Day 64. NO PICS YET.

Today for my last evening we had Okonomiyaki party with Emi-San, who is a photographer, so she also consulted me with my portfolio... Everything was so delicious, and yet so usual that i couldn't believe i am gonna leave next day in the morning. But then again, i remember one thing i told to myself when i was still back in Sasayama - i'm still too young to attach to just one thing and i have to move on in order to experience as much as possible. I stuffed my belly full with amazingly delicious okonomiyaki and sweets afterwards...

The night before, don't know why, i couldn't fall asleep until 6 oclock in the morning and i didn't take a nap through out the whole day so i expected myself to be dead by the time Emi even arrives and was worried about our little okonomiyaki party, but i wasn't even THAT tired and when i got back home i didn't have the craving for bed, like i should have had, so it was strange... But maybe it's just an energy boost i got for the last day in there!

In the afternoon a friend of hosts came by and taught me how to prepare a raw cake. It was just superb!!! We prepared peach raw cake and banana/choco raw cake - it doesn't take much time, it doesn't have to be baked, so it saves up resources and it's really refreshing - you eat it straight from the fridge (or freezer). Banana/choco has a tender flavor, while the peach cake feels light as a feather and just melts on your tongue.

This place taught me things that i really value right now and i think they're gonna be important in the future, so i'm glad i could have this kinda experience. Slowly i get a clearer vision of the life i want and every day and every step made gets me closer and closer to it. I made many many mistakes, but maybe it all worked out for the better of it - with all the mistakes made, wrong decisions and fuck ups, i now know what i want and i don't have to just go guessing around.

Tomorrow I'm leaving to Tokyo and in a week - going back to Europe...

Day 63. NO PICS YET.

Today i got to cook again and it was the sweet cuisine - we forgot to do shopping on sunday, so we just moved it to monday. I prepared milk rice and sweet fruit soup - was delicious! Even though rice magically absorbed more milk than expected, so it became a little bit stiff. But well - food is food after all, it's was nice. The soup did turn out just like i wanted, so i couldn't stop eating, even though it was too hot - i just shoved everything down my throat instead of really enjoying it thoroughly, but i just couldn't resist. I wonder, why i cook so little lithuanian food when i'm germany.

We had pretty long break in the afternoon, so i took a walk in the park nearby - didn't know it even existed - and at the sea shore, made some pics, ventilated my head a little. And afterwards we were getting ready for the evening - healers were supposed to come. We rearranged Nagomi a little bit, made a separated area, where they could do their thing. And also we had a special menu! Lots of tea (chai as well!!) and soy meat karaage. Was really delicious. 

Those healers are young people and very friendly, so we had dinner together (more friends joined us while we were eating) and then the healing started - i also got a session! Was interesting, even though i didn't feel too much. After that i talked a lot to my hosts' friends, which are slowly becoming my friends so it's again really sad i'm leaving right now - on a verge of really getting into that circle. And it's strange when i think back about last year, how little i did in Japan and this year - it's a total difference and i'm so happy. Even though i have to admit, that communicating still gives me shivers, but i have to do my best. I've seen already couple of foreigners that speak fluently, totally fluently japanese and i know i can do it!

In the evening i had to call because of my part time job, so i just HAD to go back home, but since we had customers, i was given the keys and was left on my own - to drive back home. It was my first time driving in Japan at all and i did it completely alone, that's was really nice. Not just the driving itself (on the left side and stuff) made me relax - i like driving - but also the thought that my hosts trusted me so much, that made me also happy. 

Strange thing - the left side traffic looks normal to me by now, it's gonna be strange going back to the right side i think. 

Day 58. NO PICS YET.

Today was a quiet day at Nagomi, so we did some big shopping and again prepared some food and froze it for later. This time it was meat, so i couldn’t help much, but i did all i could.

Since we had lots of time for shopping, i grabbed my list as well and bought stuff i want to bring back to Europe. And that reminds me again and again, that i’m leaving so soon which makes me sad, because i would love to stay here as long as possible! This time i spent more quality time i suppose, so i attached to this country even more than the first time. Also, i could and did communicate in japanese, which gave me more freedom than last year and again, that made me connect to people and country, and culture more. Since i spent quite a lot time with japanese people in their own surroundings, i got to be part of their lives, part of true japan (as much as it can be diverse depending on every family), so it’s gonna be hard for me to go back to european style of living. Especially food... I’m already going berserk in asian shops, but now i’m gonna know exactly what i want and most likely i’m not gonna find me which is gonna lead me to a big disappointment.

Leaving bad things aside, i was happy to prepare potato pancakes - typical lithuanian dish, and so spread the lithuanian culture (which i’m unfortunately not a big fan of) in Japan. I have to admit, that food is quite ok in Lithuania, so there’s nothing to be embarrassed. I was lucky to be able to get Hokkaidou sour cream and Hokkaidou potatoes, because they are most similar to lithuanian ones and i have to admit - Hokkaidou sour cream is REALLY good. I was soo happy after tasting it, because in Germany, even though it’s closer to Lithuania, you cannot find proper sour cream - it’s all watery and doesn’t taste as good. Well, my hosts liked those pancakes and i did too. On sunday i’m gonna prepare sweet dinner - german milk rice and lithuanian sweet fruits soup - the idea of it was a big surprise to my host parents, so i’m really excited about that one. I hope they’re gonna like it...

Day 53.

Today my hosts have wedding to attend, so we had a day off!! (Magical combination of words for me by now) And i managed to stay at home for the whole day and sleep, rest, do some crap...

I was planning to go to the beach, but i fell asleep and when i woke up it was dark already, so i kinda didn't wanna drive a bike in a city that i don't know when it's dark. So i just stayed at home, watched Mononoke Princess again - a beautiful beautiful movie. I also cooked today which was fun, since i normally cook every day for myself (i live alone), but here i always get food prepared by the hosts mostly. Well i do help, and i did make pizzas once and miso soup once, but normally i'm not the cook here, so it's unusual for me and i really truly miss cooking.

As the flight back to Europe draws nearer and nearer, i start going back to the routine in my mind. Today i took a look at job ads, since i really need a job back at home. I lost my last spot - long and sad story... Well, that's what you get for being a foreigner in eastern parts of germany. I wish i could do what i really like, which would be photography. It would be great to get a job somewhere in the paper or just sell my pictures as free lancer, so i might wanna start advertising myself every now and then. I've done weddings as well, so i could do that again, i can retouch pictures, i could do sales advertising photography a little bit as well, if i bought the light tent, so i really have to start doing something like that. But for a steady job i also wanna do something i really like, so i've been looking into kitchen work. There's one really tempting offer - they even don't request experiences and can get you a chef license after a while - that would be a wise step into the future. So i'll let it rest for a while, wrote down all the numbers and address and i'll start applying as soon as i've decided if i wanna go for the kitchen - work there is really tough, that i know really well.

I have to already make plans of what i exactly do when after coming back to Europe - lots of things are on my mind already. But i kinda like it, this here is not a real life for me. It's always amazing being here and i never wanna leave, but to be honest, i love being busy with thing that mean to me a lot personally as well, so it's kinda nice to go back to my own life. Then again, my own life means my own shit, which i have quite a lot back there. But i'll manage!

Day 10.

Today was a busy day. And basically, it started in the middle of the night. I couldn't fall asleep properly because of the movie (we watched The Fourth Kind) and everything annoyed me: the leaves in the wind, the fan, the clocks ticking, even my own breathing. I put some music in the ears and i gradually fell asleep when at one point, my eyes opened wide and i felt something's wrong. I ran to the corridor, where i found Kazuko standing near the bathroom, so i asked whether everything's ok. She told me everything's fine and i felt relieved and probably a little bit embarrassed for running out of the room like that and asking suspicious questions. But then, when i was turning around to go back, i hear Adam's (another wwoofer) voice from the bathroom, even though he's not supposed to be in this house in the middle of the night, and then Kazuko asked: "Excuse me, could you help me putting bandages?". Adam fell from the bike and hurt his hands and chin, so we cleaned the wounds and put some bandages on it. He was really nervous, which continued through out the whole day. And i understood him, but when i realized he's just worrying about his looks, it kinda didn't look that serious anymore. I mean, shit happens, but a scar on a chin of a man didn't hurt anyone yet. But it is his body and i guess his business, not mine...

After that i again couldn't fall asleep properly, but this time not just because of the movie but also because of Adam. My head was just buzzing with different thoughts. This got on my mood later on. In the morning, even though i was pretty tired, i even went jogging despite all the heat and my still hurting skin (from sunburn). But i really had to clear my mind. I feel this weight on me and it's getting heavier and heavier every minute. No idea where this negative energy comes from and why, but i have to accept it and deal with it.

The work itself wasn't as bad as i expected. I thought our host is gonna be totally bitchy towards us, because of last evening, but it wasn't quite the case. She was actually pretty friendly. I worked a lot though... In comparison to other days, it really felt like a normal working day. In the morning i baked french non-sweet vegetables cake and i was again totally overjoyed!

Since my cookies didn't turn out the way i want yesterday, i was afraid, i'm not gonna get any cooking tasks ever again! But i was wrong, thanx god. In the morning, while gathering all the ingredients in the kitchen, i've noticed a plastic box with my cookies, that she took for the kitchen. And that really made my morning. Big time! I was so upset about those cookies, but she even took some for her employees, so it cannot be thaaaat bad.

After lunch break i worked the whole time in the cafe. I washed the dishes, was also in the customer service, bringing the food, cleaning the tables, then was tagging new goods for sale and so on. The cafe is really cozy and has many small cute thingies! If i would live in Hino, i would probably come to Clare every now and then.

Working there made me tired, but happy, because i always wanted to have my own cafe one day and this is good experience for me. I'm glad i can see work behind the curtains, even though not everything is nice to know. It was actually pretty busy, but afterwards when we didn't have that many people i had the chance to talk to the host a little bit. She is strange... She is not the most pleasant person in the world, but i cannot just close my lips shut and not talk to anyone. I've been talking to other wwoofers about the rating we're gonna give to her after we finish our wwoofing. Most of them are gonna give negative rating, but i still have some time ahead of me.

After dinner we went to hanabi to Tachikawa. HANABI (for more pictures scroll down)!!! Actually, we left Hino way too late, so we had maybe just 20 minutes of hanabi this time, but it was still nice no matter what. Adam of course stayed at home, but all of us went there... On our way back home, part of us got separated, so we were supposed to go back home immediately, but we took a brief walk in Tachikawa before going back home. I'm going to be near Osaka and Kyoto in August, so i'm already looking forward to the festivals week, because it should be awesome down there! I have a little bit more than one week at this host and then i'm leaving to another one...

In the evening my mood got even worse. I feel this bad energy crawling upon me and it's really difficult. I wanna put on some kinda shell and just ignore the rest of the world but at the same point i also want this stupid mood just to go away and be open to everything and everyone again. As always - i'm so dualistic. I'm thinking about next year in university, about my further path, about my relationship, about me exhibition and tons of other things. And i get tired. I hope i can rest at least physically completely on my days off and hopefully it's gonna get better.

In the evening my mood got even worse. I feel this bad energy crawling upon me and it's really difficult. I wanna put on some kinda shell and just ignore the rest of the world but at the same point i also want this stupid mood just to go away and be open to everything and everyone again. As always - i'm so dualistic. I'm thinking about next year in university, about my further path, about my relationship, about me exhibition and tons of other things. And i get tired. I hope i can rest at least physically completely on my days off and hopefully it's gonna get better.

Hanabi:

Day 9.

So yeah... here i am, sitting in the bathroom, writing my blog, spoiling my itching feet with some green tea. I got allergy from weeding and it's killing me. Since i don't have any medicine for allergies, that's basically the best what i can do. The water tap is pretty much killing me as well, because i have to sit here for at least another 15 minutes and that dripping water really annoys me! But i'm too lazy to go there and do something to make it stop... And then again, today was a pretty stressful day full of ups and downs, so i guess everything and everyone can annoy me at the moment.

Today we did some serious weeding and were working straight from the morning. We were baking bread as always and doing some other chores. One of the best tasks was picking blueberries! I kinda enjoyed it, even though we

couldn't eat them of course. But of course, oooh

of

course, we did a little bit. Even though it was stressful from the beginning it kinda slowed

down around afternoon.

We girls, helped with cooking a little bit and then washed the dishes, but afterwards we basically were just sitting here and there, drinking some chilled tea, we even got some sweets from the host which was quite a surprise. Then she offered us to bake something sweet and we went for cinnamon butter cookies, which turned out not quite like we expected (the first tray melted and became a cookie pizza rather than separate cookies), but it sure was delicious! That task really cheered me up, because i like baking sweets, even though i'm not good at it. But then again, we sucked at the task and couldn't finish it without being scolded. We couldn't find her and the micro-oven (oven looking like a microwave) wasn't working like we wanted or hoped, so we just tried something and unfortunately we took the wrong plate for it, so she was pissed at us for that. It was a little bit (a little bit??) unusual to see Kazuko (our host) in sucha good mood through out the whole day, so that kinda put everything back to its place. And still i was pretty much thrilled about today. And the evening was sure promising. Was. Promising...

However, our promising evening didn't go well.

We had boys cook today and i was totally enjoying it! Everyone was in a perfect mood before eating, we were chatting, laughing, started eating and noticed that there's not quite enough left for Tomoko when she comes over (she always does) and there's basically nothing for her spoiled child Mahiro, so we took bits from ourselves, so Tomoko has enough and the host-dad told us, that Mahiro doesn't eat curry rice, because it's too spicy, so we didn't leave anything for her except rice and salads, but well.. if she doesn't eat curry then what's the use of having another portion of it when it's not gonna be used??? So anyway, we also had two types of rice - the yellow ones and the white ones. We first used completely the white rice and then went with the yellow ones for the rest, but when we were done with distributing that one, we just left the yellow rice for other people who might come over later. We were already eating, still in totally good spirit and then she came... our host-mama, or should i say our host-(bitch)witch and made sucha drama out of the fact that we don't have white rice anymore. I mean, we didn't even know that there's sucha big difference between the rice. For god's sake, it's still rice! What does it matter if you're eating this or that? But anyway, she totally shouted at us and appeal to "family" subject, by saying: we are one big family, you have to think about everyone. But actually we did think about everyone, there was one portion left for Tomoko and since Mahiro doesn't eat curry according to our host-dad, we left just some more salads and rice for the small one. And you know, if you don't have enough rice, then just cook it, what's the big deal?

Anyway, she totally killed the mood. And it was sad, because some of the guys are leaving on sunday and monday and i wanna have as much as possible nice moments with them. After this spectacle we just went back to our rooms, but me and my roommate left the host house soon and went to the rest of us. But they went to party to the other city, so yeah...

Another disappointment was even later, when we came back and i found a plate with white rice, yellow rice and that portion of curry UNTOUCHED and even with foil on it and ready to be pushed into the fridge. So we actually gave food from our portions, so Tomoko could eat as well and in the end - no one even tasted it. Pretty unfair, huh?

I guess it's not gonna be an easy day tomorrow, because she's gonna take it out on us. But then again - somewhere deep inside of me, i hope i'm wrong for our own sake.

Day 8.

できた！

My first full wwoofing working day is over. I have to say: impressions are mixed and really controversial. I probably wouldn't like to come back to this place, but somehow it is nice at the end of the day. I didn't sleep too well though and it affects me, because i value good quality sleep a lot.

The working itself is a little bit stressful because of the host's character. She's always requesting something, but never explaining anything, so you do it the way you think would be good, but mostly it's bad. You cannot basically know how to do something, because you're not in your own house, so you just try. Also, the way she talks and says things, is really unpleasant. Don't know if it's because she's not english native speaker, or because she's just that kinda type. Throughout the day you always make something wrong and she points it out really badly, so you have this feeling that you cannot do anything proper. Or when something's not the way she wants, she has to find the one who's guilty! Like: "Who touched this?" or "Who did that?".

Leaving those features of hers, today was kinda ok. Except one task: we had to do gardening while it was raining!!! So it's pretty wicked... But in the morning we took the dog for a walk, then started baking bread, but there was no flour, so we just waited for a while, almost until

the break. We did some cleaning in the house, but wasn't too much. Then we prepared lunch, went back, did gardening in the rain, which was just dreadful like i've already mentioned, but then it started getting better... We went for shopping and prepared dinner for the rest of the evening. We made some salad and lithuanian potato pancakes, so it brought memories for me!

The dinner itself was also really nice. We had some nice conversations, but i would like to spend more time with other wwoofers actually. They live in different house, eat breakfast there as well and straight after dinner go back to their place, so it's difficult. They're leaving on sunday, so i have to catch them before and definitely get to know them better. It would be nice if we had some time for that.

I cannot say i hate this place, but it really isn't my dream place. It also might be influence by other wwoofers, because they tell me all that nasty stuff and when something like that happens i notice it better. But it is true, it has a long list of negative features. I like cooking though, so the second half of the day kinda fixed all things. I don't have much to write about today, even though many things happen. Probably i have to digest them a little bit more... Also, it was raining almost all the day, so i feel a little bit tuned. The whole day was so slow. I'm wishing for better weather for the coming days, so i can make lots of pictures and - really important - get tanned on weekend. My sunburn by the way is already better. The redness is fading out a little bit, but it still hurts pretty much.

This evening i didn't stay for long to play with Mahiro (one of the children) and chat with hosts, because we're going to watch a movie with Katharina (my roommate). It's a pretty freaky movie called Human Centipede and it's about some crazy german scientist who's doing experiments on people. You can watch the trailer here. Wish us fun!

Yours.

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.