Last night I was curling myself inside the blanket and suddenly it reminded me of a childhood game I play with my sister. We would cover ourselves under the blanket and pretended we were some kinds of animals. I would then tell my sister, “When mom or dad comes in, we don’t move and fake sleep. Can you do that?”
The thought of getting internet access soon tomorrow felt great! It was like those days when you waited at the letter box yearning for the postman to come!
It was the hottest day in the afternoon by far. I started off to cut the radish and cleaned them up, before I went for weeding again. I kind of enjoyed it today. Although it was unfriendly to my back, the weed was lower where I could see the onion, unlike the day before where the weed covered everything. This made things simpler and faster to finish a row, which in turn motivated me to do the next row. After a few days of weeding, my thumbs went numb, pinching too hard on the weed to pull them out. I wished the onion were as strong as them.
After lunch, we went to collect the wires and poles that were used to surround
the paddy fields. 
We also harvested a little bit more of the paddy plant. After that, we used a special manual machine to separate the grain from their stems. You pedaled using your leg to move the machine and then stuck the paddy plant into it to get the grain out. To me, it was like making sugar cane juice without putting the whole sugar cane through. Then, we went to wash soil bags at the river again. I could still smell the white soil. Dried them up and that was it! My last day at farm. It was really a great experience that I would never forget. It was tough, especially the first two three days. But, by now, I supposed I got used to it already. I really enjoyed my time here and would like to stay longer. In fact, I planned for 3 weeks, but somehow I cocked up my schedule, and wanted to plan more days for the Shikoku trail. But, I don’t think I would be able to do it for months. I also learned why Japanese eat every grain of the rice on their bowl. It’s a show of respect to the farmer, to the food!
We had vegetables in cream sauce for dinner today. The sauce was something like those the cream based pasta. I noticed Yuhei-san’s family has a TV smaller than 14 inch! Life is tough for farmers. After dinner, Yuhei-san went to Aikido session alone. I went for shower and packed my stuffs. Aiko-san then left me a note book to leave some farewell messages. I finished writing and went to bed at 10pm.
The thought of getting internet access soon tomorrow felt great! It was like those days when you waited at the letter box yearning for the postman to come!
It was the hottest day in the afternoon by far. I started off to cut the radish and cleaned them up, before I went for weeding again. I kind of enjoyed it today. Although it was unfriendly to my back, the weed was lower where I could see the onion, unlike the day before where the weed covered everything. This made things simpler and faster to finish a row, which in turn motivated me to do the next row. After a few days of weeding, my thumbs went numb, pinching too hard on the weed to pull them out. I wished the onion were as strong as them.After lunch, we went to collect the wires and poles that were used to surround
the paddy fields. 
We also harvested a little bit more of the paddy plant. After that, we used a special manual machine to separate the grain from their stems. You pedaled using your leg to move the machine and then stuck the paddy plant into it to get the grain out. To me, it was like making sugar cane juice without putting the whole sugar cane through. Then, we went to wash soil bags at the river again. I could still smell the white soil. Dried them up and that was it! My last day at farm. It was really a great experience that I would never forget. It was tough, especially the first two three days. But, by now, I supposed I got used to it already. I really enjoyed my time here and would like to stay longer. In fact, I planned for 3 weeks, but somehow I cocked up my schedule, and wanted to plan more days for the Shikoku trail. But, I don’t think I would be able to do it for months. I also learned why Japanese eat every grain of the rice on their bowl. It’s a show of respect to the farmer, to the food!We had vegetables in cream sauce for dinner today. The sauce was something like those the cream based pasta. I noticed Yuhei-san’s family has a TV smaller than 14 inch! Life is tough for farmers. After dinner, Yuhei-san went to Aikido session alone. I went for shower and packed my stuffs. Aiko-san then left me a note book to leave some farewell messages. I finished writing and went to bed at 10pm.
Oh my.. the game. Sorry I would always screw up because I never could tahan kuchi. (in case you don't remember malay, I meant I was always ticklish). Haha. Miss that game. Do you remember that one where we tuck a mini bolster and consider that as a 'tail' and whoever loses the 'tail', well.. loses? Hehe. My favourite.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you Yuhei-san and family. God bless. Much love, Kuan.xx
Also, do you think I can get Yuhei-san's address please?
ReplyDeleteHaha.., yeh.. the kuchi.. almost forgotten that!! haha.. when was kuchi a malay woerd btw ?!?! and i really cant recall anything on the tail game =]
ReplyDeleteYuhei-san address is on the image i passed to u.