Autumn has come

Autumn has come a bit later this year due to numerous typhoons passing by little old Japan.

In the process they have brought much rain, high levels in rivers and streams and many, many spiders. On our recent trip to the town of Matsuzaki and in particular Obachan chi's  little farm house, we had numerous spiders set up their webs, which for some would be considered annoying.

Juro-gumo (wasp spider)

However, I can't help remembering what my own mother always says, "It is a shame to knock down a web, that has taken a little spider so much time and energy." 

So I let them be for the time being.

Mother and spiderling connecting their web to our rain-chain

These hard working spiders also made me remember our summer holidays just past and our visit to the nearby, Joren Falls which are part of the Izu Penisula.  

Apart from the waterfall you are also surrounded by healthy wasabi growing happily in the shade of cool running streams.

It was hard to resist sampling vanilla ice-cream with a dollop of freshly grated wasabi. A unique and interesting experience, I believe all should try, even just once!
 

Upon walking down to the falls there is a local folklore story about the 'Joro-gumo', (Wasp spider) the same spider that had set up camp at Obachan chi's and I imagine many other parts around Japan. The story goes that a farmer sitting near the water fall had a juro-gumo mistake his leg for a branch, after disturbing it and placing it on a branch the earth shook and the branch was dragged into the waterfall. It goes on to tell of a similar story of a lumberjack dropping his hatchet in the waterfall and a beautiful woman appearing to return it to him. Sworn to secrecy never to tell anyone what he had seen, or it would mean certain death. After some time had passed and the lumberjack had moved villages, he ended up drinking a little too much and let the secret out, which resulted in him closing his eyes and never waking up again.

 

 

One beautiful autumn morning we took a walk to the local yorimichi, local market.  We always enjoy walking down this path that is lined with cherry blossom trees now sleeping and which over-hang the stream below.

 

 

We passed numerous rice paddy fields and watched as the farmers harvested their crops. 

 

These bags of freshly hulled rice are, I suspect, for ones home and/or gifts to family and friends for the coming winter. Wouldn't that be a nice gift to receive!

 

And we check-in on the locals who live a happy existence being well cared for in a small stream.

 

Visiting our local community cafe for lunch we are always greeted with a warm smile and a cup or two of Izu green tea, which is always beautifully and thoughtfully presented with a seasonal leaf to rest your hand cloth on. It really is in the detail, isn't it. 

 

We love this town of Matsuzaki.

From door to table

Up-cycling one thing into another is something I take great joy in doing. The thought that I can give an object new life and purpose is truly rewarding for me. So when we scored two doors from a demolished house in our local area, I had ideas for them. This is how our doors looked known as the mon or gate to a house before they were removed. Not every house in Japan has these gates, which makes them all the more special. 

Source: Ebina City Official Website

With my trusty sander I set to work and removed years of dirt and dust.

Take a look at this...before & after!

A good sanding underneath...

Here is the front door key, which I don't have the heart to remove because it's the details that we love at Obachan chi's. Just need to be careful when we sit down I guess!

We bought some very affordable black metal table legs from Ikea and simply attached them.

                                                  And then we put it all together!

It's turned out to be a large and useful farmhouse table which doubles as extra bench space when preparing meals.

The wood grain has really come up well by using the same varnish as the floors.

 And it has been wonderful to now enjoy all our meals at a large kitchen table.

The other door was going to re-purposed into a bench seat, but things change and ideas come to me at odd times. Ideas, ideas....yes, I have ideas to use the other door as a barn style door. So I will definitely share details when it's done!

 It's time to now enjoy the persimmons we were given by our neighbours and some kusa mochi (compressed rice cakes) from our local market.

Have you ever up-cycled an item for another use? Do share! 

Wisdom of the rice farmer

I don't think I truly appreciated just how moist this country was until I had to work with it hands on. I mean water flows everywhere!

If you have been with us from the beginning of this journey you will know that we have been tackling the flow of water on the farmhouse. It has been a priority!

Our newest idea to direct the water flow into the main drain is something that your local rice farmer knows about all too well. The idea came to us on a walk to the local market one morning, as we talked about how to direct the water away from the side of the house. The previous work we have completed is working so well, but this next project with water seeping out in all different places was a different story. So we thought that we'd give this idea a go. The rice farmers seem to be successful with keeping water in their rice paddy, maybe we could keep it out!

This is the side of the house where we dug up the tree hedge and then dug a trench all along the side of the property where the water flows constantly. Thank goodness this water flows on only one side of the property! The product we used comes in two different sizes of what looks like corrugated iron in rolls, but its composition is actually rubber. So we just rolled it out and pushed it into the ground and packed dirt and rocks on either sides to secure it.

During the rainy season it held up pretty well during heavy rain. So this is yet another water post that I hope will stand the test of time...so far so good!

Kitchen install

So I can't believe that I am even posting about the kitchen. I mean it's taken a lot of behind the scenes work to get to this point.  We could have easily bought a pre-made off the shelf type of set up, but we decided that this kitchen needed to be really simple in design. Cupboards for this and that were not needed for our country getaways. And in all honesty creating that type of kitchen we felt would only invite wasps and killer bees in to make unwanted nests. After all, we are in the countryside so being able to keep things simple and easy was key for us.

So, the frame was made in a traditional way by marking up and chiseling out joints that locked together like a glove. 

Piecing it all together.

And voila! We have a kitchen frame.

And the moment we both enjoyed the most....installing our sink! Now, we really thought about the sink because farm style sinks don't come cheap and we realistically weighed up the cost, weight and size and what would suit the farmhouse kitchen the best. In the end we went with a bathroom sink! We especially considered the size and weight the most because we have come to know that we cannot impose too much weight on this side of the house since jacking it up. We also know that over time we will need to keep an eye on the level of this area of the farmhouse.

Again thinking about the style of the farmhouse we  chose compressed pine for the bench top in a natural beech wood colour.

Then we just hooked up the sink pipe to the main and we had water flowing! No more washing dishes out in the garden sink! I can't believe I am even typing those words. My camping days are kind of over at the farmhouse and I can actually stand upright to wash dishes. If you have been following along from the beginning of our journey washing dishes outside in the cold isn't much fun. Now I'm not complaining because this little house has certainly given us some fun adventures and an outlet to do some DIY projects in a Japanese countryside setting. Getting away to the countryside also clears your mind and reminds you to appreciate the little things in each season.

Now look at this handsome boy! We thought of going with a black faucet, but for two reasons we didn't. One being that it tied into our toilet tap colour also being brass and again the cost of black faucets (which are trending right now) have boosted the price up! Of course we did think of spray painting it black and we might even still do that, but for now the brass is looking mighty fine.  

I gave the bench top two coats of varnish for protection, while fending off insects trying to make it a landing pad! Remember this was done in the summer months.

We are not totally completed just yet. But we did buy some bamboo blinds because of the strong afternoon sun. As I mentioned in my last post, the open area you can see just above that teapot is where we will install a window for both ventilation and light. We are also putting in some white board all the way around the kitchen walls. Can't wait to share that progress with you all.

Obachan's pickle jars sit proudly under the sink.

                           

And another side view of our sink and faucet.

Keeping the benches open and clear was a key factor for us right now. We don't want any more visitors doing this again anytime soon! Later on we may install some shelves underneath. 

And so, this is our new little farmhouse kitchen at the moment. Still more to complete on the walls, but once that is done it will really come together.