This is one of the things I wake up to every day while we eat breakfast, thought I'd share the joy. This morning started with finishing off planting beetroots that Kiyo and Yuki had started yesterday. We quickly finished, had a break and got back to planting beetroots in another field, close to the house. We had lunch and then continued until it started to rain. I then noticed that I'd gotten completely sunburnt and am now suffering and using some borrowed prescription-only moisturiser which I hope will prevail in the coming days. A tiring day!
Today started with the usual awakening at 6:00 thanks to the town's speaker system, however, today another announcement was added to which I could only understand the "do not exit the buildings" part. I checked the news to see if anything had been reported but everything seemed fine, apart from the flooding in Texas, so I went to the main house for breakfast. As I came in Sawami asked if I was alright because the announcement which was being repeated every couple of minutes or so was to announce that North Korea had fired a missile right over us and to get into your basements and not leave any buildings. We don't have a basement. Most Japanese houses aren't equipped with basements. As such, there was a bit of panic in the air as I thought of what the best course of action would be if we were hit to which I couldn't come up with anything practical so resigned to eating breakfast. While eating breakfast, it was announced the missile had landed in the sea by Hokkaido which was far away enough to qualm the immediate flight instinct I was trying to suppress but not enough to completely relax. I spent the morning fretting and decided to calm myself down by watching some soothing game of thrones. At about 12:30, me and Sawami went to collect my friend from Numata station and she dropped us both off at Takayama-mura's main (and only) tourist attraction, Lockheart castle!
I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly from a Scottish castle in rural Japan but it certainly delivered an experience I'm not likely to forget anytime soon. Firstly, it took us a while to find the entrance as it's a bit further down from the bridal studio, the exit and some toilets but eventually we found it, got our tickets and entered the somewhat unassuming, if not a bit strange, starting point of the small park (if it can be called that). We went up the hill, passing by a 'southern European-style restaurant' which proudly served scones with coffee and waffles, an extensive gift shop, and underneath a climbable tower.
As we looked at the main attraction, as it were, we noticed there was quite a lot of princesses about, some with princes, which I had somewhat anticipated as I'd seen that they offer a 'princess experience' on their website, that didn't lessen the surreal feeling of walking around a European-style castle (more of a country estate), with princesses and princes at every corner.
¥1,620 for a box of shortbread!
As we made our way through the house and up the stairs (to find another extensive gift shop selling unreasonably-priced shortbread) we found ourselves in a room which can only be described as horrifically magical.
Please excuse my laughing, I was feeling quite disorientated at the time.
After departing these two rooms, we made saw another couple of fairly average rooms, by comparison, and then came across a strange collection of perfume (of perfume bottles?) in glass cabinets, another room presented us with a collection of Chanel products, various ancient Egyptian artifacts, and items that had been owned by Marilyn Monroe.
There were a couple of other areas that were only accessible to 'princesses', so we made our way out to find out where to the princess information could be found. On the way, we decided to take a look at the church and climb the tower which had placks along the walls with couple's names on and the date (we assumed) they'd gotten married in here, as well as little signs saying "hug here!!" (and at the top) "kiss here!!".
Saint Lawrence Church
"hug here!!"
"kiss here!!"
After admiring the view from the top, we made our way down and followed the sign that said "teddy house", which, as expected, led to a house devoted to teddy bears.
a terrifying army
a straircase that abruptly ends
We quickly popped into the 'signature house and giftshop to check out the wares on offer.
a poster in the signature house with a few dead wasps on it
why is the second to left one's upper half so ripped?
"Welcome to Hyde Park" bus, apologies for the blurriness
Making our way closer to the exit, we spotted the, suitably named, 'stone museum' which was, as you might expect, a small museum devoted to stones and fossils.
"Stone Academy"
absorbing the stone powers
At that point, we decided to make move as we had a bus to catch but we'll definitely be returning to try out the princess experience and the Lockheart Labyrinth!
Lockheart Labyrinth, opening spring 2018!
We spent the rest of the afternoon by the main shop/Onsen for Takayama and ate some Yakimanju (a local specialty). After saying goodbye, I had a pleasant stroll back to the house, had dinner and went to bed, free day well spent!
Today started with packing cucumbers (not washing), making boxes and writing various information on them (origin and weight). After that, me and Kiyo went check out some fields to see how they would be for putting manure on and then filled six bags worth of it and went to put it on one the fields. I was relieved to hear that it was organic bird manure, free from any impurities.
After manuring one field we did the beetroot field too and then came back and pruned the tomato plants in the greenhouse. After lunch, me and Yuki went and planted more beetroots in the freshly manured field, tough work but almost finished the whole field (about half a row left). Coming back, after a shower we had dinner and now I'm attempting to get in touch with my sister as it's her birthday! Goodnight!
Today started with helping Sawami out with the children which is quite challenging with toddlers as they seem to have the attention span of a mosquito. Then Kiyo returned and left at about 10:30 for a barbeque! It was about an hour and a half drive to Maebashi and there we met all the farmer friends of Kiyo and Sawami.
top notch food and company
some toasting marshmallows dangerously close to some meat
We all ate and drank a lot, I tried Amazake for the first (a sweet drink made from fermented rice) and met a lot of interesting people. I also witnessed suikawari for the first time too, it's kind of like a piñata, as the children took it in turns to be blindfolded and spun around with a big stick to hit the target, except it's a watermelon on the floor.
スイカ割り
I also tried some homemade sour plum alcohol and sweet plum juice, everything was delicious. I maintain that drinking with older Japanese people is one of the best things you can do here, 9/10. On the way home, we stopped at a convenience shop and I woke up (I was sleeping) to find Souta's face and arms covered in blood to my right (but he was still sleeping). Luckily, it was just a nosebleed and I managed to internalised my initial shock and get Kiyo to help. After another nosebleed after that, we finally came home and said goodnight.
Today started with shock at breakfast as the programme we were watching was interrupted to announce that North Korea had fired something into the sea of Japan. Sawami misread it initially and for a few moments, we thought it was the end. After that brief announcement, breakfast carried on as usual. I started work by washing more cucumbers than usual, and then some beetroots and carrots. We then spent the rest of the morning packaging vegetables into nice arrangements in boxes.
We had a yummy lunch of somen and went back to packaging beetroots cucumbers with the help of Ishin (I remembered his name!). Then Kiyo's sister came and took some boxes of the bad cucumbers into her car to do who knows what with. We then had a short break and Grandma had brought me yakimanju which was very nice, 8/10 will definitely get some again.
After that we went out with Kiyo to one of the cucumber fields and picked up all the stray cucumbers that had disbanded from the flock and were lying about, going rotten. We put them all in little graves that Kiyo had dug and went to the other field to do the same, plus collected any dead or yellow leaves we saw still attached to the plants so that the plant would stop sending energy their way. After we finished up there, I was dropped home and relaxed a bit before dinner. Then sleep!
Today started with cucumber washing (as always)! Then after a little break, we were joined by Ishi who helped us package some beetroots and cucumbers! Then we had lunch with grandma and her friend. Our plan to finishing planting beetroots in the field was foiled by the rainy weather so I had the afternoon off as Kiyo and Sawami had a meeting with their packaging designer.
Afterwards, we all went to Onsen! First Onsen impressions: clean and relaxing. First we went to the main pool indoors, then the sauna and then the Onsen outside, I liked the one outside the best because the cool air your face really contrasted nicely with the steamy water. One thing Onsen is good for is knocking you out, after coming home and eating a brief dinner we were all ready for bed (Kiyo was even falling asleep at the table). We all slept well!
Today started as it always does, washing cucumbers! A good way to start the day, the cold water is good for waking up with. Then we packaged boxes of vegetables, weighed some edamame, and met the designer for the farm (well she came to us actually...)
Then we had another delicious lunch (courtesy of grandma) and came back to meet up with the other guys. However, when Sawami was taking in the washing, an expected visitor arrived on the floor...
After the frantic effort to return the frog to its home, we spent the rest of the day planting beetroots in the baking sun, developing nice tans on our necks. After coming back I took a rest and then we ate yummy dinner (udon, cucumber and aubergine). Exhausted, I'm now committing the rest of the evening to sleep, Goodnight!
Today Sawami and Kiyo went to give the rhubarb we cut and cleaned the other day in person to a jam factory in Nagano so I spent the day with Kiyo's mother! Firstly I washed some cucumbers, then we packaged them to take to the super market!
Grandma was funny at the super market, getting everyone to try our cucumbers and pushing people to buy them. After that, we came back and had a lot of lunch, which was delicious. Then I helped make some bird scared for the rice fields from CDs and bin bags.
Mochi break! Had some miso mochi for the first time, 8/10, would eat again. Then we went to the field by the house and did some weeding which was tough but satisfying. Then it was time to collect Sota and Kyo from daycare and on the way back we stopped into the super market again so that I could stamp my notebook with the Takayama-mura stamp.
Finally, I was dropped off home by grandma and spent some time outside enjoying the beautiful sunset until Sawami and Kiyo came home. We all ate dinner (and some gigantic grapes) and then, sleep!
