January 2010

Eva’s new home

With Rueben gone, Eva needed a new home for the winter.  Sheep are extremely social animals and she was NOT happy being left alone in their field.   We found a recently established sheep farm in Kamikuishiki Village, about 15 minutes up the road.  Kim, Nate and Masako kept her company in the back of the van for the ride up, and we all stopped for home-made blueberry ice cream at Eiji’s farm on the way.

The lovely people at the new farm have 60 head of sheep who are completely free ranged.  They are not used for meat nor wool, but rather for training sheep dog hobbyists on weekends! Eva loves her new home.  All 60 of her new family came over to greet her and touch noses the day she arrived. She actually jumped in the air with joy a few times.   So Reuben’s final gift to of thanks to her for all her years of companionship was to get her such a nice little patch of heaven.  Now we just have to worry about those poor little city dogs who are going to try and corner her….

Zen Meditation Room

The second floor of our Shojiko Minka Restoration has a small south facing tatami room that was originally used as a meditation space.   The beautiful view overlooks the Japanese garden and frog pond, and down to lake over the rooftops of the village.  New sliding glass doors are double pane glass to maximize solar gain. The house is for sale now.

More House    details at     http://earthembassy.org/shojikoeng/

The bears are doing fine!!!

With all the doom and gloom we hear in the news about CO2, climate change, resource depletion, etc etc, it is easy to think we are at the end of nature.  But once in awhile a small sign reminds us that nature is still doing ok and may come out the other side of this mess ok.

Bears were hunted nearly to extinction in Japan and still remain a rare sight.  But even when you dont see them, they may be watching you.  This claw mark was in a tree about 200m above one our cabins at Lake Saiko.    Glad the bears are still there, but hoping they do see me first, and give me a wide berth.

掘り炬燵 – Hori Kotatsu – Traditional Fire Place

日本語

The center room of the newly finished Shojiko house has 150 year old 2ft wide floor boards surrounding a traditional horikotatsu fireplace.  Perfect for sitting around drinking sake and roasting kuri and yakiniku with friends.  The home is offered with a collection of rare and beautiful antiques from Meji and Edo period Japan.   The house is currently for sale, with a 2,000,000 yen discount for families who enroll in the local schools.

See house details and pricing at….   Shojiko High Village House

Kitchen Reform Process

Just to show you some of the work behind the scenes.  We started with an old un-insulated wall and a lot of circa 1975 cabinets.  Demolition of the walls, added a new post for support, pushed out the south end 2meters and put in sliding glass doors, polished the beams, uncovered some old thatched roof supports that were hidden in the ceiling and decided to leave them in as an accent.   Then custom cabinets, track lighting, a beech hardwood floor with heating……

New pictures of the finished room coming soon…..

Winter comes to the mountain

Winter here in Yamanashi Prefecture can be cold and long.  But the beauty of Mt Fuji and the fresh snows that blow off her peak make the long wait for spring bearable.  She is a bit of the earth, sticking up into the heavens to represent us and even on the warmest days here on her foot, the site of the winds blowing over her peaks and carrying snow into the clouds remind us that the winds of heaven are always blowing just over our heads.

Cedar Heated Floors 杉床暖房

日本語

The living room in the High Village House has a new floor of 100% Japanese Cedar with electrical heating installed.  Really cozy, especially when you are watching the snow fall out the windows in the village.    The house is currently for sale and we are offering a 2,000,000 yen discount for families who enroll in the local schools.      See house details and pricing at….   Shojiko High Village House

Shojiko Thatched Roof Restoration 藁葺き回復

日本語 The upstairs loft of the High Village House at Lake Shojiko was traditionally used as silk raising room.  The silk moth caterpillar were tended here in winter and fed mulberry leaves to keep them happy and producing.  We have restored the thatched ceiling, keeping the 60cm of original straw as a super insulation, added a wide plank Japanese cedar floor, a clear double paned window over looking the kiwi and shiitake mushroom garden, and added new wall outlets and track lighting.  Perfect for an artists studio or big family room.

More details on the house here….   

Shojiko High Village House

日本語

Japanese Cedar Soaking Bath at Shojiko House

Another custom designed and built MASTERPIECE by Akaike-san for the Shojiko Traditional house reform! We requested a round bath with a sloped side for gazing at the garden while bathing.  But we also needed a more straight side in case grandma wants to enter in slowly, so we added a seat along the left side for sitting while swinging your legs in.  No standing and slipping involved!  The resulting egg shaped bath was a departure from Akaike’s line of round baths, and he actually had to build it three times just to get the angles right and the boards sealing water tight.  The underframe is made from custom welded steel and mold proof wood planks.  The whole installation is cedar and gives the rooms an beautiful country smell.   The round Japanese style soaking baths are available for order pre-made and in kit form as well. Will ship overseas.      Contact us at….     info@earthembassy.org

Mint Tea Packaging Crew

The wonderful people at Oguri Noen in Shizuoka are processing our mint and packing it into tea bags.  The tea farm was started by Mr. Oguri’s father nearly 40years ago and has expanded to become the main packaging operation for all the local green tea farms.  Their high-tech clean room facility and extreme attention to detail ensure the utmost care is given to cleanly and safely packaging our tea.

We also will be working with their blending master this year to develop a few new flavors for our line of Mt Fuji Natural Teas.  Check back with us in the summer for new tastes and herbal medicinal teas!!!

World’s First Strawberry Pizza!!!

Yes, its true!!!   Nate and Masako came up to the Solar Cafe for a second honeymoon (our wedding gift to them).

And as a special treat, we pulled out a special special recipe.  Strawberry pizza with bananas and Jake’s special chai yogurt sauce.  In a few years when this is a world wide standard, it will just be a rumor that it actually started in our kitchen.   (available by special request in June when our berries are in season)

Rueben

Our dearest and oldest friend, Rueben the sheep, passed away on Nov 29th, 2009.

He was one of the original founders of the  Earth Embassy way back in 2000 and saw it through the good times and the bad.  Rueben appeared on Japanese TV numerous times, starting with a cameo on MTV and eventually having his own 30minute New Years Special that was seen by 6 million viewers.  None of it went to his head and remained humble and sweet all of his long years.

Rueben made friends from around the world, and always ran over to greet new visitors. He was happy in his field with his girl Eva until his last day and died peacefully in his sleep.   He will be dearly missed.

Farm life with wild roses….

What can I say.  Some days you pick roses, and some days they pick you….

I was checking out a new piece of land next to our mint field, thinking of cutting back the wild brush and planting in the spring.  But the wild roses growing there seem not to want to go without a fight.  If we do plant it, I think we will leave those rose bushes for the birds to feed on and content ourselves with a few rose hips in fall.

virutal farming is BIG!!! ….Farmville

For those of you using Facebook, I suggest you check out the Farmville game. It is simple but addicting, plow your fields, plant some crops, harvest, sell and make money to buy more seeds, cheap pink flamingos, etc.  The coolest feature for me is that you can visit friend’s farms and see what they are planting.  It gives you a big insight into their character.  Alex who is currently out of work (in real life) has planted cash crops from egde to edge. Yoko has 2 boys (in real life) and lots of playthings spread around the farm.  Janel likes to win (in real life) and her farm is huge with an enormous plantation house in the middle.  Mine is permaculture based of course….

Yes, its just another game, but we have actually had visitor come to our farm on Mt Fuji all the way from Singapore because their son had gotten interested in farming through playing Farmville!  The huge popularity of this game is evidence that we humans are all farmers at heart.  The numbers as of Dec, 2009…. “69 million active users are using FarmVille alone, that’s more users than Twitter.”

I think this is a trend we shouldnt ignore. What if we set up a bunch of real mini farms with web-cams attached for people to plant their own crops and be able to watch them grow for real online?  We could build the farms next to the orphanages we support in Africa and the Philippines and have the kids maintain the crops!  If we got 1/10th of 1% of the Farmville  players to pay $10 to rent a lot and plant their own seeds, that’s $69,000 to start a little farm somewhere.  Then again that is 6900 webcams we need to set-up…..

Any ideas?  Let me know if anyone wants to talk about starting something….jreiner@earthembassy.org