The lady of Izu

One thing you will notice if you ever get the chance to travel to this little piece of heaven are the sculptures that are dotted around the town. Interestingly from my observations, most of these works of art are mainly females. As you enter and exit Obachan's town you are greeted and farewell by this lady (sorry, the statue is so small, as I was taking this pic quickly from the back of our car). It is a statue of a woman holding a child in her arms overlooking the ocean.

Here is another woman displayed in the middle of Michino eki (road side station), right near the local onsen I shared with you last week.

 With Spring just around the corner there is another attraction that has begun in the local area called, "Tanbo wo tsukata hanabatake," Spring flowers in the rice fields.

Not only can you enjoy walking amongst the beautiful spring blossoms with the mountains surrounding this peaceful town, you can also soak your toes into a small foot onsen (hot spring) in the open air. This spring time flower display is on from the beginning of March until 5th May. After this time the local farmers will again begin planting in their rice paddy fields.

This week we had an exciting delivery arrive at our door for a much needed item at Obachan chi's. I hope to share with you next week. Until then its time for another onsen!

Local attractions

About 10 years ago there was a Japanese television drama called, "Sekaino chushinde Ai wo Sakebu" that was filmed in Obachan chi's town. The storyline follows the lives of two young high school sweet hearts with the backdrop of Izu and its beaches. The climax of the story has the girlfriend diagnosed with a terminal illness. Yes, it was young love and yes it was also sad. The boyfriend travels to Australia (my homeland!) as a last wish to his girlfriend to scatter her ashes in the Northern Territory. Interestingly, the funeral parlor used in the drama was the same used for dear Obachan. The original story was also translated into English which is called, "Socrates in Love".

The lookout overlooking the town below as shown in the tv drama

Obachan chi's town is not only famous for this particular drama, but is also featured in the current Pasco bread advertisement showing this same lookout. 

Another popular attraction with both the passing tourists and locals is the local onsen (hot spring). It is always a welcome treat for us too at the end of our day to relax and recharge our tired muscles. The onsen is open to the public 7 days a week. As we are part-time locals (meaning we pay for the utility bills) we can  also enjoy this local attraction for ¥300 per visit and for non-locals ¥500. It's a bargain in my opinion as there are both indoor and outdoor onsens with a blossoming sakura tree overhanging and mountains to set the scene......so now you know where we head too!

Nature's calling

The last visit to Obachan chi's we realised two things that would make our experience somewhat more comfortable while we renovate the old farmhouse. One was to be able to use a kitchen sink...Obachan's kitchen is like a black hole at the moment and not a place you want to be in for any length of time. Sorry to say, its seen better days. 

However, worse than this is the toilet situation that needs our urgent attention. Obachan chi's was originally fitted out with a pit latrine, pit toilet or thunder box, however you like to call it. The truck stopped calling some time ago when septic came to town, but this little farmhouse is behind the times and hasn't been updated since. I was a bit hesitant to share this photo which shows the state that we found the toilet in 8 years old. Safe to say its been cleaned up since. Actually, when I gave the toilet a good clean out I found that little crab bodies had become trapped in the small sink and died. I never in my life would have thought that I would be cleaning out little crabs from a sink!  

Our options at present are to  (a) install a septic system to be able to flush, (b) install a composting system to be environmentally friendly with nature or (c) a portable toilet system that separates for later composting.
Since we don't stay at Obanchan's for long periods of time (wish we could though), the expense of a septic tank operation doesn't warrant the financial outlay, as we are definitely on a budget. However, like I said before that doesn't mean we can't be comfortable in the process of renovating this little place.

I'm going to be quite straight with you when I say I have no problem with presently using a bucket as a temporary measure, but it was the other members of our family namely our sweet little girl who was no fan of my beloved bucket system. 

So, we did some research and came up with a marine style toilet that may work for us and is up for consideration. 



The portable toilet allows our waste to be separated and then composted later, which works because like I said if we had a authentic composting set up with peat moss/wood chips we would need to be around Oba chan chi's to sort out the waste. What do you think? Have you had any experience with a marine style toilet? We would love to hear your thoughts. But now its time for another onsen.

Spring is in the air.....

Last weekend when we were working on the drains we saw, heard and felt a feeling of spring in the air.

 

The very early sakura (cherry) blooming here just shows you how much warmer it is in Izu   compared to my home base in Yokohama.  

 

Typically before the sakura blooms you will see the plum blossoms or ume blooming all around Japan. Spring is almost here. Our neighbours have their very own tree showing off its beauty and below is a better close-up.

 

Just behind Obachan chi's we snapped these beautiful birds, uguisu (bush warbler), singing their unique tune on a tree nearby as we worked. Not bad working away in the thick mud and be reminded of nature and all its beauty. I guess this is the pull that keeps bringing us back to this little farmhouse.

Just outside Obachan's front door was this tiny shoot known as tsukushi (equisetum). It is definitely another sign that spring time is coming. It is also known commonly as the horsetail or mare's tail and is native  to cooler areas of the artic and northern hemisphere.You can actually eat this shoot by boiling it, but I am told it is quite bitter.
After digging away in the mud pretty much all day, it was definitely time to leave our spades and muddy boots and head for another onsen.

Key issue

I meant to post on Sunday, but we have been knee deep in mud... again! 
This time we are digging deep trenches to fit the concrete drains and pipes into position. But enough about drains, today's post is about security.

A long time ago dear Obachan fitted her front sliding door with a latch and lock kind of set up. Over time this poor old lock has seen better days and I guess one day it just fell off. 

So my dear treasure bought and fitted a sliding door lock which definitely makes us feel more secure. If you live in countryside Japan though, you will know that it is pretty safe to leave your front door unlocked which isn't a wise thing to do, but people do it. Like I said, this is the countryside-inaka after all.

With the saw drill he made a rectangle cut out to install the lock part, while trying not to shatter the old glass in the sliding door. It was tricky at times, but dear treasure did it.

So after drilling out all of the timber and manoeuvring the lock into position the little farmhouse is now at lock-up stage. Now instead of using the side door, we can walk through the front door! But now its time for another onsen! 

A traditional Japanese welcome- Let's clean up the genkan first!

Remember this sad picture of the front entrance of Oba chan chi's? Well if you have been following along with our progress you will know that we have cleaned up this front area. But come on wouldn't you like to see inside the front sliding door? Yeah, of course you would! We did a bit of cleaning up, but boy have we got some ideas for this area. We want to keep things pretty authentic and in keeping with a traditional Japanese farmhouse.

So, what do you think? Nothing much now I know, but I can tell you that we have been eagerly waiting to get started on this front entrance or in Japanese know as the genkan. This little area has so much potential. You can see that there are paper screens or shoji on either side of the genkan which need the rice paper replaced. The step or rather seat that you sit on to remove your shoes needs a good clean and a varnish to bring it back to life. The plan is to break up the concrete and perhaps lay some large flat rocks to create this....

What do you think? The rock pavers are so natural and what about that sliding door-hikido.

We are thinking about creating the same look of the hikido to cover over the outside of the aluminum door frames on the extension area. 

This is another idea with large and small paver rocks, very traditional indeed.

Like I said, ideas are going around in our heads. The thing that brings us back to earth is budget and learning to be creative with what is on offer in nature and also being mighty thrifty. 

I'd love to be able to show you the progress with this area, but the truth is we haven't even touched it, because we need to concentrate on the drains. The next major project is to replace the ceiling in the extension room and repair the side area of the roof, which will probably happen during the summer months. I just wanted to show you the little genkan and the potential it possesses. But now its time for another onsen! 

On a mission

Now you have to promise not to laugh, because I know I did. You see, my treasure~dear husband, did some research on the internet on how to scare away wild boars. He told me that they don't like noises such as fire crackers, lights or even flashy things. You know what really scares them off ....drum roll please....wolf urine! Yes, my friends we had us our very own genuine all the way from the USA, wolf pee! 

Apparently, wild boars are petrified of wolves which haven't lived in Japan for a very long time, but anyway it was worth a try because what they were doing to the land and our water flow was damaging. In other words we would give anything a try once!

The idea is that you fill these little cups with wolf pee and attach them around the perimeter of your property, therefore warning them to stay away for exactly 33 days. So this is what we did before leaving Oba chan chi's that weekend.
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But then we had us some visitors..... 

No not the hairy, short legged kind, but the two legged fluorescent orange jacket kind in the form of hunters!

Sorry this photo isn't the best. Upon meeting these men we got the idea that although this hunting club weren't an unfriendly bunch, they did have a job to do and were quite professional about it. They were armed with their long range shotguns and their trusty dogs sporting some loud bells and a GPS.  

It was quite the event in the area for a lot of the locals coming out to take a peek. As we stood there we heard the two dogs running through the bamboo forest with the trees rustling, as they madly ran catching the wild boars scent. Of course at this point we were thinking that we may have messed up these working dogs ability to smell a wild boar and instead go for the wolf pee! But as we watched, one dog was completely off the radar and lost from his buddy. He ran over to trees where the wild boars has been digging up and took no notice or even a sniff of our wolf pee. The hunters were calling out, "hai, hai" and the dogs bells were rattling  away and then three loud gunshots rang out through the valley. Did they hit a boar? Who knows, but it was kind of both exciting and then sad to hear.