I got back from England on March 17th around 9am and tried to keep my suitcase standing for the 3 hour journey home! Bekah had kindly agreed to meet me in Musashi Sakai for lunch and Starbucks and honestly I don’t know what I would have done without her! I was exhausted (I can’t sleep unless I’m lying down so 12 hours on a plane is less than fun) and had to stay up until 9pm at least so I avoided jet lag. It was worth it in the end, I didn’t really feel jet lagged in the end! After a good afternoon chatting we went to mine and were greeted with a lovely sunset; Japan’s flag really has that red sun thing down when you compare it to the photos I took! I unpacked my suitcase full of food, discovered my creme eggs hadn’t made it, repacked into another case, chatted on Skype and then went off to bed about 11pm; I’d had a major second wind!
So on the 18th we headed out for our first WWOOFing experience! It’s a website that allows farmers to put their place on there and then people from all over can choose a farmer to go to. You get food, accommodation and hopefully a little time to see the local sights, and then you work for the people you stay with in return. We had a late-ish 9am start to arrive in Tokyo station for 10am. We had planned to get the 10.30am shinkansen (bullet train) but Bekah’s line had a person do something silly and then we got some food so we left at 10.50am. 4 hours later we arrived in Hiroshima! This was just a stop on the way, so we tried to find a Starbucks for the time in between trains. We actually ended up running around the crazy underground walkways for ages as the area near the station was quite confusing for first timers! In the end we went back inside and found a Starbucks in the department store. Well, we got some good exercise at least! I had desperately wanted to try the sakura (cherry blossom) drink that Starbucks do at this time of year but they had finished it just before I got back so I had to make do with only a sakura chiffon cake. The sakura weren’t even really in bloom yet!
From there we got a train to the station nearest Shimohara’s place called Kouchi. It took only and hour and we had a very warm welcome from both him and Yzzy, who we hadn’t seen since SOAS as she lives a few hours away. It was great to see her! From there we drove to his house, there was a lot to look at countryside wise and we chatted a bit in the car. We firstly went to reassure the people who were already there that Shimohara would pick them up soon, as it was getting dark! So we got to have a look at what they had been up to. A quick drive and we saw his house for the first time; a big traditional Japanese building surrounded by fields and trees. Lovely! We unpacked, met the others when they came home, had dinner and went to bed around 11pm. We had an early start and the travelling had been tiring so we were very ready for the comfy futons Shimohara had provided!
That’s all for now, expect many farming photos in the near future!
Maisy In Japan 
Comments on: "Hiroshima Holiday – Arrival" (1)
Looking forward to seeing the farming pictures! Looks like a lovely area