Ogurayama life from Azumino

Kamakura

2007-01-07T02:35:00.000+09:00

It was snowing today too.
I built Kamakura with Huwa and wwooffer Akemi.
Kamakura is made of snow. It is like a tiny mountain.

We gathered snow one place and build littele mountain.
Second we dig a little hole.

I had a good time with my son.

A Happy New Year!!

2007-01-06T00:45:00.000+09:00

Happy New Year everyone.
It is snowing today! We have only 2times snowing this winter.

I went to the park near my house with chirdren.
We slided slide . It was so excited!! The speed is so fast.

We enjoyed snowing day. We love Azumino.

Onsen is very good!!

2007-01-04T00:58:00.000+09:00

I went to Onsen tonight with Mike & Mayumichan who are wwooffer.

Onsen is very good !
We take in Onsen 2hours talking with Mayumichan.
She came to our farm 5 or 6 times last year for wwoofer.
She likes my young sister.

Japanese people likes to take in the bath long time.
Mike is Aussie . He is nice guy. He likes take in a bath too.

The picture is Japanese Matsukazari is decoration of New years day.

Rice harvest 2

2006-09-28T02:23:00.000+09:00

We harvested rices today.
First we harvested rice by macine.
Second we corrected rice near the Hazabou.(rice dry place )
Last we dry rices.

Rice harvest 1

2006-09-27T02:17:00.000+09:00

We prepared to harvest of rices today.
We took off net that protect ducks from birds and animals.

Happy Apples

2006-09-20T02:49:00.000+09:00

They are happy apples for wedding.
The Kanji is ' Kotobuki'
It means happyness and congratulation.

Wara's 2 years happy birthday

2006-08-06T02:41:00.000+09:00

Wara become 2yeares old today.
She can speak vey much.
She is happy today!!

Umeboshi

2006-07-30T02:33:00.000+09:00

Do you know Umeboshi?
It is Japanese pickles . Very sour!!
I have made this.
Let's eat if you will find that.

Huwa's 5th birthday

2006-06-24T01:54:00.000+09:00

Huwa became 5 years old today.We will have a birthday party at night.We sang the "Happy Birthday" song to Huwa.Mike and Mayumi and Stav threw many balloons to Huwa.Huwa looks very very happy.We presented Huwa a globe. We think that Huwa knows by himself whichcountries thewwooffers come from.Then we ate 3 kind of cake I made for Huwa. We are all happy tonight!!

Rice field 3

2006-06-20T02:06:00.000+09:00

We grow rice with ducks. Ducks are very nice and they work much time.Ducks can eat weeds and harmful insect.Thank you for ducks, We need not to put out weeds ourselves.If we put out weeds ourselves , It is very hard and take a long time.Their dung is very nice manure for rice field.and they always swim in rice field. so It is good for rice their irritate. (picture is June)

Rice field 2

2006-06-02T02:01:00.000+09:00

We planted rice today.
Water is cold! We are enjoyed with many wwoofers.

It has been for a long time

2006-06-01T01:46:00.000+09:00

I couldn't write my blog for 1,5months.We have picked small apples from their branches every day!It is hot every day. It's getting hotter and hotter.All our vegetables and fruits have grown big.Please look at the photos.

Tometoes planted

2006-05-12T23:10:00.000+09:00

We cultivated tomato fields yesterday and the day before yesterday.We planted a few tomatos today. It took 1 week last year but it took only3 days this year because our friend lent us a special machine for tomatoplanting.We are happy!! Thank you Mr.Hujisawa.

Rice field 1

2006-05-08T23:05:00.000+09:00

We started rice field season. Akio-san cultivated our rice field with thetractor. When he was cultivating there many frogs come out from the soil.Frogs are still hibernating and were woken up by Akio-san.They must have been surprised!!We are going to plant a little rice on the 27th of May.We are looking forward to planting with many friends.If anyone wants to have an experience planting rice, please keep in touch with me.

We planted little trees

2006-05-05T22:57:00.000+09:00

We (my father, Huwa, Wara, and I) went to the forest to plant a few trees that are called 'Hinoki' It's my friend's forest. He has cut many trees, because he'll build a new house. He wanted to use his own trees.He planned to plant new trees, so we helped him.The forest is very good and comfortable! I like the forest.We searched, after planting, for Sansai which are edible wild plants.Today is a good day to have new experience.Huwa and Wara enjoyed it too.Huwa cut a medium sized tree and they ate some snacks on the fallen tree.He planted some little trees with me and his grandfather.He said " I want to play here everyday!! "My father dug a small hole and we planted a litte tree.

Potatoes plants

2006-05-03T22:52:00.000+09:00

We planted potatoes .This potato will be eaten by our family, and wwoofers,and customers who visit our farm. Akio-san likes potatoes very much.Potato plants are good before cherry blossom in this area, so we were late to plant.This picture is of wwoofers. At first they plowed with a hoe, but the soi lwas so soft they changed to use long rubber boots. It was easy to plow!

Peach flowers

2006-05-02T22:34:00.000+09:00

This picture is peach trees. There are in blossom now.
We removed a lot of peach buds, so there wouldn't be so many peach flowers.
Peach flowers are pinker than cherry blossoms. That are very cute!

We have 4 new wwooffers this golden week, so they started to remove apple
flowers. We spent a nice day with them.

We hit the pear buds

2006-04-30T00:45:00.000+09:00

Akiosan and the wwoofers hit the pear buds.This process decreases the number of pears on the trees.There are many fruit, so we need to remove some of them.We think this fruit will become the best fruit so we remove the others.If too many fruit are left on the branches, when all the fruit becomes bigthe branches will break!!

We planted many vegetables seeds

2006-04-29T00:32:00.000+09:00

We planted many kinds of vegetable seeds in our field with the wwoofers andWara.Carrots, corn, some green vegetables,some beans, etc........I enjoyed planting. It felt good to touch the soil. It is warm and soft.We planted seeds one week ago. Little radished appeared.We'll eat small radishes in 2 weeks.The pictures are small radish's sprouts and planting Wara's seeds.

Cherry blossoms in Azumino

2006-04-28T00:40:00.000+09:00

We are enjoying the sight of many cherry blossoms.There are many good spots with cherry blossoms.We went to Matsumoto Castle at night on the 22nd.The cherry blossoms there are very very beautiful.During cherry blossom season we can enter the castle for free and listen to the music of Japanese traditional instruments.

We ate lunch under the cherry blossoms of Kurosawa river.It was nice.

We climbed Mount Hikarujyouyama.There are many cherry blossoms illuminatingthis place.The picture is lunch time at the Kurosawa River cherry blossom.

Today is entrance ceremony day

2006-04-06T00:21:00.000+09:00

We have an entrance ceremony at Huwa's nursery school.
New entrants came today.Huwa moved to the next class up.
This nursery school has about 60 entrants.
Naama was suprised at Japanese nursery school.
She wents to the entrance ceremony with us for a little while.
She took many pictures of the nursery school.
She talked to me about the differences between nursery school in Israel and Japan.
Many children wore very cute clothes for the ceremony.
We sat down in our chairs and we listened to many speeched during the entrance ceremony.

The head teacher said to the parents,"Children are going to grow up according to what parents
do"and ,"Children are going to grow up to be what you think of them so please believe your children are good."
I was impressed by her words.

Let' introduce wwooffer 4

2006-04-05T23:04:00.000+09:00

We are having a good time with an Israelite family.
They travel to many places in Japan.
They have two daughters.Their names are [Ochu And Neta]
Ochu is 3-years old.Neta is 1-year old.Both of them are very cute and wild.
Fuwa and Wara are enjoying?! life with Ochu and Neta.They always fight.

I am surprised by Wara. Wara often uses this phrase.[Wara no me]
It means [This is mine ,You cannot touch it.]
She grew up in the adult much times.
Adults can do what she wants but children cannot.
She says many times every day [Wara no me . Wara no me. Wara no me] to
Ochu and Neta.

Yuval is a great father.He takes care of his children very well.
I feel his love for his children and his wife .

Naama is a great mother too. She is like the sun.
She made bread and cake ,It was very very delicious.
She taught me how to cook bread and cake.
Yuval and Naama told me many things about Israel .
I had no idea about Israel but I feel to close Israel now.
I am very very happy to meet them.Teru

Hello Mike's family!!

2006-03-24T23:00:00.000+09:00

Hello Mike's family. It's been a long time. How have you been?I am very happy to hear from Mike that all of you see our blog. Mike is my good English teacher. When we met at Mike and Ari-chan's wedding, Huwa was 3years old and Wara was 7 months old. Wara was only a baby but she has become a cute girl after 1 year. Huwa has become a good boy! He was always a naughty boy. Akio-san is working everyday. He trimmed the branches of our apple trees. I am happy everyday with our family and friends.We will visit Mike's family's house someday! I will write many things about my family. Please enjoy. Thank you for reading my blog.Teru-chan

Let's introduce wwoofer 3

2006-03-18T01:04:00.000+09:00

Julius and Mai who are new WWOFFers came yesteday evening.Julius comes from Germany.Mai comes from Itinomiya in Aichi-ken.They are a good couple. They talked about many things.We are enjoying out time with them.They picked up branches today.Huwa is very happy to play with them!!

Let's introduce wwoofer 2

2006-03-17T00:44:00.000+09:00

March 17thThe second WWOFFer this year, Julie, leaves today.She came from England tostudy enviromental problems.I was surprised to speak with Julie. Julie's Japanese is very good.She only studied Japanese for 6 months.We talked about many things in Japanese.Julie and I made miso the day before yesterday.Julie enjoyed making Miso, so I was very happy.She is always smiling and happy.Thank you Julie, for many things.

Hinamatsuri

2006-03-03T22:01:00.000+09:00

Today is Hinamatsuri.Hinamatsuri is the day to celebrate girls.(girls growing up)We celebrated with the Masuda Family.The Masuda family is our neighbor.We enjoyed a special menu at their home.

Today is the thirdday

2006-03-02T21:57:00.000+09:00

Today is the third day after Wara graduated from breast feeding .It was fine during the daytime, but she cried for 1 or 2 hours before shewent to sleep atnight.She cried in a very loud voice .[I want to breast feed!]She woke up many times all night long.But she is changing day after day.She can sleep more easily without breast feeding now.This flower is Hukujyusou. I think spring is here to see this flower.

Akio sang a song!

2006-03-01T06:59:00.000+09:00

March 1st
Akio-san went to an institution in Imai Matsumoto to sing songs for disabledpeople in the Hinamatsuri (Doll's Festival). He sang a song by TsuyoshiNagabuchi's with his friends. He sang his original song too. He had a veryhappy day because the audience enjoyed their song.

Wara's last breast feeding

2006-02-28T06:50:00.000+09:00

February 28th
Today was the last day Wara-chan breast-fed. She has been breast feedingeveryday, and now she is 18 months old. After her last breast feeding,Teruchan(mother) drew Anpanman, which is a Japanese cartoon character.Wara-chan was suprised to see her mother's breast. Why has mom's breastchanged into Anpanman? But, she said bye bye to her mother's breast at last.Congratuations Wara!!