Wednesday, Nov 27
- went on a forest/field/nature walk with the kids! + Mさん who studies these plants + another guest Sさん who brought a microscope lens that attaches to his ipad (which the kids loved!), who later invited me to help out with his after-school program and speak English with kids
- big yum lunch with mini nap
- short afternoon shift: feed chickens and pile the chainsaw dust inside the coop, work not too rough, except the food + chainsaw dust were down the hill from the coop… so my back wasn’t too happy. little shioちゃん kept me company and insisted on helping and would talk with me and played with the little neko
- chat with host K. then took an actual nap lol
- went to the after-school program with Sさん, not doing an activity like he suggested, but taking to him and his boss first (as his boss wanted), all in the same room as students, so talked to some of them too
parking lot which had a tower (not pictured) to view the fields from 
i learned the word for seed, たね 
fluffy seeds 
all these fluffy seeds in here! i think Mさん said this was lily? 
spores under the leaves 😮 !! we looks at spores of dif colors and under the microscope they looked like onigiri and yakionigiri (grilled rice ball) LOL 
リンドウ blue flowers were real blue 
rice fields and terraces 
lots of blobs that looked like berries but Mさん said they were poisonous 
and many that looked like mini tomatoes, shio would find more variations of these and i’d be like oh, ミニトマト (mini tomato)！ 
surprisingly (to me), they did not pop or have a lot of juice, instead the seed was really huge, taking up most of the circle. some of the seeds were one hard sphere, some split in two, like this one. 
these berries were SO blue, had to edit a little to try to get that blue in the picture– the seeds were one hard sphere and kind of translucent/white 
this plant is apparently called 森のソセージ (forest sausages) lol 
can split in half and seeds in the middle, and it’s like a long pepper looking thing 
forest floor was SUPER soft, all these pine needles that clumped together into packs of moss-like flooring 
more リンドウ 
shiitake mushroom mini farm! 
more seeds, this one inside a fluffy cotton-like covering 
little acorn looking thing
near the beginning of the activity Mさん told us to feel free to touch the plants and point out to her anything that looks interesting
sometimes i wonder what it’d be like if i had a childhood like these kids, particularly living in countryside, exploring the neighborhood which is fields/forest/river, not city, and if touching plants/insects didn’t feel quite so foreign, if i knew what trees did what and what plants were for what and what seasons they grew in…anyway, i was glad to have the chance to have this experience today. Mさん, who led the walk, taught us a lot and even with limited japanese and english between us, we made it work, but mostly with the help of body language and Sさん’s scientific english vocabularly like (‘ah not seed but uh… spores!’, and ‘clone’ which was body gestured for me to understand as asexual reproduction. lots of learning lol some of the words i barely even remembered what they meant in english)
other observation: Mさん started and ended the activity with expectations and then reflections and it was interesting to have this very school-like structure with people of such range of ages
both Mさん and Sさん moved from tokyo/a city to this area, one for seemingly more personal and lifestyle reasons, the other for lifestyle but also career interest reasons (Sさん got an opportunity to work in this after-school program that doesn’t focus on cramming but on guiding students in their learning which i was just 😮 for japan)
i also noticed the kids, 3, 9, and 11 years old, are just so self sufficient and independent and allowed to explore. the 3 year old was just walking in the middle of the car road (we were on the side mostly), a truck curves around the bend, she just says ‘びっくりした！’ (i was surprised!) and i run to pull her away but the truck slows down (i’ve also noticed all the drivers have fast reflexes because of the narrow mountain roads)… the older kids also take care of the 3 year old shio and make sure she doesn’t run too far ahead… they take care of each other and of themselves…! really interesting compared to similar age HK kids 😅
view from Kさん’s house 
their little cat
they have a dog and two goats too! at first i didn’t realize they were their goats, the first time i saw them outside the window around lunchtime, i asked one of the kids, do goats often come through? wow! she’s like yeah and was real chill about it. later i asked Kさん something about wild goats and he’s like LMAO there are no wild goats in japan these are ours i’m like oh lol
breakfast: scrambled eggs, lettuce (from Yさん’s greenhouse!) with olive oil, toast, milk tea 
spaghetti with tomato sauce and veg lunch also with L. and G. and Kさん’s kids 
snack before heading to the after-school program real quick, half toast and fast miso 
after after-school program, came back to see a bowl of food waiting for me (*cries, Yさん is so nice), such an amazing thing to come home to :’) 
was the method to cook one of the veg from his greenhosue i had asked about (chrystanthenum stalks i think? still not super sure) + burduck roots blobs, tofu, in dashi + probably mirin 
then added that same veg to miso soup for the rest of dinner; i think we had this veg in chinese food just can’t remember the name right now… it’s the one i really didn’t like as a kid lol
after-school program:
the kids were bit shy but kind. there were only three that night. it seems that they can choose whenever they want to come and there are 4 sessions per week, only on weekdays M to Thurs. all high school students. one of them had gone to an Eng program for 2 weeks in NZ so we talked a bit about NZ.
Sさん said they don’t focus on cramming and a teacher standing in front lecturing, it seemed like a casual fun space for students to study together and have a couple teachers around to answer questions and also semi-counsel in their conversations… i was expecting a little more self-direction, like students bringing in their own projects to work on and learn about with the teachers based on what Sさん told me, but also considering japanese high schools and the students’ wild schedules, I was glad they had this space at all
after talking to Sさん and his boss, we agreed to do a simple activity with pre-decided topics where we shared about HK/Japanese culture about school activities, homework, classes, etc for the tomorrow night
side note: it is getting so cold
chloe eats 
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