Farmstay and Wadaiko

Trying to catch up between studying for finals and the last few weekends we have here, but it's somewhat of a losing battle <___<;
Lessee...left of last time with Sam's birthday...

The next morning we meet earlyish again outside AP 1 (not as early as Nagasaki, but enough that I didn't get to sleep in), and pile on a bus. Adam was far worse the wear from the previous night's activities, yet was persuaded (or rather, brow-beaten) into getting his hung-over ass on the bus because he was not going to miss this (Jessica, the negotiator). Everyone accounted for and loaded in, we set off from APU. Down the hill to route 10 that makes the 'main thoroughfare' for Beppu, turn north, and head to the countryside.

Bungotakada is a farming community about an hour's drive north of Beppu, located in a marvelously scenic place (though a lot of Japan is proving this way...juxtaposition of mountains, sea, and forest in-between is great), with lots of little farms spread throughout. We get to the city meeting hall, are funneled up 3 flights of stairs to a meeting room where our host families are waiting. We're split off into our designated groups sitting in a row next to our host, introductions are made, and then we're led back outside to the hosts' cars and taken our separate ways.

Matt (younger of the 2, not the umbrella gunner from last time), Brendan, and I were sent off with a rather nice old guy who lived pretty well up on a ridge overlooking 2 valleys with a pretty nice view out of the Bungotakada 'city' and the coast beyond. He and his wife spoke, well, no English period pretty much, so I got to play interpreter to the degree I could. While they were both very nice people, the 3 of us got the impression (or I certainly did, at least) that the wife had signed them up for this little deal, leaving the husband not too certain what to do with us. After meeting back up with everyone the next day and hearing all the activities and stuff they did, we felt a little short-changed; our hosts mentioned this was the first they'd done this program through APU (they'd had Chinese exchange students before, it seemed), and it didn't really seem that there was a great deal of planning had .___.

At any rate, we arrive, are introduced to Masato's wife, Yukiko, and their 2 grandchildren, Seina and Ryuuji. Their mother was evidently a Filipino woman who died a few years ago, and their father (our hosts' son) currently lived in Tokyo, so they were taking care of the kids for a few more years (presumably until Seina was in high school and could look after Ryuuji and herself). An interesting point that we found out later that evening was that their son took gold in the 8th All-Japan Tae Kwon Do Tournament, and bronze in the World Tourney, and had spent about 4 years studying in the US. Pretty spiffy. At left is the family's Shiba Inu, Maru (bugger can run when you let him).

Our first order of business is lunch, which was actually a pretty entertaining endeavor. The planned meal was somen, sorta the Japanese vermicelli, served on a fun delivery platform: a bamboo water sluice. Yukiko would dump noodles a clump at a time at the top where the water was pouring into the long bamboo trough, and it would then flow down the line past where we sat, to be collected in a basket at the end to be re-poured. You basically sit at the trough, poke a chopstick into the water, and collect a lump of somen as it flows past. The cup in Brendan's hand is a type of fish? sauce that you soak the noodles in, then eat. Add in some onigiri (the triangular rice balls, some had the ume-boshi [salt-cured plums] in the center), pickled...something or anothers, and some sausages, and it all makes for a pretty tasty lunch.

Aside from their 2 grand-kids and the cute as hell dog Maru, there was another family pet: Mario...the goat.

Yes...a pet, male, goat. About the only good thing I can say about Mario is that he wasn't a Japanese goat, which unlike their Western counterparts, are all-white, and have sharp horns. Given Mario's proclivity for headbutting people in the back of the knees, or the thigh, this was a good thing. Hell, Seina was getting annoyed with him butting the back of her legs and was kicking him on the head, for all he seemed to notice. Mario was...a pretty nasty creature, honestly...molested Brendan's leg on multiple occasions, and at one point up and started peeing just standing next to us, turned, started drinking, then proceeded to...service himself. Ugh. Did I mention that, by some bizarre coincidence, all 3 of us were wearing red shirts? Yeah, this creature was gonna make things interesting. <__<;

At any rate, a nasty farm animal 'pet' aside, we help clean up from lunch, then are taken by Masato on a tour of the farm. Their backyard had a really pretty garden in its own right, but heading down the hill revealed plenty more sights and fruits. Immediately behind the house were trellises supporting vines of not-quite-ripe kiwi and grapes. Further down the path among the terraces yielded blueberry bushes with some ripe berries; remarkably sweet, with a little bit of tart to them. Continuing further down showed trees of apples, a tiny plot of yam-like tater things, and myriad flowers amid a very peaceful looking spot.

Back up the hill and down the other side yielded more fruit trees, and one bearing a plant which we were informed was harvested and then pressed for the oil, then used for hair products, cooking oil, and other numerous end products. We were each given a little basket and told we could pick some fruits that were ripe to take back with us (evidently they don't take their stuff to market by and large, people who want things come up the hill to them and pay to pick stuff).

Aside from plants, trees, a cute dog, and an irritating goat, the Shibagamis also kept chickens. One particular one had a nest hidden rather well away from the main coop, and as we were helping prep veggies for dinner, we were shown that this hen had just had one of her eggs hatch; you can see the little chick's head poking out at its first glimpses of the world...which from that perspective consisted of the Shibagami's garage and a few worktables. <__<;; Following veggie peeling/cutting, the 3 of us were kinda left to, well...sit about. Yukiko was making dinner with her older sister who had come over, and Masato was off on some errand. Only problem with this was, we thought we were going to be taken down to the municipal baths where we could swap stories with our program-mates thus far; with Masato gone and Yukiko unable to drive...we were kinda stranded >__>;;

So, we ended up spending awhile playing cards with Ryuuji (the kid didn't like to play fair too much, did a poor job of hiding cheating, which we weren't having any of <___<), taught him Go Fish, and then took our turns with the bath before dinner. During dinner we had a bit of basic language exchange, learning what words were in Japanese, and explaining what others were in English (the kids had some English classes in school so far), ended up watching TV for awhile, and crashing early in the room that's behind the photo at left...was separated into 2 spaces by sliding doors. Tatami mats, futons, and the odd beanbag pillows that I'm starting to get used to here...Shown below are a little alcove in the other half of the aforementioned large room with some little mementos from Seina and Ryuuji, as well as some really cool carving in the center beam above the separator doors.

The next morning began early-ish...but it was remarkably uneventful. We woke up, folded up our futons, and kinda sat about reading books or somesuch until breakfast rolled about. Following that we watched the TV show Seina was watching, which was kinda geared to our level of Japanese, so it was kinda handy.

We're informed we've some time to kill, so we decide to go for a walk up and down the road a bit. Only problem with this, as we soon found out, was that there were some sizable dogs perhaps a quarter mile one direction, and closer the other way...yay. I did manage to get a brief video of what the Japanese countryside sounds like with these loud-ass cicadas...I hear this same noise outside my dorm window pretty well every day. (The mic on my camera isn't the best...but it's a still camera, so hey)

Not too long later, we're all packed up (didn't take too long since we basically just had a night's worth of clothes...), gather outside for photos I haven't gotten from Brendan yet, and Masato takes us off to the little meeting hall thing where we're having lunch following our Wadaiko drum experience. We're by far the earliest there, though gradually other groups start showing up, we trade stories (here's where we started to feel very...well...gypped), and finally the Wadaiko group shows up and we all start helping unload their van of equipment. The only problem? Pretty soon after this picture was taken...it started to rain.

So, we packed them all up and went to a nearby elementary school gym that was reserved as a backup for us. Getting that huge-ass drum in the building was an interesting feat...barely fit through the double-doors. What struck me as odd at first was that we were bringing in a helluva lot of drums, but far more drums present than there seemed to be members of this Taiko drum troupe. Turns out that we weren't only having a performance, we were going to start off learning how to play the basic taiko patterns and having somewhat of a performance of our own. Spiff~ (photos from this later made it into a local newspaper...I'm in the shot!)

After our fun drumming lesson and practice beats, we were left with a bit of free time to dink about with the drums as we pleased while the troupe proper got geared up and all set for their performance. Jason, our local Taiko no Tatsujin (seems Pitt has a pretty good taiko club), with Connor as backup, gave us a bit of a demonstration. Rather cool~

Playtime past, we all claim some spots on the gymnasium floor with a good vantage point for the Wadaiko performance, replete with 4 different size/types of taiko, and one guy on a shakuhachi (Japanese wooden flute). The performance we were treated to was...I forget the name, but it involved an oni (demon) in the title somewhere, and was a ceremonial type performance meant to rid participants and the area/etc. of bad luck. It started with just the 2 guys on the 2 taiko and the guys on the shakuhachi and little finger cymbal thingies, with finally the lead of the troupe (and one of the host families) appearing as the oni. He drummed on the various drums a bit, then came out among all of us, tapping everyone on the head with the fan. (This was meant to cleanse bad spirits and provide us with good luck.) I have video of it, but it got remarkably long...the performance was at least 10 minutes in length.

After the performance, thanks and closing speeches from the Bungotakada representatives and one of our own, we pile back into our host families' cars and return to the temple-turned-city-restored-hall-thingie for a buffet created by local ladies. We bid our goodbyes to our hosts, retrieved our luggage, and they set out on their way. We're treated to a very tasty lunch and have a bit of time to hang about outside before the bus shows up to take us back to APU.

While I think Matt, Brendan, and my experience could've been better, it was certainly interesting...I wish there were more than the wadaiko to be the highlight of the weekend, but alas .___. Again, nothing at all against our hosts...we just got the feeling they didn't quite know what to do with us, so we had a lot of unplanned time where we kinda just...sat around. Ah well...win some, lose some.