Waiting for a typhoon. The air is extremely muggy. It feels and smells familiar. And as I was riding my bicycle to work, occasionally I would smell a smell that reminded me of my first month here. And being 38 days away from the 2 year mark, nostalgia is kicking in. The feeling is Japan, the smell is Japan, and I started to feel nervous, first day at work jitters. Seems like a long time ago, but the feeling is a pleasant one. It is nice to feel something familiar and know that it wasn't long ago that the feeling use to keep me up at nights.
Yesterday was insanely busy. After getting home from the beach party in the wee hours of the morning, I ended up talking to Geoff for a while. A great talk to be sure, but by the time I signed off I was ready to collapse. Thinking the typhoon would allow me to sleep in (because my plans were outdoor related), I wasn't worried.
I did curse a little when I heard the starting guns go off at 8am and the sun was pouring in through my windows. Where did the rain go? So I did what I could to haul myself out of bed, shower, eat, and off to go watch the elementary school sports festival. Thankfully, this will be the last one I have to go watch. They are great, and good fun, but I am getting a little tired of it all. So I hung out with my junior high students who were watching, then left at 11am to go pick up these two teachers to go to the farm for ice cream. When I arrived at their place they were both decked out and in heels. Strange when we are going to a farm. Anyway, so we got out there just as it started to sprinkle, but that was it. The two women devoured their ice cream, while I hung out and played with Yumeno a bit, slowly eating mine. Afterwards we drove back into Kimobetsu to papa potatoes for lunch, then I drove them back to their place. Then, back out to the farm to dye t-shirts.
The pictures bellow show the bark that we broke into a bunch of pieces then boiled. After it boiled, we drained it to separate the wood chunks from the liquid. Then, we put our t-shirts in, let them sit in the boiling water, and voila dyed t-shirts. It was really interesting to know that the natives of Japan used that process to dye their clothes, and that the soup of boiling the bark can be used as stomach medicine, paint, ink, dye, and since it is made from water and a tree, it is totally safe if you pour it out on the ground, drink it, whatever. Also, the dye itself has a smell to it that keeps away moths from eating your clothes. Sometimes you have to wonder if ancient man had it right, there is definitely something there.
There was a lady there who was showing us how to do it all, and she was teaching me different roots to use and what colours you would get. She is also a baker, but she doesn't use yeast. Instead she lets red beans ferment and that has an action similar to yeast in bread.
Such a great learning experience. These people are so great about natural stuff, taking care of the land, being self sufficient.
Yesterday was insanely busy. After getting home from the beach party in the wee hours of the morning, I ended up talking to Geoff for a while. A great talk to be sure, but by the time I signed off I was ready to collapse. Thinking the typhoon would allow me to sleep in (because my plans were outdoor related), I wasn't worried.
I did curse a little when I heard the starting guns go off at 8am and the sun was pouring in through my windows. Where did the rain go? So I did what I could to haul myself out of bed, shower, eat, and off to go watch the elementary school sports festival. Thankfully, this will be the last one I have to go watch. They are great, and good fun, but I am getting a little tired of it all. So I hung out with my junior high students who were watching, then left at 11am to go pick up these two teachers to go to the farm for ice cream. When I arrived at their place they were both decked out and in heels. Strange when we are going to a farm. Anyway, so we got out there just as it started to sprinkle, but that was it. The two women devoured their ice cream, while I hung out and played with Yumeno a bit, slowly eating mine. Afterwards we drove back into Kimobetsu to papa potatoes for lunch, then I drove them back to their place. Then, back out to the farm to dye t-shirts.
The pictures bellow show the bark that we broke into a bunch of pieces then boiled. After it boiled, we drained it to separate the wood chunks from the liquid. Then, we put our t-shirts in, let them sit in the boiling water, and voila dyed t-shirts. It was really interesting to know that the natives of Japan used that process to dye their clothes, and that the soup of boiling the bark can be used as stomach medicine, paint, ink, dye, and since it is made from water and a tree, it is totally safe if you pour it out on the ground, drink it, whatever. Also, the dye itself has a smell to it that keeps away moths from eating your clothes. Sometimes you have to wonder if ancient man had it right, there is definitely something there.
There was a lady there who was showing us how to do it all, and she was teaching me different roots to use and what colours you would get. She is also a baker, but she doesn't use yeast. Instead she lets red beans ferment and that has an action similar to yeast in bread.
Such a great learning experience. These people are so great about natural stuff, taking care of the land, being self sufficient.
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