Day 52.

Was a busy busy day!

I slowly am going back to my regular eating and getting the comments, that i barely eat - well good for me. The first week after Sasayama i was eating like crazy, i even got remarks about it, so i felt embarrassed a little bit. This is also the reason for an extreme diet after i come back from Japan - i crossed my definite stop-limit when it comes to weight and i feel terrible... And i don't like myself anymore, which is not good. I don't care too much about what scales say, never cared about it, but i do care about how i feel about myself - and i was glowing and happy with my looks before i left to Japan. Right now i gained already 4 kg... That's extreme! I have cheeks now! I wanna do sports here, because my body is out of tune, but it's just too hot to do anything outside, i would probably die after 5 minutes jogging. So i'm just enjoying here and now and gonna starve those 4 kg away when i'm back in Europe i guess... Just kidding, i'm not the starving type - i have clever techniques. But it's not gonna be easy.

Leaving that behind, i have to repeat it again: it was a busy busy day... Even though we didn't have that many people today, it somehow was pretty stressful, since we had three different groups and one of them wasn't there for BBQ, but just regular eating out people, so we had different orders and they ate quite a lot and diverse... At some point we almost ran out of glasses for drinks and ice cubes!

It wasn't just busy, it was long as well... Today my host-mom offered me a lift back home while the hosts stayed in the shop for another while - it was almost 1 oclock already! And i felt really nice that she brought me back home... I think that's the way it should be. I'm just a wwoofer after all, and they're the owners.

Day 46.

Nagomi, the cafe i wwoof at:

Day 25.

Today we had a day off because of the festival in Sasayama. Before the festival we went to the Host’s house and had a barbecue, home made pizzas, some of us had beer or two (or three and

more). The food was really delicious and the atmosphere was really good. There was some people who i didn’t know before, some of host’s friends, but all of them were really friendly. We didn’t spend too much time there, but it was one nice afternoon. It was filled with lots of different people and music - i learned a little bit how to play jambe, i tried some wicked home made guitar, touched cello for the first time and had the opportunity to sit down at the piano. After maybe 3-4 years i played piano again. It was painful to realize, how much i’ve forgotten. Fingers kept on slipping from the keys as i played, so i had to concentrate not just on the notes, but also on the keyboard. And i couldn’t play anything proper, but it made so much fun i had to ask myself: “Why did i stop playing at all?”. Well, back in Germany i don’t have a piano, so it would be difficult for me to practice, but maybe i should try buying an electronic one? Would be better than nothing. Some of the japanese girls played really well, so i was just lying down and enjoying it. And i really do wanna get better again...

So today’s festival was quite a challenge for me, because the leg was still aching with every step and i felt this big chunk of muscle cramped into one piece. But having the opportunity to wear

yukata (a summer kimono-like clothing) even made the pain dissolve a little bit! It was my first time and i completely loved it. I wonder how a real kimono feels like, maybe i will get the chance to wear it one day. I’ve been trying so many things here and that makes me really happy. I’m gonna come back to Europe with a huge luggage of experience. Since that was one of my goals i’m happy i was able to achieve it. But experiencing this, makes me wanna travel more and more, go here and there, visit this and that and it’s not getting out of my head. My dreams are getting bigger, but the time is running out every day.

The festival was different from the ones, i’m used to. It wasn’t a street festival, it took place in a

park, so it had a separate area with all those food kiosks and souvenirs and fish catching places, and there was another area where the dancing and the fireworks, and eventually the taiko performances were to observe. I was waiting for the latter one most, because i enjoy drumming so much. The performance seemed promising of the quantity of drums, but it was weaker than the one in Hachioji. Anyway, it was a nice performance and i was enjoying it; afterwards i talked to some drummers and we decided we could maybe have some taiko lessons for the wwoofers. I really hope we manage to arrange this while i’m still here!

From tomorrow we’re changing working times a little bit, so we’ll have to adjust to the new working schedule. We’re gonna start working from 8 am and go until 5 pm, which means shorter break, but then again, the working day seems to be not as extended as it used to be, when we had 6 am until 6 pm. We’re still don’t know if it’s gonna be permanent starting tomorrow, but today was a long day for all of us because of the festival, so it is wise indeed to change it at least for tomorrow...

More pictures from the festival:

Milly's Chicken Marinade

Well, since couple of people praised my marinade and one of my friends asked for the recipe, i decided to simply put it online, so more people could profit from it! I also personally think that this marinade indeed turned out very well which is a nice thing, since i'm bad with meat.

I used to be vegetarian almost all my life, but then i had to start eating meat when i turned 18 because of some medical problems. So i started eating chicken and turkey. Nothing more thought... Even when i'm asked whether i eat poultry, i say no, because well, if i say yes - i lie, since i hate any other meat than chicken and turkey. For instance, duck doesn't smell nice, doesn't look nice and is totally fat.

Anyway, lets go back to the topic of this post. It's difficult to write it down into a recipe while not doing it and it sure is difficult to write how much do you need of this and that, since i just follow my instincts. But i will try!

Milly's Chicken Marinade:

500g crushed tomatoes (it really has to be like a puree)

2-3 TS original mayonaise (don't take the salad mayo!)

1 TS lemon juice (concentrated one, not the one you can actually drink) or you can press half of lemon by yourself, which would be even better

2-3 big onions

1 garlic head

black pepper, salt

2 TS honey

basil OR (!) oregano, don't mix them together, you should go for either of them

It's not difficult to prepare it, just pour the tomato puree into a big bowl, add mayo and stir it well. Cut onions in really fine cubes and crush garlic, add both to the bowl. Then, add pepper, salt and lemon juice, stir it well again. Then the magic ingredient - honey - comes to the game. Add it to the bowl and stir the mixture, until honey dissolves completely. Add lots of basil OR oregano as the last step.

There you go! You're ready to put chicken in it.

It is quick to prepare and it doesn't require much time to marinade. 1 hour already does the trick. However, it can stand up to 24 hours in the fridge. Don't overdo though, since there's a lot of onions in this marinade and the more time goes by, the more bitter it might get. (if you marinade it for more than 24 hours).

TIP: It's best if you marinade the chicken in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge at least for 1 hour.