If I can post to Alternative Wallets, there's no excuse.

Okay, short post. Pictures are annoying to upload.

I am at a wonderful place. It's a biodynamic farm community that's just been started this year. Don't know what biodynamic means? Wikipedia is. Good stuff.

Perhaps the most exciting part is the freshly baked organic bread all the time. It doesn't normally look blue tinted.

Also baby cows. This one isn't even the most baby. I still have to take a picture of the one born on the 20th.

I got an accordion performance for my birthday. That's Charles. He's from Quebec, but he's been travelling the world for eight or so years.

Here's my birthday cake (still in the pan! Jeffay family style!) baked by Mika, who's on the left and married to Trevor, who is the guy. Trevor is British, but has been in Japan for a long time, first as a teacher, now as a biodynamic gardener in this community. Holding the cake is Konomi, who is married to Ben, who is not pictured. Ben is from Virginia. He saw An Inconvenient Truth and decided he had to help the world. So he became a biodynamic farmer. Maybe I'll do a post on biodynamics later. At least the fun parts. Ben and Konomi and Trevor and Mika are the four who live here all the time. In the background is Maud, who is traveling with Charles. She is French and also plays the accordion. She's a lovely person who sings while she works and wears feathers in her hair. Charles and Maud left on Friday, sadly, for Mongolia. They're hitchhiking there. Except when there's water.

That's my brief update! Got to post before internet decides to fade out!

Despite what some non-believers say, this blog is happening.

I've just been tired from laboring in rice fields, geez.

I'm currently at Yamabiko Farm in Hitachioota, Ibaraki prefecture. So anyone who wants to hunt me down can find me here. Good luck.

It's mainly a rice farm, but also has an ambiguous cafe or two, a fish farm, and probably more I've yet to discover.

When I arrived late after missing my train, I was flagged down by an enthusiastic station employee and directed to wait to be picked up. My host eventually arrived, but instead of taking me to her house, took me to a tea party in a rose garden.

It was quite a lovely affair with roll cakes and melon and "local specialties" and the wife of a dead senator and two sisters and why we were there I did not know. Then everyone viewed roses for probably an hour. Everyone I've met loves roses intensely. It's a little strange.

Here's a lovely rose. I got bored of remarking how lovely all the roses were and just started picture-taking. After tea party, we didn't even go home. Instead we went to this other woman's house. She was with my host when I was picked up. Well, at her house guess what we did...looked at more roses.

So finally when I got to where I'm staying, it was dinner time, so I guess I'm lucky I didn't have to work on my first day. I met my host's twenty year old lazy son, his hairdresser girlfriend, and many an animal. There are two cats here, Ten-ten and Bibi. Also, two dogs, Lulu and Pocchi. I think Pocchi feels left out having a not-double name. Pinpin would fit right in.

Ten-ten is a little rascal and bites and scratches and wants to play constantly. Until she falls asleep and is adorable.

I've started filming, but of course I have no evidence of that since it's all on tapes. But it has happened. Work-wise, I've potted some marigolds, planted some egg plant, transported some compost, planted some rice, weeded some rice fields, done a lot of cooking help, and cleaned the tub room. The hours a longer here than other places I've stayed, and I'm very tired by evening, but today is my day off, and I only have two more days left. Entirely manageable. I might not have any time to blog until I'm headed north to Sapporo, but don't disparage, oh three readers.

Look, a blog.

Today I saw bamboo forest paths in Kyoto. I did not film them because they are not farmers.

Hello there, world. Due to popular demand/nagging I'm creating a blog for my summer adventures in Japan. Did you know I'm making a movie in Japan? That's what this blog is about. Will be about. Once it starts happening.

I also saw the garden at Tenryuji.

Tomorrow is my last day of stalling before I travel to farmland, so it's about time this blog got started. Mostly I've been distracting battling domestic travel woes.

There were a lot of these today. All nicely lined up.

I'm out of things to say right now. I'm also kind of tired and not that into this post...next one will be stellar, no doubt, but this one is just destined for lacklusterness. Lacklusterity. I'll just add some pictures from Nara. I went there earlier.

The deer were as cute as hoped for. And as entertainingly aggressive with Japanese schoolchildren as hoped for.

The remnants of the capital at Nara consist of an empty field. Recently they constructed reproductions of buildings. For the 1300th anniversary, they got all fancy and made it fun with a terrifying deer-baby mascot.

There's Sento-kun in all his glory.

Stay tuned for more substantive and more entertaining blog posts from a more awake and less transportation-frustrated me!