The Festival

These are the two WWOOFers from Taiwan, Ryu-san on the left and Lee-san on the right. They left a few days ago to go to a new host somewhere in Japan :(

This is us with a couple of very intimidating looking samurai (touch of sarcasm there).

...Most of the samurai's swords were upside-down and watching them try to put them back in their sheaths was quite amusing :)

This is the electric bus that brought us to the dam.

This is the dam.

...and some pretty mountains (Okaasan in the red hat)

A blast from the past!

Starting to get hungry...

...but decide against the iceberg and instead go for ice cream :D

A little word of advice : if you ever feel adventurous and want to try wasabi ice cream... don't.
It's okay for the first lick or two but it all goes downhill from there.

A cute little temple where we drank some tasty sake and the non-vegetarians had some grilled fish.

A video of us at this festival on a Japanese news channel.

Lee-san went a little insane when he saw himself on TV...

Dude... I'm actually in Japan!!!

So, after a 13 hour flight and a 6 hour bus ride I'm finally here in Japan on the Nakamura family farm!

Hiromi-san (I am to call her Okaasan which is Japanese for Mother) is so nice and energetic. Her daughter Mifuyu-san says that her mother went to NeverLand and never grew up... I'd say that's fairly accurate, it's wonderful :)

Also here are Otoosan (Father), Obaachan (Grandma), Oniisan (Hiromi's oldest son) and two other WWOOFers from Taiwan Lee-san and Ryu-san.

Ryu-san speaks a teensy weensy bit of English but still much more than anyone else here.

I've been named Kei-chan, my new Japanese identity, tee hee.
Katy in Japanese is Keiti. They droped the "ti" and using "chan" instead of "san" is a term of endearment. I like my new name alot :)

The food is sooo tasty and I get my own room with great big windows and fantastic view of the Japanese Alps. I also get my own bathroom with a gorgeous Japanese garden right outside the window... Everything here is just so pretty. There's also a traditional Japanese bathtub that would make my mom drool(she really likes soaking in the tub). The Japanese have definitely mastered the art of bathing. It's so nice.

Tomorrow is a holiday that has something to do with the mountains. We're all going to have a picnic somewhere.

I'm having a great time and I found out today that I might be staying at this farm for the entire six months, contrary to earlier beliefs. That makes me very happy because I really like it here!