Hi. This is Yuta writing.
This time, I’ll write about the first 5days of our life in the old Japanese-style house!
Very cold morning
It gets very cold in both morning and night.
However, since we didn’t have electricity, we couldn’t use Komatsu (a table with an electric heater attached to the underside of the table).
AND no stove..
No way to get warm!! Lol
Once we tried to make a fire at the fireside in house but the smoke didn’t escape from the house so we stop using it..
In the old days, the house was supposed to be thatched roof, but now it is corrugated-roof. Therefore, the smoke is hard to escape.
When it gets warmer and be able to start doing things, I’ll alter it so that the smoke can escape.
Anyways, in these days, since it gets dark very early, we went to bed around 7:30pm.
(We start using a lantern for camping instead of using candles.）
It was too cold that when we sleep, we wore a lots of clothes and put the bed cover to our face. Lol
However, the problem was in the morning.
Since we sleep at 7:30pm, we wake up early in the morning.
BUT very cold outside.
It was getting bright outside around 7:30am but it was too cold to move around that time.
We couldn’t get out from the bed until 9:00am and finally we start moving. Lol
Our laundry was frozen so the shape is same when we raised it.
Observation of the house and the land
Observation is one of the most important action when we think of how we want to make this place. The basic of permaculture.
How the life used to be in the old days?
How the flow of water when it rains?
What kind of soil is it, where the place looks suitable for planting vegetables?
What kind of and where trees are growing? etc..
Observing the land thinking these things, I found something.
Animal droppings!!
Wild bore!
I thought these are from deers but maybe rabbits??
We were told that there are many monkeys around so we were a bit worried whether we can get along with them..
Also about water.
I suppose it was like the picture below in the old days.
However, from the place where spring water flow, the water comes out only 1 drop in 5 seconds. Of course this is too little for daily life water.
I forgot to take a photo but the spring water comes out like the picture below.
The drain is now clogged.
Therefore, I’ll try to dig the drain again and hope the water volume will rise!!
Anyways, it was too cold to do this at the time, so we start using tap water.
Some of our hand made products
One of the top priorities in house is TOILET!!
I made a Toilet. Lol
As you can see, the columns are for toilet seat, and a bucket is for pee and poop.
When you finish using toilet, put dry leaves in it. 。
… Our family were really patient for using this. (Of course this is only a temporary one. Lol)
Next is compost.
See the photo below!
I just took the bottom of the old wooden box. Lol
（In this photo, the wall of the back side is missing but fixed it with another board.）
Put this on the ground and tossing food scraps in it.
It is also good to put bones and grasses (both brown and green).
Worms crawl up from the ground and ants, flies, and cockroaches come but they are all welcome since they are professionals in decomposing.
Of course the compost is situated outside and there is no close neighbor around us so I don’t care about bugs so much.
The compost should be turn into a good black soil after a year or so!!
About Meals
The first thing I thought when I started the life here was;
“The meal is so delicious no matter how simple the food is!!”
No television, no electricity, so when we eat, we concentrated on eating.
Only rice and pickles for the breakfast made us happy. This is true!
This kind of life that is extremely isolated from civilization made us realize the preciousness of electricity and gas.
I genuinely admire “human being” for making the life so convenient in only 200years or so.
At the same time, I think about something that are sacrificed behind the convenience (destruction of nature, too much pressure to workers who offer services, etc. )
This is the end of the report!
Next blog is about our short trip to Chiba.
Than you so much for reading.
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