figures by their fireplace and in their fern tree with her son, Ryan.

I feel so bad about not getting many photos of mom and dad this past week, but can you blame me? At least I have photos of all of Mona's new toys (from mom and dad) which she enjoys almost as much as I do.

Mom and dad arrived last night. Now hopefully I can get some of the home-improvement projects done that I have been saving to keep dad busy. Mom... well, her job is to clean the poop off of a pile of wool freshly shaven from a sheep.

In other news, Tomoe, who was vehemently against me buying a MacBook (and anything Mac in general), just got a MacBook of her own to replace her piece-of-crap dell. the only reason was that I told her she can run Windows on it, but it is higher quality hardware. She would be perfect in a commercial for mac, with all her "wow, this is great!" and facial expressions as she tried it out.

The rice is not growing as fast as we hoped, but neither are the weeds, so I guess we can be thankful for that. While the neighbors have 20-25 stalks on their bunch, we have about 15. There is still time though, so please keep your fingers crossed for our rice.

Finally, believing that it is never to early to start practicing good dental hygiene, we are teaching Mona to brush her teeth. As you can see, the whole concept is still a bit confusing for her.

Just a short video for mom of mona this morning. She loves her bathrobe. I have neglected taking much video of her, but have decided to do a daily shoot on my web cam. The only problem is that the camera is right above the screen, and when she can see the screen she becomes memorized and doesn't act like normal.

NOTE: I highly recommend that some people (such as mom) clicks on the photos to see the larger version.

We have spent the past few days trying to make it look, to my parents who will be visiting next week, that we actually do something here. Our mochi rice field is a lost cause. soooooo many weeds. We are going to scythe them all down and plant soba instead. The rice is doing amazingly well. I say "amazingly" because it seems that we have finally figured out how to handle weeds. We have less than our neighbor who uses chemical herbicides (though we spend much more time). I attribute it to finding the nice hand-pushed weed tiller at the dump, but it might be because we are learning.

The other day we took Mona to one of our fields where we planted more beans and pumpkins (too late, according to the neighbors, but we'll see.) I also planted many chili peppers. Mona was a big help, as were the new Lucies.

Mona was pretty tired after a long day's work, but after a good night's sleep she was ready to help mom with the bee box. Chances are that we will not get bees to make it their home this late this year, but we fell behind. No harm in trying though. In the Photo Tomoe is painting the inside of the box with molasses and booze. We are going to put it near our raspberries which seem to be the most bee-iest place in our garden now.

I am recuperating from a half day of boring fire-brigade ceremony, and a longer half-day of slightly less boring drinking with the crew (apparently it got less boring as the afternoon wore on.)

I know I post photos of the fire brigade every year at this time, but it just sucks up so much of my time and I have to find some way to make it more interesting. The novelty of how rigid and ridiculously structured everything is has worn off. There is a contest between hamlets to see who can put out the fire first. Of course they only use a target that has to be hit once with the high-preassure water blast. This I see as valuable - being able to assemble the equipment quickly and aim and manage the hose. But they are also judged on things such as the angle of their feet, and the order in which they adjust their uniform, and even the distance the hoses are from each other before they get around to putting out the fire. Above, you see a photo of them measuring to make sure. In the mean time, people are jumping out of the second story windows to escape the flames.

It is all worth it, though, even despite two hours of daily practice in the busiest time of the year for farming and One Life work. For one thing, just the fact that I show up (regardless of if I can play the trumpet or not) gives me street cred in the village, and I get to meet and drink with a lot of the other young people that I would normally not see. While we don't get paid for joining, I suppose it pays off in favors. A discount from the fellow trumpeter mechanic here, a tip on an event to take customers to see there, and lots of "free" booze and food.

I have yet to fight a fire in three years of service. The biggest thing I did was spend two days searching for a lost man in the mountains. We never found him, but we had a lot of fun and drinks afterwards. I can imagine something like this causing outrage in other places... why is tax-payer money being spent on parties for a few men in the village?!!?!? I see tremendous value though in terms of community building (the only reason I am a part of it). While the conversation at the drinking parties gets a bit boring at (more than a few) times, I can't imagine how, if I lived in Tokyo or Bay City, MI (my home town), I would have an opportunity to be forced to hang out with so many people without a specific unifying interest related reason, such as "I like manga" (I don't, by the way), or "I like raising chickens" (I do, by the way).

Every year I wake up and mutter "oh shit. I have to go to trumpet practice again tonight. I am just going to quit." (and I have a good excuse - I am technically not supposed to be in the group because I do not have Japanese citizenship). But every year I go back. I will go back again tonight...

So, I know I have said this before, but last week we had our best customers since our last best customers. This time it was a family of three who, after we turned them down, persisted and went so far as to get a Japanese travel agent to hound us on their behalf. How could we resist? I am glad we didn't.

Above is the family with Tomoe and Mona and some of our favorite inn-keepers (I highly HIGHLY recommend Ikeshou if you are visiting Nozawa Onsen.

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It was supposed to be a four day trip, but I liked them so much, and apparently they were not too turned off by my armpit stench, that we extended the trip another day and made a not-too-easy ride deep into the mountains. This is something I have stopped doping with families due to complaints about the difficulty, but their eleven-year old did it faster than me. It was a great week. They are now officially on my FOOL list (Friends Of One Life). People who I feel confident to invite back for a more challenging trip (once i get something organized).

I know there are too many photos, and some are not suitable for anyone under eighteen. Please forgive me.

Have been out for five days with an amazing family of three, so I haven't had time to process and post these photos of when Tomoe's mom and aunt came to visit for a few days. We spent one night here at our home, and one night at an inn in the Akiyamago area of our village, about an hour away.

If you are planning to travel to Akiyamago, and for some reason don't consult me, I heartily recommend Enokami for accommodations. The owners are a native of the valley, and his wife who is from Tokyo and a master of natural, organic cooking. Some of the photos are of the inn-keepers picking our lunch, and also some rhubarb transplants for us to take home. At least two of them have taken root. They also make some really great Gumi and Matatabi booze.