August 13-22, 2009: Naka Furano

August 13, 2009: AM
Taking local trains and a bus, it’s going to take me about 7 hours from Rankoshi to get to Naka Furano.

August 13, 2009: PM
I’m finally here. They have 2 cafes, a chicken coop, a lodge house, and more. I have to make breakfast and dinner myself. And I work from 9am-3pm straight. I don’t even get a lunch break. I have to wait till we are finished at 3pm to eat something. They have tons and tons of jam jars, which they make themselves from the berries they grow. They have all sorts of berries. But, they seem to be done with berry picking, which saddens me because it’s the main reason why I came here. They said they are very busy with work at the café because it’s Summer vacation for students and most working people. So my job is to wash dishes.

August 14-22, 2009: Farewell Nakafurano

Right now I’m on a bus for about 1.5 hours or so to a place slightly North of Nakafurano, a place called Asahikawa. It’s the second biggest city in Hokkaido, second to Sapporo. I passed through Sapporo and didn’t really like it; too big of a city for me. I’ll be travelling for 7 days all throughout Japan (including today it will be 8 days). I haven’t really decided where I will go, and besides tonight, I haven’t made any hotel/hostel reservations. Where will I sleep?! I could always walk in the night until I am so exhausted I can’t anymore and since there are no benches I could sleep in the grass, I guess. I’ve mailed my big duffel bag to my distant relatives in Takasaki (Gunma-ken) and will basically be backpacking with my computer, 3-4 days worth of light clothes/underwear, 2 days worth of shampoo/body soap, camera, zune, and one hoodie for those cold nights. My budget: $380. That’s all I have on me. So I have no choice but to eat as little as possible. The hostel that someone (Kameko-san) helped me find costs 2600 yen, about $26. But, I estimate other hostels will cost more. I might spend a few nights in 24 hour internet cafes that charge $20 for the night.

Anyway, now I have to talk about what happened the past week. It was a great experience. I met so many interesting people. Mostly I volunteered at the café from 9am-3:30pm. Long hours without a lunch break actually didn’t seem that long because usually we were so busy. I made beautiful plates of food. All of the food was so precisely placed. On one wooden tray there were 7 different plates of food (I did the 4 cold dishes). The little creativity I was allowed without anyone noticing was what I cherished. Besides the sole hot food cooker, Yagihashi-san, there were two different people that worked at the café on different days: Kameko-san and Piyo-san. They had different opinions about how the plates should be placed and took notice of different things that I did. One day I was told I put too little food, the next, too much. I didn’t complain, kept my mouth shut, smiled, and said thanks.

Before I got there, there was one WWOOFer from Hong Kong named Wicky, or Chou-san. He’s 38 years old and has been working/studying in Tokyo. He thought I was very American, which, he said, I should take as a compliment. Maybe it’s because I eat more than all the petite Japanese girls, or maybe it’s because I’m rude (or blunt, there’s a difference, you know). I thought he was very nice. We were a strange team.

There are tons of mountains surrounding the entire town and so after work one day I biked up the mountain right outside the farm, close to where I lived. It took me about an hour and a half to get up the 12% incline with my bike. I got to the top and was rewarded with beautiful views of the sun shining through the clouds and onto the town. It took me 7 minutes from the top of the small mountain back to my house. That’s crazy.

Tuesday was Wicky’s last day and so we had a barbeque with another farm at which Wicky’s friends were WWOOFing. That night Kameko-san, an employee of the farm café, interviewed all of us for the local radio station. On my last night she came by my place (kuroneko-kan) and gave me an official CD of the broadcast (with our names on it!) as well as some pictures of the farm in the winter.

Kameko-san and Furano’s Museums:
On my day off, Wednesday, I planned to travel around the city of Furano by bike. But the night before Kameko-san told me she was planning to go to the Furano historical museum and told me she could give me a lift. Lucky for me, because it rained that day. We spent the whole day together. First thing in the morning we went to a farm where she gets 2kg of tomatoes for the week. I learned there are 2 main types of tomatoes in Japan. One is called momo tomato (after the well known tale of Momotaro) and the other one is the regular tomato. One tomato in the left hand, the other in the right I took consecutive bite of each. The momo tomato has a softer skin and is slightly sweeter, and so it’s preferred. But the regular one has slightly tougher skin and so it holds together after sliced and therefore used in restaurants. At the Furano museum I saw tons of old agricultural tools and machines. They were huge and I have never seen anything like it before. Kameko-san told me that nowadays these machines are very compact with multiple functions in one machine. I also saw the foreign plants that are taking over Japan’s agricultural land and realized those are the only plants I see around Furano. The foreign plants have multiplied and overtaken the native plants. Same thing with raccoons: Japanese people thought they were cute, brought them from abroad, and were buying them from pet stores but when they got bigger people released them into the wild where they drastically multiplied. Therefore the native Japanese wildlife is in danger of extinction. And pretty soon the same might go for its people. The Japanese human population is declining. There are more old people than young people. They need to make some children! Anyway, now to continue on the topic of my day off: Then we went to the Cheese factory, where they have some free samples of wine cheese, creamy cheese, and black squid ink cheese. Her favorite was the blank squid ink, mine was the creamy one. The black squid ink cheese was interesting, really black in color on the inside but white on the outside. I thought it lacked flavor. Then we went for ice cream. I got grape and Japanese pumpkin. The pumpkin was orange in color and it tasted very vegetably but sweet. The grape overwhelmed the taste though. Then we went to drink some yaki-milk. There is a crispy top layer on top that tastes like marshmallow, a layer of cream underneath that, and underneath it all is some cold milk. I don’t like milk but it was delicious. Then I had a rice omlette with curry on top. Furano is known for its curry. Then I went to her house and she helped me find the really cheap hotel in Asahikawa. Then Kameko-san brought her daughter who is a year younger than me and we went to the nearby city, Biei, to go to the Takushinkan, the museum with Maeda-san’s pictures of the different contours of Biei throughout the different seasons. I thought it was interesting, but Kameko-san can see these views everyday and so maybe it wasn’t quite as interesting for her as it was for me. She was so nice to show me around.

There is only one thing I regret. Furano is known for lavender soft cream (ice cream) but I didn’t get a chance to eat it here. I’ve had it only once before and just wanted one last taste.

Aki and Adventure:
As Wicky left I was not excited to be alone and do two jobs at the café at once. But, the very next day Akihito (Aki) came and I was happy to split the work. Aki was an interesting fellow. No, more than that: he was downright strange, especially for a Japanese guy. He biked 9 hours to get to Furano. He is the same age as me, 21 years old, but he was born in December, so actually older than me. I thought he was 19 years old, though. Sure acts like one. He had tons of energy everyday and it rubbed off on me. He talked more than he worked, and due to that he sometimes forgot to do some of the work, so sometimes I ordered him around. He was surprised that I didn’t do some of the more interesting things in Furano and offered to show me around. There was a kaleidoscope museum in Furano and he became friends with the owner (apparently later he said he met the guy once a few days ago and they became good friends), so he said he could enter anytime. After work and lunch, it was about 4pm. That day we biked to a yummy bakery and then to the museum. It took 2.5 hours to get there. WTF! I biked for 2.5 hours in the rain, wind, and darkness. When I was too busy looking at the views I skidded off the street and my bike fell flat. I hopped off so I was okay.

But, it was worth it. I’ve never been to a museum at night and the owner was very personable. He said he went to NY and spent some time in SOHO and went to the top of the Empire State Building. When I told him I never been to the top of the Empire State Building and he laughed so hard I swear the building shook. I never heard a Japanese person laugh so loud without reserve. It was quite refreshing. The owner gave us a personal tour of the museum: The kaleidoscopes he has been collecting for many years from all parts of the world and the presentation of the motorized kaleidoscopes with different uses of shadow and paper cutouts, along with music were amazing. They really should have a museum like this in NYC. I even took a bath at his house. He even dried my shoes for me. After a tour of the museum he drove us to an onsen because he was concerned I’d catch a cold. I wasn’t the least bit cold though. Then he drove me home, then Aki home. The next day he drove by the café with the bikes that we left at his place. The museum entrance fee was 800 yen, I don’t know how much the onsen was but Aki and I didn’t pay anything at all. His policy was that when he went to America, the hospitality he received was amazing, and so to return the favor and show me how nice Japanese people can be, he humbled me with his hospitality. I was truly speechless.

The Stars of the Country Side:
In all the 21 years of my existence, never have I ever thought the sky was so beautiful. Takeda-san, my host, has 2 different cafes. I live near the Tamago Farm (Egg Farm) and a 30 minute bike ride brings me to the other café. Masaru-san works at that café. She is 39 years old, but I swear she looks much younger. She also has a young and lively spirit. She’s looking for a boyfriend and said if she had one she would marry and stop working at the café. I stayed late at that café and made coconut cookies for everyone (but they were not as good as the ones I make in NYC because I had to make do with different materials). Aki made dinner (yakisoba and added Masaru-san’s soup) and I had a small portion. Then we took pictures and jumping pictures. Afterwards I had to bike home in the dark (its pitch black), but Aki and Masaru-san both came with me to see the stars and to make sure I got home safe. We drove by a festival but by the time we got there it had just ended. Aki told everyone I came from America and thanks to him I was able to take some cool pictures with people in some ridiculous costumes. The sky was so beautiful. There were billions of stars and so many small stars in between the big stars that it looked like the big stars were connected together. We parked our bikes on the side of the road and laid flat on the street and just watched the stars for a while. We talked about the big dipper (they taught me the Japanese word and I taught them the English word, but I forgot the word, I’m sure they did too).

I’ve known this for a long time, but now I have really come to understand it: people that differ from the norm are the best. And you can find them anywhere in the world. I’ve met quite some interesting people here.