Happy Holidays from Vietnam!!!

I hope everyone is having wonderful holidays!!! We deceided to treat ourselves and spend Christmas at a nicer place than normal in Phan Thiet, Vietnam (its a resort and we are each paying about $30 a night, yikes). It is a welcomed break from the 10 bed mixed dorm hostels we have been staying in. Today is Christmas day and we spent it on the beach - rough life I know. No, actually it is really sad not being home with the family and missing out on things. I miss them very much. Last night I did have a pleasant Christmas Eve dinner of pork spring rolls and fried tofu though...

Before coming here we flew from Seoul to Ho Chi Mihn city, and spent four nights there. That was very interesting. There are no crosswalk lights (and something like 10 million people in the city and 5 million motorbikes) and the traffic is constant. To cross any street (4-6 lanes even) you just have to confidently set out and slowly weave through the motorbikes, cars and buses, letting them pass in front of and behind you. It is quite bizarre to stand in the middle of the street and see an advancing hoard of traffic coming directly at you and feel like you are in the right place, and that nothing is strange about it. I think it was one of my favorite parts of being there - definitely some very scary moments - but fun because it was so incredibly different (the girls did not warn up to it so much). We did a lot of walking around and exploring while we were there. We were staying in what has become known as a backpacker area, so it was really fun meeting other travelers there and exchanging stories and advice. We realized as soon as we got to Vietnam that we had primarily packed for cold weather backpacking/work. So we found a few really cheap dresses that will be very handy while here. We also went to the War Remnants Museum (previously called the American War Crimes Museum and recently changed). It was interesting to see the photos and read about the war (also lots of propaganda, but I thought it was important to go there regardless). I could definitely see at least some of the lasting effects of the war in the numerous people I saw affected by "agent orange"/some of the chemical warfare we employed during the war. Many of these severly deformed people were beggars, but there we others that were not. Being in Vietnam was really the first time we felt as if we were somewhere completely different. Japan and South Korea are both such modern countries and many things felt very similar to home. Also, I never questioned my safety in those places. It's annoying having to be so cautious about everything, but also good to be somewhere so new. OH, also while we were in HCMC we went to a waterpark! It was sooo much fun! I think waterparks are pretty gross in general, and had no idea what to expect from one in Vietnam, but it was great! We spent a few hours there, went on most of the slides at least twice - they went really fast and some were pretty scary. The best part was that there was essentially no one else there. We never had to wait in line and it was lovely. We took about a 20 minute cab ride to get there, and I decided riding in a car there is much scarier than darting into the street. Also, it's not uncommon to see a family of five all riding on one motorbike.

The rest of the time we were in Seoul was great. We went to the Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ) and saw the dividing line between North and South Korea, and the 400 meters between the two. So saw North Korea in the distance, and got as close as I could without getting shot (they used to have day tours to the north, but one woman got shot three times, so they stopped - currently trying to get it going again though...). We also went down into one of the tunnels the north vietnamese dug under the DMZ into the south - 70 meters underground! It was an interesting experience to see those things, not terribly thrilling, but I thought we should do it since we were there. It was a bit stange to suddenly be on an organized tour for a few hours - we were on a bus with a guide. We spent our last night a little bit south of the city and crashed on Dobbs's floor (which was so nice of him to have us and our huge bags). He brought us to a Christmas party one of his friends was having and it was really nice to meet all the people he has met while there.

Right now the people in the room next to us are cooking a ton of crabs they bought on the beach today in an electric cooker on the balcony. The girls are eating them, I am not. I thought is was going to be hard for me to avoid having to eat seafood while here, but there always seems to be another option. However, I have tried sooo many weird fish/ocean things while I have been on this trip. Just glad I don't have to eat seafood constantly. That was a lot to write really fast, sorry for any typos. Going to shower and have Christmas day dinner... prob something weird. I hope everone's holidays are going extremely well!! love to all!!

Seoul

We are in South Korea! The rest of our time in Japan was great - loved the farm and had a fun last night in Tokyo. We met some guys from Spain at our hostel and went with them to their friends bar, and then we caught the last subway to Shibuya to go to some party. Turns out there was a $40 cover charge, so we opted out of that and all went back to the hostel to hang out there. One of the guys was really into flaminco dancing and gave me a lesson on the subway - I did not do very well. Japan was sooooo expensive so we were ready to leave in that sense, but its also a little sad to leave somewhere I felt so comfortable. It is very exciting to be somewhere new though! I like being in a new place and having to figure out the public transportation.

Our first night in Seoul we went to dinner with a friend from home, Dobbs, who is here teaching English. We went to a fried chicken and beer place, which is a big thing here I guess. It was nice to see him and hear about Korean life from someone who has been here for a while - I think we are seeing him later in the week as well. When we got back to our hostel we were pretty tired from being on the go all day - but a lot of people were hanging out in our hostel so we decided to be friendly and joined in. We are staying at Backpacker Friends and it is amazing - the people are great (the living is fine... we are staying in a ten person mixed dorm and it is too hot in there at night... but its ok, there is only one other guy in that room with us right now). Dr. Kim is the owner and he is so awesome! Last night hje made us Korean BBQ and it was pretty good. There are also a lot of his friends (I think) here a lot, they might live here, they sleep on the floor of the living room. Its great, they are so nice. Last night we also played a lot of games - including shoulders and "never have I ever" - with koreans, a brazilian and an austrailian - it was awesome, and so funny. Today we went to the war museum and it was really interesting. There was one display/video thing that was sooo funny (and def not supposed to be). The translation and acting was so bad that it made it quite wonderful. Tonight we are hanging out with everyone at the hostel - its nice, we all just sit around a big table on the floor and talk, listen to music and play games. Prob going to bed soon though, sooo tired.

Kusunoki Farm

So Kobe was fun - we were only there for one night, and we just kind of explored. There wasn't really anything we HAD to see so we just went to a few places and tried to get lost. We found an awesome little vegetarian restaurant (even though kobe is known for its beef... it was too expensive for our current budgets) and had a lovely lunch, and continued walking around the more worthwile parts of the city. When we got back that night we watched a harry potter movie, which was a welcomed break from the constant moving around.
Our new farm is amazing. It was a little weird when we first arrived - we were picked up from the train station (apparently we went to the wrong one, but it was not our fault), given a quick tour of the house and left alone for about four hours because everyone was out doing various things. So we hung out in the living room alone and waited for people to come home. We spend the majority of our time with Mariko, a woman who is 55 and sooo fun and funny. Her daughter Ayaiko and daughter-in-law Mihoko both speak english very well, and it is really nice being able to talk to them. Mihoko has two kids, Daichi (a six year old boy) and Aoi (a four year old girl), they are very sweet and we spend a lot of time with them as well. The family has a store, and they work normally at least until 10 each night, so we don't really see the men or all of the cousins very often. Their property includes a community garden, and Mariko has turned it into a cultural center as well. One of the gardeners is a pottery instructor, so there is a pottery class on saturdays, one member is a yoga teacher, so there is a yoga class once a month, one is a weaver... and so on. We got very lucky in that we were here for both a pottery and a yoga class. Yoga was more like streching and moving, and it was pretty cold out. But nice regardless. Pottery was wonderful. The three of us and about eight older ladies all attended suzie's class, which we held in our garage. This week we made small houses that you place a candle in.
Our first job on the farm was to decorate the house "american style"... so it started out looking like a cheap motel, with lights flashing in such a way it could give one a seizure. We made some improvements yesterday. Other jobs have included: harvesting potatos, planting onions, planting trees (one named after each of us...), weeding, packing and prepping the compost (jumping on the 6 foot high pile - adding oil - jumping again,) helping with an english class (more like a giggle fest, on both of our ends... really fun), and various other things. oh, and another "burn" (fire) - thankfully this time we only burned wood and paper (and sweet potatos in tin foil, yumm). We were also told on the first day that wwoofers make something to leave at the house.... so we are making a bench. A few days ago we sorted through a huge pile of scrap wood, found some power and hand tools and started. Not done yet, but it is looking pretty good so far, and very sturdy (we are rather proud). Yesterday was our day off and we went to the Himeji Castle. It was beasutiful and we went to the top of the main tower... for some reason being there made me feel very calm and at peace. Today we cut down and stripped about 200 bamboo trees, and cut them into six foot poles to be used in the garden. It was pretty hard work, but fun. And Mariko took us to a cheap sushi place for lunch, so that was a nice treat. We need to make 500 bamboo poles, so i think that is probably the plan for tomorrow as well.
I am going to try to write on this more often - that way the posts hopefully won't be as long and boring. Generalizing the past is never as interesting as what is going on at present. Anyway, a few neat things I like about Japan: the vending machines all dispense cold AND hot drinks, there is one laundry machine to do the washing AND drying, on some of the trains the seats automatically turn around so one always faces forward, the camaras on cell phones are legit camaras (like 5 mega pixels) and the phones can scan bar codes and take you to websites automatically. Thats all I can think of right now, but there are definitely more, will try to remember....

The Last few days we stayed at a hostel in Kyoto called "The Izumi House" - which worked out great because we each got our own tiny room (smaller than my bathroom at home, but lovely nontheless). I don't think it is on any of the hostel sites because no one there really speaks English; a Japanese friend from our last farm helped us find and book it. Originally we were going to only spend two nights there, but it was so cheap compared to everywhere else (roughly $15 a night) that we decided to stay and take day trips to Nara and Hiroshima. One downside of the hostel was that there was no shower - which meant that we got to go to a public bath... again. It's a bit odd having to pay a little over $4 to take a shower, but I guess it's better than nothing. Our bath experience in Kyoto was a bit different than in Suzaka because there were about 15 women in there with us, all of which were probably over 60. One woman seemed pissed because (we think from her body language) that we were supposed to shower before getting into the bath - so that was a little awkward. Yuka didn't do that in Suzaka so we had no idea. Most of the other women were pretty nice though, trying to help us find privacy towels and urging use to use buckets to wash ourselves in addition to just sitting in front of our showers and mirrors.

Once clean, our first night in Kyoto was amazing. We went to a place we found in Lonely Planet called "A Bar" for dinner. It took us about 45 minutes to find, but was completely worth it. Very comfortable, relaxed place with a really good energy (and good food). We made a bunch of friends there which was fun, and then we went to a kareoke place with two of then, Kei and Masa. We had our own little room which made me think of Lost In Translation; it was great. The Japanese certainly take their kareoke seriously. The nest day we went to the Nishiki Market in Kyoto, which had a lot of food and random other things, including the most beautiful candy I have ever seen. On a side note: I am absolutely going to get a cavity while I am here. Never in my life have I eaten so much candy - I didn't think I even liked candy that much. Everything here is just so interesting and packaged in a cool way. Anyway, we then visited the Kurama-dera temple which took forever to get to, but was really beautiful. On the train ride back into the city it was night time and for a few minutes they turned off all the lights (which made me panic at first) so we could see the fall foliage, which was underlit and stunning. The rest of the time in Kyoto centered around seeing temples/shrines and food. We spent a day walking around Southern Higashiyma, seeing Kiyomizu-dera, the Kodaiji temple and some others. The Fushimi-Inari shrine was also really incredible - it has hundreds of bright red columns/gates lining paths all over the site. We ran into some English boys in a park that we had met briefly in the train station the previous day and decided to meet up for a drink later that night. We went to an Irish pub where we met some other Americans and the Brits, and later went to kareoke again with the Brits (more fun with the Japanese).

We took a day trip to Nara and visited the deer park and a bunch of temples and shrines. We got a free guide at the train station which was really helpful - we saw a lots of places we would have missed otherwise. It was also nice being able to ask him questions. Oh! There I saw the largest bronze statue in the world (or at least that's what the guide said) of an enormous Buddha - it was so huge and cool! I also looooooved being able to pet and feed hundreds of deer. When you feed the deer you are supposed to hold the deer biscuts above their heads until they nod three times. So basically even the deer in Japan are polite. We decided to eat in Nara and found a really cheap place that specialized in fried pork... I had fried chicken and was so happy - they even had tobasco!

The following day we went to Hiroshima which was really interesting. I still don't think I can really fully grasp what happened there. However, actually being in that place and walking around was a neat experience. We walked through the park and saw the various memorials and then went to the museum and spent about three hours there. It was incredibly sad and even a bit eerie. Swiching gears, it was also Thanksgiving (well actually it was the day before, but this was when our friends and families were celebrating), so we went back to A Bar because we liked it there and it felt comfortable. Here we had another great meal and mostly talked to two brittish men who were here teaching English, and a Spanish man with his (much younger) Japanese girlfriend. They were all great and we had a lot of fun - the Brits were just in Southeast Asia so we got some travel tips from them.

Last night we got into Osaka and we are staying at the Peace House Showa hostel. It's small (like everything in Japan) but very homey and nice. Our room has three bunkbeds (so we are 3 of 6 people in there) and that takes up about all of the space.... I'm sleeping with my huge backpacking backpack next to me on my little top bunk. It's not actually not terrible, but someone was snoring soooooo loud last night. Regardless, at least I got to take a shower standing up and by myself (we tried to go to the bathhouse in Kyoto again the other night but got there too late and it was closed, so we hadn't bathed in about 4 days and have been walking and sweating a lot.... it was definitely time). We met another Brittish boy who was staying at our hostel and went with him to a little "bar" down the street. Really it was the size of a closet with plastic flaps as doors. The four of us plus the two homeless men there and the bartender really pushed the occupancy limit. I guess this new friend had been there the night before and ended up going out to dinner and bars with the bartender.... we only stayed about 30 minutes and decided it was time for dinner. Oh, and one thing that this hostel did not put on its website is that it is 3 blocks from the area's equivalent of a red light district (not that it would have mattered, it is the cheapest place we could find). Here, a few blocks are filled with tiny storefronts each containing one young girl, sitting and smiling in the center of the room looking much like a doll, and an old lady sitting on the side who I assum handles the money. As you walk down the street the girls on display get a little older, and a little uglier.

Today we went to the aquarium in Osaka - it was a little bit of a stretch for our bank accounts right now ($20) but it was certainly worth it. There were two whale sharks and lots of other sharks in a huge tank in the center of the building, and 8 floors of other marine life (and some birds and mammals). I absolutely loved it, and took about a million pictures.... will post some soon. Like a very small child, I literally regularly sat on the ground with both hands pressed to the glass and my nose about an inch from it. Christmas music was playing most of the time which was a bit bizarre, and at one point a scuba diver in a santa clause wet suit/costume was in the shark tank waving at people... that was odd. We spent about 4.5 hours there, and by the time we left it was dark out. We also kind of lost Ashley for a while but found her eventually. Tomorrow we are going to Kobe for the night and the following morning we are going to our second farm. I'm really excited to eat some Kobe beef, and also want to see some of the cows and maybe pet one.

Snow monkeys!!

Today we went north into the Mountains to see the snow monkeys that hang out in hot springs. It was absoltely amazing! We took about a 40 minute train ride from Suzaka, to another town where we took a bus and then hiked up to the springs for about 30 minutes. There were so many monkeys at the park and they didn't seem to mind that there were people around at all. One chased another and ran into my leg (which was fine but I finally did some laundry last night and now my pants are really muddy). I think I took about a million pictures. There was a hot spring that they soaked in and groomed each other and just chilled out. They seemed just like humans, it was incredible (and the babies are wonderfully adorable) - I think I could have stayed there for hours and just watched them play. However, we were hungry so we found a little soba place that I think was just an extension of someone's house... but it was good. Tonight is our last night as our little group here are Nagata's. I've really enjoyed having these other 3 wwoofers here and exploring this area with them. Once we finished the harvest our next job was to remove all the little sapplings growing next to the big apple trees using crowbars... not always an easy task. After a while not only does one get pretty sore, but also extremely bored. A few days ago the 6 of us ended up making up a game where you flip and throw your crowbar at a piece of styrofoam, trying to hit the styrofaom and have the crowbar land standing up in the ground.... very fun. We also played a little apple/crowbar baseball (resulting in a face covered in apple juice). Tomorrow we are going to toyko just for the day to get our Indian visas (so that we can pick them up in a few weeks when we go back through) and run another few errands. We are going to keep out huge backpacks on all day and try to make it Kyoto tomorrow night.... it is going to be a verrrry long day. Going to try to put up some pictures tonight. Love to all!

The Fire

Today we burnt a huge pile of plastic. It was so bizarre. We finished the apple harvest today by lunchtime (which I am oddly proud of) and in the afternoon we did some pretty random things. Quickly sorted some apples, then picked up some big sheets of plastic paneling and drove it up the mountain to nagata's other house.... where we proceded to throw it in a pile and burn it. We added some wood and a lot of plastic crates and jars, two tires, a pair of rubber boots.... We all were shocked at what we were doing and felt horrible about ruining the ozone layer... and our lungs. On Nagatas wwoof profile it says that he has an organic mentality of sorts - I hardly think this qualifys as such. After that he took us on a walk through his beautuful jungle-like forest in the mountains and showed us some freshwater springs. It was very nice. Tonight we went to a hotsprings in town, which was lovely. It is separated by men and women and you have to go naked... but when you walk around cover just your private parts with something about the size of a hand towel. After we sat in the springs for a while (soooo hot) we took showers.... these were in the room with the indoor springs and we sat on little stools in front of mirrors and used handheld shower heads. it was a bit strange to be sitting on a little stool naked, showering with a bunch of japanese women, but at the same time i didn't feel uncomfortable. Oh, and the other night at our welcome dinner some how the phrase "honey girls" came up and nagata decided that we were going to be japan's newest pop sensation and that would be our group name... and our first single is going to be called "apple honey"... and you can't truly appreciate that without seeing the arm movement that goes along with. We promised we will make a music video. Nagata can only really say/remember my name so whenever he is talking to ashley, willy and myself he says "Mimi and three girls". Minus the plastic burning today I completely love him. He is so nice and generous. Going to go have some dinner, one of the other wwoofers made some sort of japanese meal (and is making mine without the fish flakes, woohoo). Ok love to all!!

HIiiii. So we are at our first farm right now and it is absolutely incredible. Our host (Nagata Eiichi) is so awesome, he took us out to dinner last night as a second welcome party (the first being on the night we got here, had a bottle of jack daniels in his den and ate weird food). There are 3 other wwoofers here and I like them all - two boys and a girl. Bob got here yesterday and is staying in a room with us, Yuca and Dan met a few weeks ago and are dating - she is japanese which is really helpful in understanding things. We (all 6 woofers) have our own house. I think Nagata is loaded, he used to do bioengineering and worte some books, but now just farming. Its harvest time so I've been picking apples for 7 hours a day, which is actually kind of fun. I've pretty much mastered the technique of picking the apples so that just the right amount of stem comes with it. Willy and I had an apple picking contest and I won (but only by 3 apples). We've been playing lot of games and singing disney songs in the orchards. Tokyo was really fun. We were only there for a few days so we picked a lot into each day - I feel like I have been in Japan for weeks. We went to the fish market at 7am (meant to get there at 5am but our alarm clock didn't go off). It was sooooo crazy, tons and tons of weird fish. I took a lot of pictures and will post them later. Also, the toilets are really intense here. Now if I sit on a toilet and it isn't heated I feel really annoyed (it only happened once). I think this is the most boring thing I've ever written, sorry, just tired. Going to the grocery store. LOVE

We made it to Tokyo!!! Getting to the hostel was a bit of an experience.... it was about an hour from the airport by train - somehow we managed to figure out the subway system and lots of connections on basically no sleep. We also had our huge backpacks, daypacks and travel purses... quadrupling our size and making walking quite the task. When we made it to our final stop we had a ten minute walk to the hostel, which was very tucked away and hard to find. Our room is roughtly the size of my bathroom, and one of the bunkbeds is in a closet (literally)... but you get what you pay for and this is the cheapest hostel we could find - and everyone is very nice here. Actually so far everyone in this counrty is very nice and helpful... and quiet and clean. We went to a Korean place for dinner (thought it was going to be Japanese) and had an awesome meal. Our waitress did not speak english and there was not an english menu - but willy knew a bit about korean food so we had a platter of different raw meats that we cooked ourself (still not sure what one of them was). Now we are getting ready to really explore the city - we are about 10-15 min outside of the main parts of tokyo by train - we got here in the dark last night so its pretty exciting to actually see the city. Lots of love to all!! miss you all lots and will try to write again soon (i'm shocked this hostel has wifi, it was a lovely surprise to find out that it actulaay works). Oh and i think i threw my back out a little when I sat up in my rock hard bunk bed... so i'm a bit worried about that. LOVE LOVE LOVE

Hellooo, so I'm traveling for the year and going to try to stay in touch through this blog (which makes me feel like a big nerd). I don't really know how often I'll have access to the internet, but I am bringing a little computer and will try to write relatively regularly. I'm traveling with Willy Steigman and Ashley McEvoy and we will be spending about half of our time working on organic farms (through wwoof). If anyone is abroad or will be in the next year let me know and we should meet up! This is our general itinerary (some of the dates might change):

Japan: Nov 11 - Dec 13

South Korea: Dec 13 - Dec 20

Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam: Dec 20 - March 10

India: March 10 - May 12

South Africa, Botswana: May 12 - May 26

Egypt: May 26 - June 9

Israel: June 9 - June 23

Turkey: June 23 - July 10

We then Fly to Greece and spend the next few months in Europe

Please please stay in touch!!!