I will stay true to myself and act according to my true desire and honest feelings.
I want you to too.

lately I

Helped cut down trees aroud someone's house that grew too big
I've been learning how to fell trees and how to maintain a healthy balance in the forest from a friend who does it professionally.

currently a good friend Minori is staying with me
she lives in Tokyo. this is her 5th visit to Sado
She is pretty much like our family now

today I'm going to fix and make the poles? that I will be drying the rice on with Mr. & Mrs. Ooyama, my dad and Minori.

then discuss the breaking-down & re-building of the old barn with a friend who will help me

im cooking brown rice with millet and soybeans in a pressure cooker right now for lunch and cooling the dokudami herb tea that I made so I can share it with Ooyama-san

A brief update

trying to save a 100 year-old barn that is going to be put in to the dumpster.
hopefully that will raise awareness of the people about old buildings, local trees, sustainable living, etc.

I think will be busy with this project for a while.
See you soon.

A treasure of Sado

The Japanese drumming group called Kodo based on Sado island.
I feel proud to have them here.
They rock.

http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/index_en.html
http://www.kodo.or.jp/ec/home/index_en.html

Picture: from their show (which was free of charge) held tonight in our town at the summer festival

happy night

When I was riding my bike on the way back from capoeira, the bike chain came off.
It was late at night and too dark to fix it. So I was walking on the street with my bike.
A driver of one of the cars passed by saw me and asked me if I was ok. I was going to fix it after getting home so I said ok and kept on going.
Soon after that another motorbike rider stopped by, saw my bike chain, put the motorbike light at the bike and fixed it for me and left.
It was very nice of them. It made me real happy and hopeful about people.

A small gift to my friend

An old farmer friend lady gave me a snack she made on the movie night.
I went to her house to tell her thanks. On the way, I made a little bouquet with wildflowers to give to her. This is a picture of it.

Movie night

I happened to organize a movie showing on the same day as rice planting.
The movie is called "降りてゆく生き方", or Life getting down(?)
http://www.nippon-p.org/mov.html

This is a fiction story about a guy who works for a multinational company and goes to a countryside village to privatize the land, meets a local farmer who grows rice organically, a lady who makes rice wine traditionally, a social worker, etc. and ends up quitting the job and helping this yound guy who tries to save the environment, empower the local community and the kids....

The stuff of the movie were on Sado for a week and a friend of mine who has connection with them suggested doing a movie showing at my dad's cabin. It was such a short notice (=3 days before the showing) that I didn't really have time to advertise the event but more than 40 people came to watch it on the day from all over Sado :).

The whole event was very warm- family-like? Lots of people stayed after the showing to share stories and time together, old local farmers brought food for the stuff, etc. Made me very happy.

I became friends with the movie stuff-they have quit their jobs in Tokyo to help support/show this movie nationwide :0 amazing.

I am thankful for the opportunity to watch and show this movie in the cabin :)